Photo Courtesy of Caryma Sa’d and Protest Mania

We wanted to mark one week to the day and time that Sudine Riley says she was told to leave the Oshawa courthouse at 5:00 pm while working there as defence counsel and assaulted by police officers.

WiCCD asked our members what they need and wanted as they process the trauma this incident has triggered, which affects women defence lawyers across the country.

Black and racialized young women in the defence bar, including many who work locally in Oshawa, wanted to just sit there and not leave when they were supposed to. Take up Space. The same space.

It wasn’t the smoothest process to plan this visit to the courthouse, but the journey was well worth it in the end. The fact that we managed to actually accomplish what we set out to do, however humble, is a huge achievement – we are strong and we are resilient. What we pulled off is a testament to community.

Many of us have spent the last week in serious emotional distress.

Some of us have lost sleep, stopped eating, broke out crying in unexpected bursts, seemingly randomly cycling through the gamut of emotions, including fury. This is what trauma looks like.

Still, we had community. The women in Women in Canadian Criminal Defence formed a circle of support around Sudine, the likes of which none of us has seen before, and hope never to need again.

Certainly, since WiCCD was formed four years ago, we have had several occasions to come together as a community in support of colleagues maligned and harassed on social media, threatened with criminal contempt proceedings and other bad treatment in the courtroom or the justice system. But not this.

On Friday after the court closed at 5:00 pm, we did not leave. More than 50 defence lawyers and paralegals from across Ontario stayed behind. We ‘toured’ the courthouse – which, parenthetically is massive, modern and bright. We sat in rooms like Sudine sat in. We stood in the hallways. We gathered to hear from local defence counsel, a Black woman lawyer who spends most of her days in that Court.

And then we sat together in their spacious lounge and supported each other. Thank you to our colleagues in Durham for hosting us during our visit and showing us where they gather during their busy litigation days.

On the wall of that lounge is a beautiful photo of a protest held by the local defence bar when the new courthouse opened in 2010 and DRPS insisted on searching defence counsel, and only defence counsel, on entry. Those defence lawyers stood outside for three hours in -8 C weather on Feb 8 2010. We had -18 C yesterday so we spent approximately three minutes outside — taking group photos.

But the sentiment is the same. Or at least in the same vein, asserts that our bar deserves respect.

Defence lawyers belong in Courthouses. We are an integral justice system participant. Not lesser than.

And if we had the same respect, the same access, the same rights, the same voice within the system, that may change courthouse dynamics and culture that somehow led to what is alleged to have happened here.

But beyond that the bigger questions left to explore and address, candidly, must focus on gender bias, systemic anti-Black and racial discrimination and exclusion of members of some communities of legal professionals.

On this blog, I have chronicled the Statements in Support of Sudine Riley and calls for an independent investigation into this incident. There is a groundswell of such support. And it has only just begun. Advocacy on the critical issues exposed by a horrific experience for a colleague will continue building until the system is fundamentally changed. It must become truly inclusive. Safety and security are the bare minimum guarantees we didn’t expect to have to demand in 2026. But certainly not the end goal.

Yesterday, the defence bar made our own statement. Standing together, with Sudine.

With thanks to our friend Caryma Sa’d whose Protest Mania covered our story – our protest being closer to Protest Euthymia (look it up – term of art!) but still. You can catch her segment on X / twitter here.

Caryma Sa’d’s Protest Mania Coverage of Defence Lawyers Touring the Oshawa Courthouse

Thank you as well to the many and varied lawyer organizations who supported this event and whose members joined us from across Ontario in solidarity, including our many allies. Too many to mention, but you all know who you are. And not naming each person individually protects the innocent including those involved behind the scenes in staging the world’s calmest, most loving, most civilized “sit-in.”