New Justices of the Peace Appointed to the Ontario Court of Justice

December 20, 2022

December 19, 2022

Attorney General Doug Downey announced the appointment of 28 justices of the peace to the Ontario Court of Justice, effective December 29, 2022.

Justice of the Peace Estelle Thérese Bérubé was executive director of La Maison Arc-en-Ciel since 2019, where she worked with at-risk youth living with addiction and mental health issues. She developed treatment programming during this time that included counselling, therapy using horses and Indigenous-specific healing practices. As part of this role, she sat on the Cochrane mental health planning table to help coordinate health services between local providers. For over 25 years, Justice of the Peace Bérubé was owner and operator of Starview Stables in Kapuskasing, Ontario.

Justice of the Peace Bérubé has been assigned to Cochrane.

Justice of the Peace Shawn Patrick Borgford worked for the Brockville Police Service since 2001, most recently as a sergeant. Prior to this, he was a constable for the Peel Regional Police Service. He graduated with an Honours Bachelor of Science from the University of Guelph. Justice of the Peace Borgford has extensive volunteer experience, including as chair of the board for RNJ Youth Services, as president of the board for Rose Garden Family Support Centre, and as a first aid/CPR Instructor for St. John Ambulance.

Justice of the Peace Borgford has been assigned to Ottawa.

Justice of the Peace Beverly Maureen Brooks has worked as a communications professional and has developed public, media, investor and government relations strategies for over 25 years. Most recently, she was the founding president of Brooks Communications, which developed investor and media relations strategies for companies in a variety of sectors, including technology, energy, cannabis, telecommunications and mining. She was also a vice chair of the Licence Appeal Tribunal. Prior to her career in the private sector, Justice of the Peace Brooks spent over 20 years in five different federal government departments including Procurement Canada, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, Transport Canada, the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Finance. She was chair of the Infrastructure and Housing Committee and the Secretary for the Bayview Cummer Neighbourhood Association. She prepared submissions for various levels of government on building projects in the area.

Justice of the Peace Brooks has been assigned to Toronto.

Justice of the Peace Anthony Joseph Charles worked for the Toronto Police Service since 1982. He started his career as a summons server and cadet in training and moved on to assume a wide range of positions including detective sergeant and staff sergeant of various divisions, including the Sex Crimes Unit, Professional Standards Unit and Team Lead of the Risk Management Section of Courts Services. Most recently, Justice of the Peace Charles was the supervisor of the Armed Response Unit of the Ontario Legislature. He is the president of the Toronto Police Amateur Athletic Association, member of the Commonwealth of Dominica Ontario Association and he championed a community outreach program using the sport of soccer to positively connect police officers as coaches with new Canadians and marginalized youth. He was awarded the Exemplary Service Medal by the Governor General of Canada. Justice of the Peace Charles holds a bachelor’s degree in Justice Studies.

Justice of the Peace Charles has been assigned to Toronto.

Justice of the Peace Ava-Gaye M. Colquhoun has a Bachelor of Laws from Osgoode Hall Law School and was called to the bar in 2010. She was employed with the City of Toronto Legal Services Division, both as a prosecutor and a solicitor. Justice of the Peace Colquhoun is the co-chair of Toronto’s Legal Services Diversity Committee. She is also a legal consultant and member of the board of directors for Stand Social and has volunteered with Cornerstone Community Church in Markham. Previously, she also worked as a Japanese-English teacher employed by the government of Japan.

Justice of the Peace Colquhoun has been assigned to Toronto.

Justice of the Peace Mary-Louise Cortese was the student mental health consultant in the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board since 2010. In this position, which she helped create and design, she developed strategies and mental health programming and educated teachers and staff on ways to identify and support mental health needs in the student population. Prior to this, Justice of the Peace Cortese worked as a teacher and guidance counselor in the London Catholic District School Board for 14 years. She also completed an internship in a therapeutic role at the former St. Thomas Psychiatric Hospital.

Justice of the Peace Cortese has been assigned to Windsor.

Justice of the Peace Virginia Danos was a 22-year member of the Peel Regional Police, including 11 years within court services. She has held various positions including police constable, court officer, school resource officer, criminal investigator, intelligence officer and, most recently, sergeant. Through her work, Justice of the Peace Danos mentored at-risk youth and assisted members of marginalized communities. She has also worked closely with assigned mental health Crown attorneys and courts to help improve quality of life for people with mental illness. Justice of the Peace Danos has extensive volunteer experience including as a United Way campaign coordinator, where she helped raise over $80,000 for community agencies.

Justice of the Peace Danos has been assigned to Toronto.

Justice of the Peace Carl Everett DeJong worked for the Ottawa Police Service for 16 years, most recently as a sergeant in specialized investigations. In collaboration with victim services agencies and other partners, he worked on developing a system to help identify, refer and provide appropriate supports for high-risk victims, drawing upon his prior experience investigating intimate partner violence as a detective constable in the partner assault unit. Prior to this, Justice of the Peace DeJong worked as a sergeant assigned to temporary custody and prisoner care, assisting with restructuring plans made in response to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the police representative on the board of directors for the Ottawa Mission, Justice of the Peace DeJong advised on various strategies to support people experiencing homelessness and poverty and advocated for wellness supports for staff.

Justice of the Peace DeJong has been assigned to Pembroke.

Justice of the Peace Sharon Patricia Agatha Floyd has held leadership positions at Embrave: Agency to End Violence, formerly known as Interim Place since 2003. She has held the position of executive director since 2010. This is an organization that provides shelter, support counselling and advocacy to survivors of gender-based violence. She was also an associate faculty member at the Royal Roads University School of Leadership Studies. Justice of the Peace Floyd has previously worked at Community Living Burlington and ParaMed Home Health Care Services. Justice of the Peace Floyd served the community as the co-chair of the Peel Coalition for the Prevention of Hate Crimes, as a member of Peel Region’s Anti-Black Racism and Systemic Discrimination Committee, and as co-chair of Peel Region’s Sexual Assault Case Review Advisory Committee.

Justice of the Peace Floyd has been assigned to Brampton.

Justice of the Peace Eli Douglas Fox has spent over two decades working in Indigenous justice in the Manitoulin District. Most recently, he was a program worker for the Indigenous Bail Verification and Supervision Program. As part of this role, he traveled to all First Nations across Manitoulin District to provide supervision, support, counselling and referrals for a number of clients, and he also attended court to develop suitable bail release plans in coordination with clients, duty counsel and Crown attorneys. In addition to his duties in the bail program, Justice of the Peace Fox worked as the fire prevention officer for M’Chigeeng First Nation, inspecting homes and ensuring fire equipment was up to date, as well as training volunteer firefighters. He served as a volunteer firefighter in the community for two decades. He has also been an active member of bushido martial arts and achieved the rank of 2^nd Dan black belt in karate. As a member of the M’Chigeeng First Nation, Justice of Peace Fox has contributed to numerous cultural activities and cared for the United Chiefs and Councils of Mnidoo Mnising’s sacred bundle.

Justice of the Peace Fox has been assigned to Kitchener.

Justice of the Peace Arlene Gonash-Nelson most recently worked as a manager of community supports at Strides Toronto, where she managed the Gender-Based Violence Anti-Human Trafficking Program and the Youth in Transition program. Previously, Justice of the Peace Gonash-Nelson was a manager of community clinical services for East Metro Youth Services and a manager of child and family support services at the Griffin Centre where she supervised the Youth Mental Health Court Worker Program at the Metro East and Metro West courts. Justice of the Peace Gonash-Nelson also helped develop the Youth Community Restoration Court at Metro West.

Justice of the Peace Gonash-Nelson has been assigned to Brampton.

Justice of the Peace Jennifer Leeanne Grant has been a provincial offences prosecutor and a licensed paralegal for 11 years. She has experience providing legal services in Small Claims Court, Provincial Offences Court, Appeal Court and for the Landlord and Tenant Board. Justice of the Peace Grant volunteers as a board member for the Renfrew and Area Community Resource Centre, as a parent member of the Central Public School Council Board and for various minor league sports such as hockey, skating and soccer.

Justice of the Peace Grant has been assigned to Pembroke.

Justice of the Peace Brigitte Hammond was a prosecutor with the Regional Municipality of York since 2001. Previously, she was a hearings officer with the Ministry of Transportation and a prosecutor with the City of Toronto. Justice of the Peace Hammond held a variety of volunteer positions with the Prosecutors’ Association of Ontario, including chair of the membership committee, chair of the awards committee and co-chair of the education committee. She was also a volunteer ambassador for York Region where she provided support for various events in aid of community and children. Justice of the Peace Hammond holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from York University.

Justice of the Peace Hammond has been assigned to Brampton.

Justice of the Peace David Michael Horton has held various positions at Public Safety Canada working on national security files since 2004. Most recently, he was an executive manager where he managed an operational division in the Greater Toronto area. Justice of the Peace Horton has represented Public Safety Canada at various international conferences and has collaborated with domestic and foreign partners. Prior to his work for the Canadian government, he was a youth counsellor working with young people from diverse communities and young offenders. He also volunteers on the board of directors with the Children’s Aid Foundation of Halton.

Justice of the Peace Horton has been assigned to Windsor.

Justice of the Peace Andrea M. Jones has a master of social work degree from McGill University and has spent over two decades working with families as a registered social worker. Since 2017 she was provincial manager of clinical services for the Office of the Children’s Lawyer (OCL). There she provided clinical direction on high conflict family disputes clinical, administrative and financial issues for OCL clinical panel members across the province. She also co-developed the Ministry of the Attorney General’s (MAG) training on Vicarious Trauma which was delivered to over 8000 MAG employees. Before this, she worked as a Regional Clinical Supervisor for the OCL. She also worked for the Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services as an adoption/reunification manager, coordinating local and international adoption services for the Montreal area, and prior to this as a frontline social worker in child protection. Justice of the Peace Jones volunteers as a board member for the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, an international and interdisciplinary association of family law professionals dedicated to the resolution of family conflicts.

Justice of the Peace Jones has been assigned to Orangeville.

Justice of the Peace Charles Safo Kissi was the co-founder of Equity Connections Inc. where he provided equity, diversity, and inclusion training, education and consulting services to organizations. Previously, he had held various positions in the Toronto Police Service including police constable, school resource officer and detective constable. Justice of the Peace Kissi has also led, coached and managed a variety of basketball teams including the Toronto Metropolitan University women’s team, the Brock University men’s team, the Guelph Nighthawks, the Toronto Raptors 905 and the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. He has volunteered as a youth basketball coach in Scarborough and St. Catharines and as a board member for the Lay-Up Youth Basketball Foundation.

Justice of the Peace Kissi has been assigned to St. Catharines.

Justice of the Peace Thomas Joseph McNeil was the deputy commanding officer of the Regional Cadet Support Unit Central for the Canadian Armed Forces since 2014. In this position, he led the execution of the Cadet Program in Ontario for over 16,500 cadets. Prior to that, and for the last 34 years, he held various other positions in the Cadet Program for the Canadian Armed Forces. Justice of the Peace McNeil has acted as presiding officer at citizenship ceremonies with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, and has volunteered with the Community Relations Committee of the Barrie Simcoe Muskoka Branch of St. John Ambulance, and the Program Advisory Committee for the Bachelor of Business Administration Program at Georgian College.

Justice of the Peace McNeil has been assigned to Parry Sound.

Justice of the Peace Tanya Elizabeth Moss LL.B LL.M in Dispute Resolution, was the director of Kii-we-yan Pikangikum Health Authority Bail Bed Program where she trained staff, set up in-house courtrooms for clients to access justice and developed and implemented policy and procedure specific to Pikangikum. She was also self-employed as a consultant for policy and legislation. Prior to these roles, Justice of the Peace Moss had almost 20 years experience in justice services, including at Ne-Chee Friendship Centre, the Psychiatric Patient Advocate Office, the Offender Transport Unit for the Ontario Provincial Police and as a correctional officer for the Department of Justice. She has volunteered for several organizations including the Salvation Army, Diabetes Canada, and a legal aid clinic in Cape Town, South Africa.

Justice of the Peace Moss has been assigned to Sioux Lookout.

Justice of the Peace Azadeh Nourbakhsh Lavictoire was bilingual criminal duty counsel with Legal Aid Ontario since 2021, where she represented clients with complex legal issues, including at bail and sentence hearings. Prior to this, she was the managing partner at Nourbakhsh Law and represented clients in areas such as the real estate, estate law, and non-profit sectors since her call to the bar in 2009. She has also served as the chair of the official languages committee of the Ontario Bar Association. Since 2017, Justice of the Peace Nourbakhsh Lavictoire has been president and co-founder of Spinal CSF Leak Canada, a charitable national health organization. In her role within the organization, she has been an advocate for advancing medical research and worked closely with medical professionals, charitable organizations and persons with disabilities.

Justice of the Peace Azadeh Nourbakhsh Lavictoire has been assigned to Toronto.

Justice of the Peace Mary Jeanette Pagani worked at the Peel Addiction Assessment and Referral Centre for 18 years, most recently as manager of programs, partnerships and operations. In this role, she assisted the executive director in managing clients, overseeing operations of the agency and working with community and justice system partners and stakeholders. Before this, she worked as a clinical supervisor at the agency, supervising clinicians and representing the agency on more than 20 committees. Justice of the Peace Pagani also helped to establish the Brampton Drug Treatment Court in 2016 and was a volunteer with the Association of Justice and Treatment Professionals. She sat as a board member at St. Leonard’s Place Peel, an organization that provides supportive housing to men who have been involved with the justice system and she has also volunteered for various minor hockey league organizations.

Justice of the Peace Pagani has been assigned to Brampton.

Justice of the Peace Meredith Doreen Porter was an independent external decision-maker with Public Safety Canada since 2019. In this role, she provided independent external oversight for Structured Intervention Units in federal correctional institutions. Prior to this position, she was a senior commission counsel for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, conducting community, expert and institutional hearings, and providing legal services to the four inquiry commissioners. She was a board member of Crime Prevention Ottawa from 2018 to 2019 and the chair of the Ottawa Carleton Detention Centre Community Advisory Board from 2014 to 2017. In the latter role, she visited detention centres to discuss conditions of confinement and challenges related to operations. She was a member of the board of governors for Carleton University.

Justice of the Peace Porter has been assigned to Ottawa.

Justice of the Peace Andrea Danielle Racine was a prosecutor for Durham region since 2012. In this role, she conducted trials on provincial offences and participated in court proceedings and judicial pre-trial hearings. She has experience helping the public navigate the justice system and has trained new Crown students and paralegals. Since 2007, Justice of the Peace Racine has been founder and team lead of the Roddy’s Riders Fundraiser for the Princess Margaret’s Hospital Ride to Conquer Cancer. She has also been a volunteer firefighter for the Port Hope Fire and Emergency Services since 2019.

Justice of the Peace Racine has been assigned to Durham.

Justice of the Peace Vedanand Sudesh Ramphal has a bachelor’s degree in law & society and political Science and a master’s degree in emergency and Disaster Management. He was a police constable with the Toronto Police Service since 2005. During this time, he spent six years working alongside community agencies to enhance police and community relationships. He was also an armoured reconnaissance soldier with the Canadian Armed Forces since 1996 and has been awarded the Canadian Forces Decoration Medal. Justice of the Peace Ramphal also volunteers with Grace Place Church Food Bank where he interacts with community members and assists with food bank operations.

Justice of the Peace Ramphal has been assigned to Toronto.

Justice of the Peace Robert Michael Gordon Shawyer was called to the bar in 2006. He holds an LL.B. and an M.A. and has been the principal and owner of Shawyer Professional Corporation since 2006. He began his legal career practising criminal law but switched to family law in 2010, representing clients in cases involving adoption, child protection, constitutional issues, and domestic issues. Justice of the Peace Shawyer is the president of council for the College of Dental Technologists of Ontario, and he is the Vice President of the board of directors of the Society of Sharing, an inter-city charity that assists vulnerable senior citizens. He also volunteers with the Law Society of Ontario’s Coach and Advisor Network.

Justice of the Peace Shawyer has been assigned to Toronto.

Justice of the Peace Andrea Elizabeth Swinton worked as the executive director of the Senior Living CaRES Fund since 2021. Previously, Justice of the Peace Swinton held key executive positions with the Samuel Family Foundation, Mental Health Research Canada, the Hearing Foundation of Canada, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada and ProAction Cops & Kids. She is a volunteer board member at Progress for Mental Health, Endeavour Consulting for Non-Profits and is chair of the Governance Committee of Hazel Burns Hospice.

Justice of the Peace Swinton has been assigned to Toronto.

Justice of the Peace Illana Shoshanah Szenes worked as a bilingual municipal prosecutor for the City of Toronto since 2005. Previously, she was a paralegal for the Department of Justice at the Toronto Drug Treatment Court, Toronto Old City Hall and Youth Court and the Agent Supervision Unit. Justice of the Peace Szenes worked as a member of the Legal Division Wellness Committee and as a trainer/mentor for the City of Toronto. She volunteered for several years as secretary of the school council executive for Rosedale Heights Public School.

Justice of the Peace Szenes has been assigned to Toronto.

Justice of the Peace Richard Ronald Therrien has been the principal at Summerhill Strategies since 2010. He has also worked as a director of special projects at the Ministry of Long-Term Care, as a principal gift manager at the Toronto General and Western Hospital Foundation and as a senior campaign director for One-to-One Fundraising Consultants. Justice of the Peace Therrien has been a volunteer for Healthy Minds Canada, an alumni volunteer for Laurentian University, a volunteer delegate for Canada at the Francophonie Summit and a volunteer board member for Centre Francophone du Grand Toronto.

Justice of the Peace Therrien has been assigned to Barrie.

Justice of the Peace Henry Tso was a director at MNP LLP, an accounting, tax and business consulting firm, since 2019. He retired as a superintendent of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, after serving for 24 years in various key positions including officer in charge of the Federal Serious and Organized Crime Unit and internationally as frist secretary of the Canadian Mission to China when he was seconded to Global Affairs Canada. Justice of the Peace Tso serves as an investigative consultant for the International Justice Mission and as vice president of the board of directors for the Fellowship of Christian Peace Officers Canada. He holds a Master of Business Administration and is a chartered professional accountant.

Justice of the Peace Tso has been assigned to Newmarket.