The new judges begin sitting on February 26
The Ontario Court of Justice has welcomed Gordon Omar Akilie, Laurie Ann Gonet, Jayme Lesperance, Heather Dorretta Palin, and Lindsey Ann Jessica Santerre as judges.
They begin sitting on February 26.
Akilie has been assigned to Niagara by chief justice Sharon Nicklas. He was a Public Prosecution Service of Canada Crown counsel in Whitehorse, Yukon, a role he has held since August 2025. He has carriage over two circuit courts and the Whitehorse Community Wellness Court.
He was an assistant Crown attorney with the ministry of the attorney general in Hamilton and in Niagara, prosecuting criminal matters from 2016 to 2024. He also held case management and leadership positions.
In June 2024, Akilie was appointed an agent for the PPSC in Hamilton. He began his legal career as a Toronto-based criminal defence lawyer after a clerkship at the Superior Court of Justice in Hamilton; he was called to both the Ontario (2013) and Yukon (2025) bars.
He was a federal Crown representative on the Hamilton Mental Health and Drug Treatment Court steering committee. Moreover, he was a course director for the Crown Summer School Intimate Partner and Family Violence Program and a peer mentor with the Law Society of Ontario Member Assistance Program.
Gonet has been assigned to Brampton. She was the administrative Crown at the Superior Court of Justice for the Toronto west office.
She served as Youth Court director and operated in the Summary Conviction Appeal Office. She spent 25 years as an assistant Crown attorney with the ministry of the attorney general in Toronto, conducting prosecutions in the Superior Court of Justice and the Ontario Court of Justice.
Gonet was a former president of the Ontario Crown Attorneys’ Association – in this role, she tackled employment issues and education. She was called to the Ontario bar in 2001 following her graduation from the Queen’s University Faculty of Law.
Lesperance has been assigned to Windsor. He co-led human trafficking prosecutions in Windsor, the Intensive Serious Violent Crime Bail Team, and the Mental Health and Drug Treatment specialty courts.
He was an assistant Crown attorney with the ministry of the attorney general in Windsor who prosecuted homicides, sexual assaults, and firearm offences in the Superior Court of Justice and the Ontario Court of Justice. Previously, he logged stints with Ducharme Fox LLP and then with Sutts, Strosberg LLP, where he was a criminal defence lawyer.
He was called to the Ontario bar in 2014. He is a volunteer with the Law Society Foundation of Ontario initiative Lawyers Feed the Hungry.
Palin has been assigned to Kitchener. She was a Crown counsel on the ministry of the attorney general’s provincial human trafficking prosecution team for the west and central west regions, prosecuting complex human trafficking and sexual assault cases before the Superior Court of Justice and the Ontario Court of Justice.
After graduating from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, she was called to the Ontario bar in 2013 and started her legal career in Niagara South and Middlesex County as an assistant Crown attorney. In 2019, she began serving as an alumni mentor for law students at the University of Toronto.
Palin sits on the anti-human trafficking committee of the sexual assault support centre of Waterloo region.
Santerre has been assigned to Espanola-Manitoulin. She was the Crown attorney for the districts of Algoma and Manitoulin, prosecuting serious and complex cases before the Superior Court of Justice and the Ontario Court of Justice.
She logged a stint as assistant Crown attorney for the district of Sudbury and served as the local and regional designated Crown to prosecute human trafficking, firearm offences, and opioid overdose death investigations. She received her degree from Australia’s Bond University Faculty of Law and was called to the Ontario bar in 2013.
Santerre started her legal career with Scarfe Wells Criminal Law before moving to Robert Beckett Criminal Law.
Ontario attorney general Doug Downey announced the appointments.
