In the wake of the release of the O’Connor Report, I thought I’d have a little closer look – all right, my first ever look, at what we can glean from the Society’s website about what they do there exactly and just who is doing it.

I was spurred into action by yet another public post on the LSO crisis by Tax Lawyer Carl Irvine who has followed this story closely.

Here is the post that piqued some new interest

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7311214876662591490/

This post concludes by noting that although “both Horvat and Miles are gone, [the other involved] benchers continue to hold important positions at the LSO.” He then sets out examples of ongoing involvement of the named members of the Compensation Committee on important Committees of Convocation. Mr. Irvine concludes: “These are roles which require benchers to exercise the kind of diligence that these benchers singularly failed to exercise in this fiasco. What confidence can we have in them? Who oversees a governance fiasco like this and stays in role?”

This is what started me down the rabbit hole of trying to navigate LSO’s Website here:

https://lso.ca/home

Here is what I found and could not find.

All LSO Bylaws are very readily available online here: https://lso.ca/about-lso/legislation-rules/by-laws

The Composition of Committees identifying the Benchers and others who sit on them is easily located here:

https://lso.ca/about-lso/governance/committees

I have been unable to find any description of the role or mandate of any of the Committees. With that said, I believe the Proceedings Authorization Committee determines which complaints / investigations / prosecutions proceed to tribunal hearing – I could be wrong.

Although with further digging, in the What’s new for 2025 section of the “Initiatives” Tab I found this summary of the PAC: “PAC is appointed by Convocation to review all complaints about licensees referred to it to determine which action available to it under the By-Laws should be taken. These include authorizing a conduct, capacity or competence proceeding or taking remedial action where prosecution is not an appropriate response.” Here: https://lso.ca/about-lso/initiatives/consultation-expanded-remedial-outcomes-for-the-p

Of Particular Interest, apart from the 6 person Restaurant Working Group (which is a favourite as all links to the “Osgoode Restaurant” simply inform it is permanently closed), are the following Committee member roles.

I’ve highlighted a few places where the Compensation Committee’s lawyer bencher members continue to serve today.

Compensation

Peter Wardle (Chair)
Sarah Letersky
Kevin Ross
Megan Shortreed
Sidney Troister

Proceedings Authorization

Megan Shortreed (Chair)
Laura Emmett
Michelle Lomazzo
Doug Wellman
Matthew Wilson
Michael Winward

Governance Review Task Force

Geneviève Painchaud (Co-Chair)
Peter Wardle (Co-Chair)
Rebecca Durcan
Pam Hrick
Mitchell Kitagawa
Michelle Lomazzo
William McDowell
Sonia Ouellet
Hassan Pirnia
Kevin Ross
Megan Shortreed
Stephen Rotstein

Audit & Finance

Sidney Troister (Chair)
Heather Hansen (Vice-Chair)
Mark Surchin (Vice-Chair)
Sean Aylward
Laura Emmett
Shalini Konanur
Howard Levitt
Hassan Pirnia
Michael Radan
Stephen Rotstein
Megan Shortreed
Trevor Townsend