It’s no longer the offices of Roach, Schwartz & Associates, but back in the day, up the steps and overlooking a stretch of St. Clair Ave. W., Charles Roach and like-minded partners in law helped cash-strapped clients, launched social justice crusades and hatched legal challenges, including the odd one that they knew didn’t stand a chance of succeeding.To wit: In the 1980s, Roach and others came up with a legal challenge to try to stop the South African ambassador from participating in a debate at the University of Toronto.The ambassador was “going around Canada trying to defend apartheid from people who were campaigning for divestment from South Africa,” recalls lawyer Peter Rosenthal, involved in many of Roach’s fights for human and civil rights.Roach argued on behalf of four professors that the ambassador was a representative of the country and its policy of apartheid, and was thus a criminal according to international law, a voice of hate who should not be allowed to speak. It didn’t go over well with free speech advocates, or the court. He lost, but had made a very public point.“Of course, the courts didn’t react positively to that and there was a lot of attack from the press,” says Rosenthal. “But on the other hand, in my view and in Charley’s view, it helped to spread word about the fact that it really was a criminal operation, the South African government.”On Wednesday evening, not far from the law office that was shuttered shortly after Roach’s death at age 79 in 2012, the city of Toronto will unveil “Charley Roach Lane” — a single lane, east-west ribbon of road tucked immediately north of St. Clair, between Rushton Rd. and Arlington Ave. — in honour of his life and work.“I think it’s important because it’s near where many people came to get help from Charley,” said Rosenthal, who worked out of the office as well. “The o ...
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