HERE IS AN ARTICLE SHARED ON LINKEDIN BY Lavinia Latham
Counsel Sudine Riley and the Cost of Litigating While Black.
Lavinia Latham
Partner at Alphonse Latham LLP | Employment & Human Rights Lawyer | Workplace Investigator | Corporate Trainer | Keynote Speaker | 100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women 🏆
January 27, 2026
I deeply condemn the alleged misconduct and wanton abuse of power described in the recent news reports; and I stand in complete solidarity with Counsel Sudine Riley Esq., a Jamaican-Canadian, dual-licensed criminal defence lawyer who appears to have experienced the very worst of anti-Black racism in a place that should have been the last for it to occur: the Oshawa courthouse, at the hands of the DRPS- Durham Regional Police Service.
The allegations of physical violence, sexual assault, verbal harassment, and racial discrimination involving several members of the Durham Regional Police Service against Counsel Sudine Riley at the Oshawa courthouse are horrifying and represent a profound breach of human rights, professional dignity, and the rule of law. Most appalling is the indisputable reality that such breaches are, without question, disproportionately reserved for Black and racialized members of the legal profession. For those who disagree, I invite them to identify a comparable case in which a white, cisgender, heterosexual man was subjected to the same level of humiliating and discriminatory treatment. I am prepared to wait.
According to a statement issued by her counsel, Counsel Riley had completed a trial and was lawfully working in an interview room when DRPS- Durham Regional Police Service officers assigned as courthouse security challenged her presence. What followed, as alleged, went far beyond a simple misunderstanding or a routine security interaction. It was violence.
“Her head scarf was ripped off, her skirt was raised when she was handled by officers, and her head was bleeding and her eye swollen from being slammed into the desk,” counsel’s statement reads. (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/lawyer-claims-drps-assaulted-her-in-oshawa-courthouse-9.7063334)
These allegations describe a Black woman lawyer being physically assaulted, sexually violated, degraded, and humiliated inside a Canadian courthouse while performing her professional duties as a sworn officer of the court. If proven, this conduct constitutes an abuse of power that strikes at the very heart of justice and public confidence in the legal system.
There is nothing new about this reality for Black and racialized people; and make no mistake: this is not an aberration. We have seen this pattern before.
It surfaced when Counsel Jason Bogle was racially profiled by Toronto police officers for nothing more than sitting in his own luxury vehicle in Toronto while Black. It was laid bare in Peel Law Association v. Pieters, 2012 ONSC 1048, where Counsel Selwyn Pieters, B.A., LL.B., L.E.C. was racially profiled, humiliated and discriminated against simply for working in a Brampton courthouse law library while Black. And now we confront it again, this time involving Counsel Sudine Riley, for the perceived audacity of existing and practising as a criminal defence lawyer in an Oshawa courtroom while Black.
These incidents are connected. They reflect a persistent and deeply entrenched reality in which Black lawyers are subjected to suspicion, humiliation, and violence in spaces meant to embody neutrality, fairness, and the rule of law. If Black lawyers, sworn officers of the court with education, status, and access to legal recourse, remain unprotected from the degrading realities of anti-Black racism, the implications for others are grave.
What does this mean for people who do not hold professional titles, who work in blue-collar occupations, who occupy lower socioeconomic positions, or who lack the financial means, institutional access, or legal knowledge to advocate effectively for themselves? It means the system continues to function in a manner that predictably harms the most vulnerable while shielding those with power from accountability.
While the DRPS- Durham Regional Police Service has stated that the matter is under investigation, an internal police investigation is plainly insufficient where allegations involve excessive force, racialized violence, sexualized misconduct, and potential Charter violations. Substantive equality is embedded in the fabric of Canadian human rights law and requires an independent investigation with demonstrated expertise in human rights and anti-Black racism. This is essential.
Legal advocacy organizations, including Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology (SCWIST) , the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers, and the Criminal Lawyers’ Association, have rightly raised serious alarm. Their concern reflects a broader reality. Lawyers, particularly Black and racialized women, are questioning whether they are safe performing their duties in Ontario courthouses.
Courthouses must never become sites of fear for those sworn to uphold the rule of law. If these allegations are substantiated, accountability must extend far beyond the officers involved to the institutions that permitted this harm and the professional bodies whose inaction reinforced it. Justice cannot coexist with silence.
Black Legal Action Centre (BLAC) Canadian Association of Black Lawyers Black Law Students’ Association of Canada Ontario Human Rights Commission Law Society of Ontario Ontario Bar Association DRPS- Durham Regional Police Service Canadian Bar Association Black Female Lawyers Network Legal Aid Ontario Jamaican Canadian Association The Jamaican Bar Association @
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