"The University of Toronto Alumni Association (UTAA), is delighted to announce R. Douglas Elliott as the inaugural recipient of the Carl Mitchell Community Impact Award. A renowned litigator, Douglas is widely celebrated for his decades of work fighting discrimination on behalf of the LGBTQ2+ community.”
The alumni association made the announcement on their website here.
Last Tuesday, ElliotLakeToday interviewed R. Douglas Elliott at his law office in downtown Elliot Lake.
ElliotLakeToday asked Elliott to explain what the award recognizes, and why he was chosen.
“[The award] recognizes a graduate of the University of Toronto who's made a significant contribution to the community in the area of equity, diversity and inclusion, often called EDI, and principally through volunteer work, although they will take into account a person's professional paid work in an appropriate case,” Elliott told ELT.
It is an inaugural award, meaning ‘first time,’ but it has been created from an award previously known as the Impact Award.
The Impact Award was started by Carl Mitchell, “a black man, U of T graduate, very successful entrepreneur in the high-tech business and he was the president of the U of T Alumni Association.” Carl Michell passed away in his fifties from cancer. The new award honours his contribution.
Elliott was selected from a large field. The University of Toronto reports 662,149 graduates.
“So, as I like to say, not bad for a kid from Elliot Lake. I mean, who would expect that some kid from Elliot Lake would be picked out of 660,000 graduates,” Elliott said, smiling and adding, “It caught me totally by surprise because I didn’t know that the award even existed […] I was gobsmacked. Frankly, I had no idea.”
ElliotLakeToday: “Please tell about those things that caused them to give you this important award.”
Elliott related how the alumni president called him with the news. “She obviously referred to the work I’ve done for the 2SLGBTQI+ community in particular, that they were very conscious of that. The LGBT Purge Fund [people] had talked to them about the work that I’ve done on that board.”
Elliott was involved in establishing a historic class action settlement. “$145,000,000. The largest class action settlement for LGBT rights anywhere in the world, ever,” he said.
“Two things were moving for me. One is the fact that I’m a kid from Elliot Lake, and to have a small-town person recognized by Canada’s biggest university, that’s pretty heartwarming. I think it makes the citizens of Elliot Lake feel good about themselves, that they produce some good people, which they do.”
“The other thing that’s heartwarming for me is that I’m a member of the 2SLGBTQI+ community and there’s quite a backlash going on against us right now.” Elliott continued, mentioning Saskatchewan’s use of the notwithstanding clause, anti-trans demonstrations, and an increase in hate crimes.
“Hate crimes are up by about 60 per cent against our community in the last couple of years.”
“Unfortunately, not everyone supports equality for my community, as I have learned over the years.”
ElliotLakeToday: “Do you think that what we’re going through now are birth pains for something that will be much better than what we had before, or do you have a fear that it’s going to get a lot darker before it begins to get light again?”
Elliott: “In Canada? I still have confidence in Canadians and their sense of fairness. So, I’m hoping that this is a period of setback in Canada that we will overcome and we’ll go on to even greater things.”
“It’s very clear that trans people still have a lot of battles to fight. They’re still not accepted the way they should be.” Elliott continued, mentioning a similar situation for intersex people and two-spirit people.
“Two-spirit people. We’ve just started talking about them too. […] I think the two-spirit stuff is really important as part of our whole reconciliation with Indigenous people.”
“That’s part of that big national project that I think is terribly important.”
Elliott also spoke with pride about Elliot Lake Pride. “I got Elliot Lake Pride going ten years ago now, with the help of a bunch of other wonderful volunteers including the mayor at the time, Rick Hamilton.”
“I’m pretty sure he was the first mayor to be a founding member of a local Pride organization.”
“I’m very proud of the fact that in Elliot Lake, not only did we get it going, which some people thought I was crazy for even trying- but we have always had unanimous approval from our city council […] the people I knew to be very conservative on the council, to people who I knew to be very progressive, everyone supported it.”
“Elliot Lake Pride is a good example of inclusion, because it’s not just for my community in the sense of the Rainbow community, it’s for everyone. And everyone enjoys it and people look forward to it.”
Without prompting, Elliott’s comments also spoke to Elliot Lake’s current major concern: Infrastructure.
Speaking about the Pride events at the Lester B. Pearson Civic Centre, “It's gone. It's gone for all of us, but that was something everyone looked forward to, and we were so proud of that facility. And it's gone because of, in my opinion, neglect by the municipality over the years and the unwillingness of Elliott Lake taxpayers to fund adequate maintenance.”
ElliotLakeToday asked Elliott for a photograph for this story. Because the Carl Mitchell award is still to be presented, ELT suggested holding other symbols of recognition he has received for his work.
In the photo, Elliott holds the Robert Muir Award for Mentoring. He received it from the Bar Association. It recognizes his support of mentoring young lawyers. “I’ve got to make sure that just as Joe Arvay trained me, I’m trying to train a younger generation of lawyers who are going to stand up for equality.”
Joe Arvay looks over Elliott’s shoulder from a group photo on the wall.
“It's important that you stand up for everyone's equality. I'm not a trans person. I still stand up for the rights of trans people. I'm not an Arab, obviously. I stood up for the rights of Arabs. I'm a Christian. I stood up for the rights of Muslims. I'm a man. I stood up for the rights of women.”
“I've seen the discrimination those people have experienced, and they needed advocates.”
The award ceremony is scheduled to take place in Toronto, next month.