They take up their roles on March 26
Serge Hamel, S. Rochelle Liberman, Kathleen Stevenson MacDonald, Kevin Howard Matthews, Jennifer Diane Quinn, and Neil Walter Riley have joined the Ontario Court of Justice.
They commence as judges on March 26. They will sit in Kirkland Lake/Haileybury, Toronto, Barrie, Thunder Bay, and Halton.
Hamel has been assigned to Kirkland Lake/Haileybury by chief justice Sharon Nicklas. He initially focused on family, real estate and administrative law while with Kemp, Maille & Hamel.
In 2005, he commenced as an assistant Crown attorney with the Ministry of the Attorney General in Haileybury. He has prosecuted criminal matters and appeared before the Superior Court of Justice and the Ontario Court of Justice. He was called to the Ontario bar in 1993 after graduating from the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law.
Hamel was president of the non-profit organization Centre de santé communautaire du Témiskaming. He also sat on the boards of a local mental health association and of local independent theatre Classic Theatre Cobalt.
Liberman has been assigned to Toronto. She was previously an assistant Crown attorney in Durham before transitioning to the North York Crown Attorney’s Office in 2009.
She has prosecuted cases before the Superior Court of Justice and the Ontario Court of Justice. She was domestic violence team lead of the prosecutors focusing on child abuse cases in the Best Practices Child Abuse Working Group.
Liberman volunteered as a crisis responder with the Crisis Text Line. She was also on the Ontario Court of Justice’s joint health and safety committee in Toronto.
She instructed the trial advocacy course at the Osgoode Hall Law School and was an Ontario Justice Education Network mock trial coach. She obtained her masters of laws degree with a focus on criminal law and procedure in 2021.
MacDonald has been assigned to Barrie. She was named executive director of the Professionalism, Leadership and Inclusion Office in 2023, advising the chief of police on strategic and ethical matters.
She started with Reisler Franklin LLP as a civil litigation associate before moving to the Ministry of the Attorney General in Toronto to serve as an assistant Crown attorney. She has prosecuted criminal matters in the Superior Court of Justice and the Ontario Court of Justice.
MacDonald then commenced as senior counsel with the York Regional Police, offering legal advice, research, and criminal, civil, administrative, and family matter advocacy.
Matthews has been assigned to Thunder Bay. He was an agent for the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, prosecuting federal offences and assisting law enforcement.
He was a regional prosecutor in the Niagara Region and practised as a criminal defence lawyer with Foord Davies Murray before establishing his own criminal law firm Matthews Law in 2010. He appeared before the Superior Court of Justice and the Ontario Court of Justice.
Matthews was a criminal law sessional instructor at the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law at Lakehead University. He was a Thunder Bay Law Association director.
Quinn has been assigned to Halton. She was with the Ministry of the Attorney General for 26 years, serving as an assistant Crown attorney in the downtown Toronto Crown Attorney’s Office.
She worked with the Halton Region Crown Attorney’s Office for four years and then became Crown counsel in the criminal law division of the ministry. She transitioned to the court services division and acted as counsel before becoming the operational support branch’s deputy director. In this capacity, she spearheaded a team of lawyers and chaired working groups and committees.
Quinn rejoined the criminal law division as a Crown counsel last year, where she collaborated on criminal law reform issues with federal, provincial and territorial counterparts. She has prosecuted cases before the Superior Court of Justice and the Ontario Court of Justice.
Riley has been assigned to Barrie. He is an assistant Crown attorney with the Simcoe County Crown Attorney’s Office, having first joined the office in 2018.
He has worked with the Ontario Provincial Police and other local police services as well as with community organizations the Elizabeth Fry Society and the Canadian Mental Health Association. He was once with Legal Aid Ontario’s Simcoe County Criminal Duty Counsel Office as a staff lawyer.
Riley launched his own criminal law firm Neil Riley Law after a stint as an associate lawyer with a Barrie-based criminal defence firm.
Ontario attorney general Doug Downey announced the new appointments on Tuesday March 17.
