Jamaican Canadian law student wins awards on the cusp of graduation

TORONTO:

Dave D’Oyen will graduate from the Lincoln Alexander School of Law at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) with a Juris Doctor with Distinction degree.

Before convocation on June 20, however, he had been racking up accolades from the institution including the Dennis Mock Student Leadership Award for being an outstanding volunteer, the Spring Forward Award, and he is the valedictorian of the Class of 2025 for the Lincoln Alexander School of Law.

“I welcome the recognition but I am mindful that the contributions we make to community or to society are never just the efforts of our own but the efforts of many others,” he said, noting that “it’s about you being in service of others”.

D’Oyen was one of two students who were recipients of the Dennis Mock Student Leadership Award which recognises students who have made outstanding voluntary contributions to their school or academic programme, their faculty, or to TMU as a whole.

Volunteering plays an important role in his life; he served on the Academic Integrity Council (AIC) and the Senate Appeals Committee (SAC) at TMU.

“God calls us to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, and the idea of light is that it dispels darkness. We are people called to bring hope to others as Christians and as Jamaicans, we are tallawah,” said D’Oyen emphasising that Jamaicans are usually in the vanguard of human rights movements in Canada winning things that benefit all Canadians.

D’Oyen said he chose the AIC and SAC as he wanted the experience of being in the position of a tribunal member. “You’re almost getting a judge-like experience hearing arguments from the parties involved, their submissions, weighing evidence to determine what is credible and what is not, who is credible and who is not and then you’re balancing that with the university’s policy to ultimately come to a decision.” He recalled that at times such decisions had him grappling with sitting in judgement of a fellow student.

EXPLORE OPTIONS

Having worked with Jamaica-born Justice Michael Tulloch as part of the Independent Street Checks Review, he wanted to see what it was like to be an independent and impartial decision maker and acquiring quasi-legal experience.

An alumnus of McGill University in Montreal, he said the law school bears the name of Lincoln Alexander – who was of Jamaican heritage, and rose to many important positions in society – and is the second school in Ontario with an integrative practice curriculum that does away with the need to do articling.

“Coming through this programme you get practical experience, you get exposure to real-world issues that you’re working on and it really prepares you,” he said.

However, because the programme is new some law firms may still insist that students do articling, and in some cases, students may not be sure of what area of law they want to pursue and articling gives them the opportunity to explore options.

D’Oyen will start his articling at McMillan LLP in August. He worked there as a summer law student in 2024 and did his professional placement at Softchoice, a tech company in Toronto.

A long-time volunteer for community organisations like Children’s Aid Society of Toronto, Toronto Police Service, and Lifelong Leadership Institute, D’Oyen also serves on the board of directors of the Michaëlle Jean Foundation.

“For now, the focus is to get through articling and just be mindful of how much I stretch myself because I used to have a full plate. I’ve been involved in extracurricular activity or community service since my primary school days. I’m trying to get to my own version of net zero meaning just having a time when I don’t have any responsibilities.”The Bridgeport Primary School alumnus was a member of the Junior Schools’ Challenge Quiz, the debating team, and participated in speech and drama competitions.

CHURCH INVOLVEMENT

Throughout his time at Campion College, he was involved in church as a member of the St Vincent de Paul Society preparing food packages for the sick, the shut-in, and low-income households.

He was also involved in the ministry outreach programme that visited a golden age home every Thursday, a member of the government’s National Road Safety Youth Task Force, on the student council, and was its external representative at the inter-students’ council meetings.

D’Oyen was the prayer monitor for several years and when he was in first and second forms, he was the broom custodian ensuring that no other classroom stole their broom. He boasts that his form teacher, Miss Alexander, will tell anyone that he took great pride in this responsibility.

He volunteers at his church in Scarborough as an extraordinary minister of holy communion at St. Joseph’s Parish.

A day before he was scheduled to leave Jamaica to attend McGill University in August 2010, D’Oyen received The University of the West Indies admission to medical school.

Initially concerned about financing his undergraduate degree as an international student, he said he was lucky to have the support of many, and McGill.

The university provided an international students bursary. He credits former principal and vice chancellor, Dr. Heather Munroe-Blum, who during her tenure championed the idea that anyone admitted to McGill should not turn down the offer of admission because they cannot afford it.

“It was her vision that led me to be almost fully funded at McGill. I also had the support of a lawyer in Jamaica, Paul Cooper, a former partner at Livingston, Alexander and Levy, and he made the connection to the late Pokar Chandiram, chairman of Bijoux, who worked his magic and got me a very large donation to also help out with first year. There have just been angels in disguise, many angels along the way.”

His father, who loved him dearly, passed away 24 years ago; his mother, a janitor, is “a big-time supporter”, said D’Oyen. She attended all the home-school association meetings although the reports from his teachers were always good. He has a sister and a brother.

Of all the top universities in Canada, he found out from his research that McGill was the only university that gave significant financial aid to international students. D’Oyen applied but was doubtful.

“One day, I’m in my science class and I check my email and I go, no way, I’m admitted. I was floored because I’m thinking at the time I’m making it into one of the top 20 in the world.”

Always motivated to excel, he learned French in the elevators at McGill because the student residences were bilingual and he would listen to the elevator instructions and commit them to memory.

D’Oyen also took advantage of opportunities to learn French in Quebec and Ontario and tries to use French as much as possible when he encounters francophones.