Sidney B. Linden Access to Justice Award

Call for nominations

It’s time to send in your nominations for the Sidney B. Linden Access to Justice Award! The deadline for submission is 5:00 p.m. Friday, December 1, 2023.

The award is named after Justice Sidney B. Linden, the first chair of Legal Aid Ontario (LAO), who has been involved with legal aid for over 38 years. LAO created the Sidney B. Linden Access to Justice Award to honour exceptional individuals who have demonstrated a longstanding commitment to helping low-income people, and given their time, expertise, and/or service to ensuring access to justice in Ontario.

Who is eligible?

Lawyers in the private sector
Community legal clinic staff
People who work at a Student Legal Aid Services Society
Paralegals
Academics
LAO staff lawyers and employees
Other professionals

Nominate someone!

Please consider nominating someone you know by completing the nomination form and sending it to LAO’s Communications department.

NOTE: LAO is unable to accept hard copy submissions. All submissions must be emailed with .doc or .pdf files. These can be sent to us either as email attachments or as a link to a Google Drive folder. (Dropbox cannot be used).

For more information contact:

Owen Guo
Senior Media Advisor
media@lao.on.ca

Kirsten Vanstone
Executive Assistant
vanstok@lao.on.ca

The award

Legal Aid Ontario created the Sidney B. Linden Access to Justice Award to honour exceptional individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to helping low-income people, and have given their time and expertise towards ensuring access to justice in Ontario.

The award is named in honour of Justice Sidney B. Linden, Legal Aid Ontario’s first chair of the board of directors. Justice Linden has been involved with legal aid for over 37 years, and his distinguished professional career has been characterized by a genuine commitment to issues concerning access to justice.

Since its inception, the Sidney B. Linden Access to Justice Award has been presented to 16 deserving recipients: Nancy Cooper, Lois Cromarty, Danny Morton, Timothy Lutes, Mary Birdsell, Grace Pluchino, Ryan Peck, Bob Richardson, William A. (Bill) Sullivan, Fergus J. (Chip) O’Connor, Peter G. Kirby, Michael Bossin, Barbara Jackman, J. Robert Kellermann, Paul Copeland and the late Dianne Martin.

The award statue

Toronto sculptor Siggy Puchta designed the Sidney B. Linden Access to Justice Award. The statue depicts the concept of access to justice through the upward and open gesture of ‘the lady of justice’ holding the scales of justice while at the same time welcoming those in need of legal aid services. Siggy’s design also captures the spirit of LAO’s logo.