The Canadian Bar Association, BC Branch (CBABC) celebrates an exceptional lawyer with bestowment of
the 2018 Georges A. Goyer, QC Memorial Award for Distinguished Service on Terence E. La Liberté, QC.
Mr. La Liberté is a Vancouver-based criminal lawyer and partner at La Liberté Cronin & Co, and he
received the honour at the annual Bench & Bar Dinner on November 7 in Vancouver.
CBABC President Margaret Mereigh presented the award. “Terry fully embodies a spirit of generosity,
true commitment to his profession and selfless dedication to the community,” said Ms. Mereigh. “He is
well-known for his unwavering dedication to clients, many of whom are Indigenous, mentally ill,
suffering addiction and marginalized. It’s an honour to be a part of his very well-deserved recognition.”
Terence E. La Liberté has a compellingly varied past that includes working as a tugboat deckhand, a
police constable and a log scaler in several West Coast logging camps. Mr. La Liberté is of Metis descent
and originally hails from Saskatchewan, but grew up in New Westminster, BC. He received his law
degree from UBC and was called to the BC bar in 1975. In his legal career, he has volunteered an
enormous amount of time with the Canadian Bar Association including acting as President of its BC
Branch in 1990-91.
One of Mr. La Liberté many award nominators is Douglas White, Chair of the BC Aboriginal Justice
Council and President of the Native Courtworker and Counselling Association of BC (NCCABC). He praises Terry’s advocacy for Indigenous people caught up in the criminal system: “The depth of his experience is an immeasurable benefit to all our deliberations and has shaped the important work of the NCCABC.”
Mr. La Liberté has also been an adjunct professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law for 20 years. As a
trial lawyer, he has acted as Crown and Defence Counsel in hundreds of jury trials at all levels of court.
In addition, he has lectured internationally, most recently in Nepal where he led a number of seminars
on judicial independence and the rule of law.
The Georges A. Goyer QC Memorial Award for Distinguished Service is in memory of Georges A. Goyer
QC, a respected CBABC member who passed away in 1992 after a courageous battle with cancer. The
award recognizes exceptional contributions to the legal profession, to jurisprudence, or to the law in BC.
The Canadian Bar Association is the professional organization representing more than 38,000 lawyers,
judges and law students across Canada with nearly 7,000 members in British Columbia.
PHOTO: Terence E. La Liberté, (left) QC and Margaret Mereigh (right)
