[1] Paul Copeland C.M. (born February 19, 1940) is a retired[2] Toronto-based human rights lawyer, who is widely known as the defence attorney of security certificate detainee Mohamed Harkat, and an avid supporter of legal aid.[3]
Copeland co-founded the Law Union of Ontario in 1974 and was the Vice-President of the Criminal Lawyers' Association from 1985 to 1991 and was for several years the co-president of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted until the fall of 2008. He was elected a Bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada from 1990 to 2007, and was then made a life bencher of the society. He has been a retired life bencher since 2022.[4] He has served as vice-chair of its Legal Aid Committee and as chair of its Equity and Aboriginal Issues Committee. He has been a leader of the Canadian Campaign for Free Burma.[5]
In June 2006 he argued in the Supreme Court of Canada on behalf of Mohamed Harkat that the security certificate procedure under the immigration and Refugee Protection Act violated the fundamental justice provisions of Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom. In February 2007 the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously agreed with that argument and held that the procedure violated fundamental justice.[6]
In February 2008 he was granted Top Secret National Security clearance. In June 2008 he was appointed as a special advocate for Mohamed Harkat and for Hassan Almrei in the security certificate proceedings against them. The security certificate in regard to Mr. Almrei was found to be unreasonable by Justice Mosley on December 14, 2010.[7] The Security Certificate against Mohamed Harkat was found to be reasonable in December 2010.
In 2019, it was reported to the Toronto Police - 51 Division that Paul Copeland had tried to sexually assault a Canadian Woman Buddhist Minister who works with the Toronto Police Buddhist Chaplain Bhante Saranapala. Paul Copeland had been signing a Canadian Passport for the woman Buddhist Minister when he attempted to sexually assault her in his apartment. He then claimed that she was not a Canadian and threatened her life. This is a public record and the Buddhist community considers it a hate crime.