Keana's Legislative Placement with Parliamentary Counsel

For my Assembly Placement, I was incredibly lucky enough to be placed with the office of Parliamentary Counsel, alongside my fellow intern Bianca. Parliamentary Counsel is the legal office of the Assembly, representing them in legal matters and providing professional legal advice to the Assembly. While this doesn’t include advice on personal legal issues towards a Member as one may think, it does encompass many other things: drafting Private Member’s Bills, advising on constitutional law-based questions like parliamentary privleledge, verifying the legality of internal policies, and much more. Although I’ve had some experience at Queen’s Park before this, Parliamentary Counsel was one of the only offices I’ve never had the opportunity to interact with, and as such, was very excited to learn more about their work and its effect on the Assembly and its functions.

During my time at Parliamentary Counsel, I had the opportunity to delve deeply into a policy project overseen by Devon, their resident policy analyst, and Melissa, the paralegal superstar. With their aid, I dove into reviewing the almost 200 internal policies of the Office of the Assembly and assessing their legal nature and strictly policy content. These policies govern the day-to-day life of all the employees in the Assembly, covering everything from security measures, to human resources regulations, to even animal access to the building! It was incredibly fascinating to observe this process from both a policy and legal lense, two areas that I’ve always been interested in. I also had the opportunity to assist in creating briefs on Supreme Court cases for future reference by the office. This was a great opportunity to put the legal skills I learned throughout my undergraduate degree, practice some French, and more importantly, gain a broader understanding of Canadian constitutional law.

As simple as it may seem, our check-ins with the team were some of my best moments of the month. During these meetings, Gabriella and Melissa took the time to prepare presentations for us and host informal info sessions to brief Bianca and I on any questions we had for them, whether that may be exploring legal careers, the nuances of parliamentary priveledge, the use of specific legal tools, current events in consitutional law, and their experiences before and during their careers at Queen’s Park. To be able to have such honest conversations and receive guidance from two experts in the field is not an opportunity that always comes by. Consistutional law is also such a niche field that is often studied, but not often practiced nor understood by the public at large, so this was a great eye opener for me to analyze how exactly the work that goes on here interacts with the lives of not only Parliamentarians, but also the average citizen. As such, I am so graetful to them for taking the time to help guide us along and teach us about a subject we love at such a pivtol time in our career paths.

I wanted to extend a sincere thanks to the entire team at Parliamentary Counsel for parterning with OLIP to provide Bianca and I with such a valuable opportunity. To William, Gabriela, Elisa, Melissa, and Devon- thank you for welcoming us with open arms and incredible generosity, never turning down a question, and not judging our chopstick skills. A special thanks to Melissa and Devon for their guidance on my project, I am eternally graetful for your patience, kindness, and wisdom! I can confidently say this one of the most hardworking teams I’ve ever had the pleasure to be on- day or night, they are ready to put in the work no matter how difficult it may be, and while they are incredibly talented and accomplished individuals, they are also some of the most humble. Their willingess to allow us to contribute to such sensitive and critical work from day one is something I am incredibly graetful for. I look forward to taking what I have learned into my future endeveours in the world of policy, law and politics, and will never forget this experience!"