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Commission Counsel
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W.A. Derry Millar, Lead Commission Counsel, is a senior litigation partner with WeirFoulds LLP.
After graduation from Dalhousie Law School, Mr. Millar served as Law Clerk to the
Honourable Mr. Justice Ritchie of the Supreme Court of Canada. Mr. Millar was called to the
Bar in 1974 and has appeared in all levels of court in Ontario, the Supreme Court of Canada
and the Federal Court of Canada together with many administrative tribunals.
In 2001 he was elected a Fellow of the American College of trial lawyers.
He is a Bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada, the governing body for
Ontario lawyers, and has been since 1995. Mr. Millar is currently Chair,
Inter Jurisdictional Mobility Committee, Chair, Law Society Appeal Panel, Vice-Chair,
Equity and Aborginal Issues Committee/Comite Sur L'Equite et Les Affairs Autochtones.
Mr. Millar is also a member of the Board of Legal Aid Ontario. Mr. Millar has been a
member of the Civil Rules Committee and its predecessors since 1976. Past Chair of the
Ontario Centre for Advocacy Training and has been a Director of the Advocates' Society and the
Lawyers Professional Indemnity Company. He has been a co-editor of the
Ontario Annual Practice since 1975. He has been a speaker and delivered papers on a
wide variety of legal topics. He has contributed a chapter on Canada to the book
International Product Liability and also contributed to the book Preparation of Factums.
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Donald E. Worme, Q.C., Commission Counsel, is a Cree lawyer from the Kawacatoose First Nation, Treaty Four, Saskatchewan. After convocating from the University of Saskatchewan College of Law in 1985, Donald articled with the Federal Department of Justice in public prosecutions. Since receiving his call to the Bar in 1986, Donald has been engaged in private practice and has acquired extensive and varied experience in criminal and aboriginal law litigation. He has been involved in the development and review of various public policies affecting Aboriginal and Treaty Rights, including two federal sectoral reviews of Lands and Trusts Services, one of which was a joint initiative involving the Assembly of First Nations and Indian and Northern Affairs. Donald has also undertaken studies and analysis for the National Indian Tax Advisory Board and research and commentary for the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. He has appeared at all levels of court, including the Supreme Court of Canada, and is currently a member of the Human Rights Tribunal of Saskatchewan. Donald is a founding member of and member in good standing with the Indigenous Bar Association in Canada, a national advocacy group of Aboriginal lawyers, where he served as President between 1989 and 1991. Donald was lead counsel for the family of Neil Stonechild during the 2003 and 2004 Public Inquiry into the death of the late teenager and acted for inmate Sandra Paquachon in the Commission of Inquiry into Events of 1994 at the Prison for Women in Kingston. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 2002.
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Susan M. Vella, Commission Counsel, is a partner in the Toronto law firm
of Goodman and Carr LLP. She is one of Canada's foremost practitioners in
the areas of civil sexual assault, institutional abuse, harassment and
multi victim lawsuits, and was identified as one of the top 15 Canadian
women lawyers to watch for by the Financial Post (National Post) and
LEXPERT Magazine. She is co-author (with Elizabeth K.P. Grace) of the
text, "Civil Liability for Sexual Abuse and Violence in Canada
(2000:Butterworths), and was a legal advisor to the Law Commission of
Canada in relation to its report "Restoring Dignity: Institutional Abuse
in Canada". As well, Ms Vella recently co-authored (with Ms Grace) a
chapter entitled "Pathways to Justice: Is the Civil Justice System
Working for Residential School Claimants?" in Aboriginal Litigation
(2003:Butterworths). She has appeared as counsel at all levels of court,
including the Supreme Court of Canada. Ms Vella was called to the bar in
1988, and is a graduate of the Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto.
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