Barbara Hall

Barbara Hall (born 1946) is a Canadian lawyer, public servant and former politician. She was the 61st mayor of Toronto, the last to run before amalgamation. She was elected mayor of the pre-amalgamation City of Toronto in 1994, and held office until December 31, 1997. On November 28 2005, Hall was appointed Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission for a three-year term. [http://www.ohrc.on.ca/english/about/commissioners.shtml#hall] .

Background

Barbara Hall attended the University of Victoria in British Columbia but left two credits short of a degree, to pursue community activism. She then moved to Nova Scotia to work with black families in rural areas."cite news|url=http://www.nationalpost.com/most_popular/Story.html?id=433946&p=3|date=April 10, 2008|author=Joseph Brean|title=Ontario rights commission dismisses complaint, sort of|publisher=National Post] She worked in the small Nova Scotia community of Three Mile Plain as one of the first members of the Company of Young Canadians.

In 1967, at the age of 20, she worked for Toronto youth programs and co-founded an alternative school. She also earned a law degree at Osgoode Hall and worked in family law."

She served for a time as a probation officer in Cleveland, Ohio. She returned to Canada and studied law at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University, and in 1980, was admitted to the Law Society of Upper Canada.

To earn money during her studies, Hall waitressed tables at the Second City. [Sheldon Patinkin, "The Second City: Backstage at the World's Greatest Comedy Theatre". Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 2000.]

Hall campaigned for the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the 1985 provincial election, as a candidate of the New Democratic Party in St. David. She finished third against Liberal Attorney-General Ian Scott. She was first elected to Toronto City Council later in the same year.

Mayor of Toronto

She was elected Mayor of Toronto in 1994 defeating incumbent June Rowlands. Although she ran as an independent and was backed by supporters from different parties, she was widely regarded as an unofficial candidate of the New Democratic Party (NDP). Hall's victory was considered an upset, given the low popularity of Bob Rae's provincial NDP government at the time. As Mayor, she presided over a period of growth for the city.

In 1997, a new provincial government under Mike Harris amalgamated the City of Toronto with Scarborough, York, East York, North York, and Etobicoke. The new "megacity" was also called Toronto. Hall opposed the amalgamation, but nonetheless ran for mayor of the new municipality. Although she won the majority of the vote in old Toronto, York and East York, she lost to outgoing North York mayor Mel Lastman, who had a very strong base of support in North York as well as in Etobicoke and Scarborough. Hall started the campaign well behind Lastman in public opinion polls, but she improved her support enough to place a respectable second.

2003 mayoral candidacy, and subsequent work

She ran for mayor again in 2003, and on this occasion was strongly backed by supporters of the Ontario Liberal Party. She was widely considered an unofficial Liberal candidate while David Miller, an NDP city councillor, was considered an unofficial NDP candidate and John Tory was an unofficial Progressive Conservative candidate. Despite being the front-runner at the campaign's start, and garnering strong support from the city's ethnic press, Hall wound up a distant third behind the winner, Miller and runner-up John Tory.

She subsequently served as the Ontario government's "Health Results Team" as lead of community relations. Hall was appointed to this position by Health Minister George Smitherman who had worked in Hall's office while she was mayor.

Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Committee

In November 2005, Hall was appointed the Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC).

In December 2007, the OHRC released a preliminary report looking into attacks on Asians fishing on Lake Simcoe. Hall wrote that violence and harassment of Asian anglers "remind us that racism and racial discrimination exist in Ontario."cite news|url=http://www.nationalpost.com/related_links/story.html?id=166575|title=Report urges action to curb attacks on Asian anglers|author=Chris Wattie|publisher=National Post|date=December 13, 2007] Hall added that "We're looking for communities across Ontario to have an open dialogue and take action on racism. Although this is often hard to do, it is necessary to make communities welcoming and safe for all."cite news|url=http://www.torontosun.com/News/Canada/2008/04/10/5243346-sun.html|title=Fishing for tolerance|author=Don Peat|publisher=Toronto Sun|date=April 10, 2008]

Complaint Against Maclean's Magazine

In April 2008, the OHRC dismissed a complaint by the Canadian Islamic Congress against Maclean's Magazine but issued a statement denouncing Maclean's. [ [http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/resources/news/en/resources/news/statement] Ontario Human Rights Public Statement] ] In an interview, Hall stated that "When the media writes, it should exercise great caution that it's not promoting stereotypes that will adversely impact on identifiable groups. I think one needs to be very careful when one speaks in generalities, that in fact one is speaking factually about all the people in a particular group."cite news|url=http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=433915|title=Rights body dismisses Maclean's case|author=Joseph Brean|publisher=National Post|date=April 09, 2008]

The editors of Maclean's denounced Hall and her staff for what they called the "zealous condemnation of their journalism" and stated that " [Hall] cited no evidence, considered no counter-arguments, and appointed herself prosecutor, judge and jury in one fell swoop." Maclean's also accused every human rights commission in the country for "morphing out of their conciliatory roles to become crusaders working to reshape journalistic discourse in Canada." Maclean's wrote that Ms. Hall's press release was "a drive-by smear," and "perhaps the greatest disappointment in this whole saga." cite news|url=http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=456006|title=A friend of free speech?|author=Jonathan Kay|publisher=National Post|date=April 19, 2008]

At a meeting of the Canadian Arab Federation on the day after the British Columbia Human Right Tribunal heard the complaint, Hall served on a panel along with Khurrum Awan, one the student lawyers who helped file the complaint who testified for at the BC Tribunal against Macleans, and Haroon Siddiqui, editor emeritus of the Toronto Star. Hall joked to the audience that she can finally speak freely with her co-panellist Mr. Awan about his complaint. Awan praised Hall's condemnation of Maclean's, stating that he had difficulty developing support until Ms. Hall called Maclean's Islamophobic, and then "everyone wanted to be our uncle."cite news|url=http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=573457|title=Muslims told to insist on equal voice in media|author=Joseph Brean|publisher=National Post|date=June 9, 2008]

ee also

* Toronto municipal election, 1994
* Toronto municipal election, 1997
* Toronto municipal election, 2003

References