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1958 - Building Tradition
Herbert Allan Borden Leal is appointed Dean of Osgoode Hall Law School. The first issue of the Osgoode Hall Law School Journal is published. This year also marks the end of the concurrent/part-time system (a combination of lectures and office work) in favor of a full-time law program. Finally, an official coat of arms is created, representing the Law School’s foundations. Leonard Braithwaite graduates. As President of the Legal and Literary Society, here is his mid-term report in the Spring 1958 issue of the Obiter Dicta, pg. 7.
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Leonard Braithwaite ‘58 (1923-2012)
The son of West Indian immigrants, Leonard Braithwaite grew up in the Kensington Market area of Toronto during the Great Depression. He enlisted with the Royal Canadian Air Force during WWII, and served with No. 6 Bomber Command in England. Upon leaving the Armed Forces, he earned a degree in commerce from the University of Toronto, a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School, and a law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School. He was the editor of the Obiter Dicta, the elected student body President, and won the Gold Key Award upon graduation. In 1960, Braithwaite embarked on a successful political career in Etobicoke. He was the first black person elected to the Etobicoke Township Board of Education and alderman on the Etobicoke Council. Braithwaite became a Member of Provincial Parliament in 1963, the first black person in Canada to do so. During his inauguration speech, he spoke out against segregation in Ontario schools and was instrumental in its abolition in Ontario. Just a year after his speech, the last segregated school in the province closed for good. Braithwaite served as MPP until 1975. In 1999, he became the first black bencher elected to the Governing Council of the Law Society of Upper Canada.
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The Honourable R. Roy McMurtry ’58 (1932- )
R. Roy McMurtry, former Ontario Chief Justice and Attorney General and Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, currently serves as the twelfth Chancellor of York University. A Toronto native, McMurtry attended Trinity College at the University of Toronto before graduating from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1958. After working as a trial lawyer for 17 years, McMurtry was elected to the Ontario Legislature and was appointed Attorney General in 1975. He left office in 1985 to become Canada’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. In 1996, he was appointed Chief Justice of Ontario after serving as the Chief of the Superior Court of Justice. During his career, he has been involved in constitutional reform, the promotion of multiculturalism and bilingualism in the courts, and been a leader on same sex marriage issues. Among his many achievements, McMurtry founded Pro Bono Access Ontario as well as the Osgoode Society, which is dedicated to the writing of Canadian legal history. In recognition of his work, McMurtry has received numerous awards and honors, including Osgoode Hall Law School’s Alumni Award of Excellence, the President of the Bar Association’s Award of Merit, and an honorary degree form York University. He was invested into the Order of Ontario in 2008 and as an Officer in the Order of Canada in 2010.
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1957 - A Whole New World
Queen’s University and the University of Ottawa open their own law faculties, closely followed by Western University (Western Law School). The Law Society and universities agree that candidates to the Bar should have at least two years of undergraduate education followed by a three-year full-time LLB, one year of articling and six months of the Bar Admission Course. Here are some of the athletic teams instituted by Dean Smalley-Baker.
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1957 - The Good Old Hockey Game
Professor Allan Leal coaches the Osgoode Hall hockey team throughout the decade. A young Roy McMurtry and future Professor R.J. Gray can be seen in this photo, one in from the right in the second row and bottom right, respectively. The Osgoode Hall Co-champions, Central Ontario Hockey League, 1956-1957.
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