GEBRESELLASSI
Per ardua ad astra
Saron Gebresellassi
A decade before the courts, in two languages.
Before founding the Private Office, Saron Gebresellassi practised as a bilingual litigator before courts and tribunals in Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. A selection of matters on the public record follows.
Supreme Court of Canada
Led an application for leave to appeal from the British Columbia Court of Appeal, on behalf of a 90-year-old retired engineering professor whose driver's licence was revoked, alleging age-based discrimination.
Coroner's Inquest · Ontario
Represented the family of a deaf-blind student who died on campus. A four-year campaign, convening 124 stakeholders across six sectors, reversed the province's initial refusal and secured a ten-day inquest.
Criminal Defence · Ontario
Led the successful defence of a Heathrow-bound university student wrongly accused of terrorism following the grounding of an Air Canada flight at Pearson International Airport.
British Columbia
Represented a small business in Learn to Earn Bartending v. Northern Health Authority, prevailing in ten separate provincial prosecutions, and before the Supreme Court of British Columbia in resisting a permanent closure injunction.
Consent and Capacity Board
Assembled a team of four pro bono lawyers to represent parents in a contested hearing over the withdrawal of life support from their infant.
Ontario Public Service
Led an internal investigation into the root causes of systemic anti-Black racism in the public service workplace, resulting in a moratorium on the firing and suspension of Black and racialized civil servants.
Divisional Court · en français
Represented a small business at trial, preserving its appeal rights and securing a stay of judgment through proceedings conducted in French before the Divisional Court.
Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario
Successfully represented a job applicant refused employment on the basis of his African heritage. The settlement funded a scholarship for young people in York South–Weston.
Matters are described as they appear in the public record. The mandates of the Private Office are not disclosed.
Open Letters
October 2026 · To Ontario's Minister of Health
On the children who are the hidden backbone of the provincial health care system, quietly caring for our elders, and six measures the Ministry can take so that no family is forced to choose between them.
Recognition
The Principal's work has been reported by
Invited to addressThe Advocates' Society · AJEFO · Toronto Lawyers Association · Broadbent Institute · OPSEU Convention · Roundtable of Legal Diversity Associations