Staff

Mary Birdsell (she/her)

Executive Director and Lawyer

Mary Birdsell, B.A., LL.B., is the Executive Director of Justice for Children and Youth (JFCY). Mary has been a lawyer at JFCY since she was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1996. She is one of Canada’s leading experts on children’s rights in a broad array of legal subjects; in particular, with expertise on the application of the UN Convention on the Rights of Children in domestic law. For over 25 years she has been a tireless advocate for individual young people facing significant adversity. Click here for Mary’s full bio.

Karien Gibson (she/her)

Operations Manager

Karien is originally from Kitchener-Waterloo and has worked in the non-profit sector for several years. Her volunteer work has included the Gatehouse, which address the needs of children and their families, youth and adults whose lives have been affected by childhood abuse.

Samira Ahmed (she/her)

Lawyer

Samira joined JFCY during her articles and has remained with JFCY since her call to the Bar in Ontario in 2012. Samira has appeared in front of many tribunals and at all levels of court; and is a long standing member of the Children’s Rights Academic Network through the Landon Pearson Center for Childhood and Children’s Rights. Samira has a passion for children’s rights that dates back to her childhood. She founded numerous successful youth programs in her hometown Ottawa including a program that gives youth a voice in municipal politics (the Ottawa Youth Commission) and a news medium created for youth by youth (FYBY News) and has received national and local awards for her grassroots work with children and youth including the YWCA Young Woman of Distinction and the Flare Volunteer of the Year Award. She is a former board member of the Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children.

Allison P. Williams (she/her)

Community Development Lawyer

Allison joined JFCY in 2019. Allison originally hails from Northwestern Ontario and attended Osgoode Hall Law School after completing a BA from Queen’s University and a MA from the University of Toronto. While at Osgoode, Allison received an Ian Scott Public Interest Fellowship and spent a summer working for the Grand Council Treaty # 3 Women’s Council. Following law school, Allison articled at the Office of the Children’s Lawyer before being called to the bar in Ontario in 2016. Prior to joining JFCY, Allison spent several years working at a small firm practicing primarily immigration and refugee law, administrative law, and family law.

Claire Millgate (she/her)

Lawyer – Street Youth Legal Services

As the Street Youth Legal Services (SYLS) lawyer at JFCY, Claire provides advice and representation to youth aged 16 to 25 years old who are homeless or unstably housed.  Each week she visits shelters in and around Toronto, providing advice and legal assistance to vulnerable young people.  She also provides workshops to youth and engages broadly with sector stakeholders to address youth homelessness and justice issues. Claire began her work with JFCY as the intake lawyer in 2017-18.  In June 2018 she returned to JFCY and has been in the SYLS role since September 2019. Claire has experience in all areas of youth law, including youth criminal justice, child protection, education, human rights, mental health and immigration. Prior to joining JFCY, Claire was an associate at a family law firm, where her work focused on the intersection of family and Indigenous law in child protection matters. Claire was called to the bar in both Ontario and her home jurisdiction of New South Wales, Australia in 2015.

Katherine Long (she/her)

Lawyer 

In her work as an advocate, Katherine is passionate about ensuring that the rights of children and youth are accessible, realizable, and reachable, regardless of their circumstances. Prior to joining JFCY, Katherine worked as a family and child protection lawyer in a boutique litigation firm. During her time in private practice, Katherine advocated for the voices of young people as a member of the Office of the Children’s Lawyer’s personal rights panel. Katherine is a graduate of the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law, where she was the recipient of the Donner Civic Leadership Fund Fellowship. She currently serves on the executive committee for the Toronto Branch of the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), and is a contributing editor to the publication On Children and the Law.

Candice Suter (she/her)

Lawyer 

Candice was called to bar in Ontario in 2007 after clerking at the Superior Court of Justice in Toronto.  For nearly a decade she practiced as a criminal defence lawyer.  She then joined the Crown’s office, working at a trial office followed by the appeals branch.  Throughout her career, Candice has worked to present the stories and truths of those involved in the justice system in a manner that is humanizing, persuasive and recognizes the complex forces that bring people into that system.  She enjoys working with the young people who are her clients at JFCY.  By standing up for their rights and their ability to participate in the legal system, she hopes they feel empowered and heard.

Jin Chien (she/her)

Lawyer

Jin joined JFCY in April 2022 and has advocated on a range of social justice issues in Canada and internationally since her call to the Bar of Ontario in 2011. Prior to joining JFCY, Jin was a staff lawyer at a legal clinic serving Ontario’s Chinese and Southeast Asian communities where she practiced immigration and poverty law and engaged in systemic advocacy through test cases and law reform efforts. She has experience in criminal law through her work as Staff Duty Counsel at Legal Aid Ontario and in private practice; and litigation experience while working at a legal non-profit in Vancouver, where she focused on police accountability issues. Jin also spent several years in Myanmar and Cambodia, where she supported communities impacted by large-scale development in exercising their land and natural resource rights, developed legal trainings for public interest lawyers and human rights defenders, and practiced international criminal law.

Stephanie Giannandrea (she/her)

Lawyer

Stephanie joined JFCY in 2023 to fill in as the Street Youth Legal Services (SYLS) lawyer. In 2024, she has continued with JFCY providing representation and litigation for JFCY’s clients. Prior to joining JFCY, Stephanie practiced family and child protection law in Toronto for over a decade and her practice included representation of young people as a member of the panel for the Office of the Children’s Lawyer. She received her law degree from the University of Toronto in 2007.

Sarah Pole (she/her)

Program Director – Childhood Arrivals Support & Advocacy Program (CASA)

Sarah is the director of JFCY’s CASA program. She has extensive experience in youth justice education and has focused in particular on youth facing personal and systemic barriers to education success, and on increasing legal sector diversity. Sarah’s former roles include Executive Director of the Law in Action Within Schools (LAWS) Program; Acting Director of Education for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association; and Director of Provincial Programs for the Ontario Justice Education Network. Sarah’s commitment to ensuring education access and success for young people has been recognized with awards including a Law Foundation of Ontario Community Leadership in Justice Fellowship, and a Toronto Foundation Vital People Award. Prior to moving to Canada in 2002, Sarah practiced family, employment and immigration law in New Zealand.

Kaffie Abdirashid (she/her)

Education Advocate Lawyer, Toronto Northwest Justice Centre

Kaffie joined JFCY as the Education Advocate for the Toronto Northwest Justice Centre following her call to the bar in July 2021. As a lawyer and trained social worker, Kaffie assists young people who are at the intersection of youth criminal justice and education law to access, and successfully navigate, the school system. She advocates with young people and their families for their right to attend school, access special education supports and appeal disciplinary measures. She also works with families and schools to promote student (re)engagement and success. Prior to joining JFCY, Kaffie articled at a boutique litigation firm where she assisted with complex civil litigation matters involving professional liability.

Alicia Lam (she/her)

Education Navigator, Toronto Northwest Justice Centre

Alicia is a Social Worker who joined JFCY as the Education Navigator for the Toronto Northwest Justice Centre. She works alongside the Education Advocate Lawyer to assist young people navigate their right to attend school and access special education supports.

Talayeh Shomali (she/her)

Project Director – Borderless Access to Education

Talayeh is responsible for the Borderless Access to Education project, a multi-year systems innovation project funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation’s Youth Opportunities fund. Talayah works alongside with two grassroots organizations on this project: Sanctuary Students Solidarity and Support Collective (S4) and Black Creek Youth Initiative (BCYI).

Alisha Riley (she/her)

Client Support Worker

For the last decade, Alisha has been, and continues to work in the homelessness sector in Tkaronto. Alisha’s experience has been providing case management services for street-involved youth, working with woman and children who are fleeing / fled violence (family and/or intimate partner), and supporting people who use drugs. She has extensive experience working at youth, women and VAW shelters, working at supervised injection sites and doing harm reduction outreach in the community. Alisha has actively worked to reduce systemic violence perpetrated by service providers – this includes reducing barriers to access services, challenging restrictions policies, addressing racism (particularly anti-black racism) and transphobia in these spaces, and advocating for creative solutions to those using drugs.

Alisha has a passion to support others in their personal journey as they navigate difficult and perhaps unknown systems. She believes that by holding a position of power, she has a responsibility to empower those she is working with and give them the tools and information they need to make informed decisions. Alisha believes case management and client support goes beyond being task oriented or ensuring basic needs are met. It is also about finding moments of joy and having some fun!

Miriam Roger (she/her)

Your Way Forward Program Lead

Miriam joined JFCY in 2022 and she coordinates the Your Way Forward project, funded by the Department of Justice. Your Way Forward brings together nine legal clinic partners across Ontario, who are providing holistic legal advice and support to people who have experienced sexual violence and intimate partner violence. Miriam attended law school at the University of Calgary where she ran the outreach division of the student-run legal clinic. After law school, she articled and practiced in criminal defence for a few years before completing the Assaulted Women & Children Counsellor & Advocacy program at George Brown College. She has worked and consulted with organizations that support women with legal needs who have been impacted by trauma, including Family Service Toronto, North York Women’s Shelter & Elizabeth Fry Toronto.