Douglas Elliott
Country
Canada
Birth - Death
Occupation
Law
Description
Senior litigator with the firm Heydary Hamilton in Toronto, with a focus on class actions, health law, government liability and human rights. He is rated by his peers as one of the Best Class Action Lawyers in Canada through "The Best Lawyers in Canada". In 2010, the Law Society of Upper Canada awarded Douglas Elliott the Law Society Medal.
Has many landmark constitutional cases to his credit. Perhaps the best known of these is the same sex marriage case, where he successfully represented the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto in the Ontario Court of Appeal in Halpern v. Canada and in the Supreme Court of Canada on the Marriage Reference. Other notable appearances in the Supreme Court of Canada include, for the Canadian AIDS Society in Vriend v. Alberta, Little Sisters’ Bookstore v. Canada, Latimer v. The Queen, and Hodge v. Canada. Douglas also argued M. v. H. for the Foundation for Equal Families, Trinity Western University v. British Columbia College of Teachers for EGALE Canada Inc. and Charkaoui v. Canada for the Canadian Arab Federation.
From 1993 to 1997 Douglas was senior counsel for the Canadian AIDS Society (CAS) before the Commission of Inquiry on the Blood System in Canada (the Krever Inquiry). Douglas made the first of his many appearances in the Supreme Court representing CAS in its support of the Krever Inquiry in Canada v Canada (Krever Inquiry). He currently represents CAS in the case of CBS v Freeman.
Douglas has received numerous awards for his legal work and community service, including the Lawyer of the Year Award, presented by Advocacy Resource Centre for the Handicapped, the Community Service Award of the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto, the Founders Award of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, the SOGIC Hero Award of the Canadian Bar Association, the Distinguished Service Award of the Association of Lesbian and Gay Psychiatrists, the Salah Bachir Award for Community Service, the Leadership Award of the Canadian AIDS Society and The Lifetime Achievement Award from Pride Toronto. In 2013, Osgoode Hall Law School awarded Douglas the Dianne Martin Medal for Social Justice through Law.
Douglas is the Chair of the Legal and Human Rights Mechanisms Committee of Envisioning Global LGBT Rights, Conference Council Chair of Justice in the Balkans: Equality for Sexual Minorities and a member at large of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Working Group of the International Bar Association.
