Aleem Bharmal, KC
Lawyer
Human Rights Clinic – HRC
604-673-3126
abharmal[AT]clasbc.net
Aleem Bharmal, KC is a human rights lawyer with the Community Legal Assistance Society (CLAS) and was its former Executive Director for 12 years from late 2007 to 2019. Aleem was called to the bar in 1995 and has practiced human rights law for over 20 years.
Aleem has been a presenter on human rights, social justice, access to justice and legal ethics issues and has chaired or been on the executive of a number of Canadian Bar Association, BC Branch (CBABC) sections and committees. He is also a CBABC law student mentor with the UBC Allard School of Law, his alma mater.
In late 2015, Aleem and his co-counsel, Clea Parfitt, won a very lengthy, high-profile racial discrimination case involving Indo-Canadian veterinarians in BC.
In 2016, Aleem was involved with other non-profit groups and stakeholders in the launch of an Islamophobia Legal Assistance Hotline presently administered by Access Pro Bono BC. In 2016, Aleem was awarded the CBABC President’s Medal in recognition of his significant contributions to the legal profession. In 2017, Aleem was elected to the CBABC Provincial Council and then onto the CBABC Executive in 2018.
In 2019, Aleem was appointed King’s Counsel by the Attorney General of BC in recognition of his major contributions to the law in the province.
In 2022, Aleem and his co-counsel Frances Rosner, won a lengthy, ground-breaking discrimination case involving an Indigenous mother taking on a child welfare agency.
In 2023, Aleem completed his term as President of the Canadian Bar Association, BC Branch, a professional association that protects and furthers the interests of lawyers. In 2024, Aleem began his term as an elected Bencher of the Law Society of BC, the body that governs the legal profession in the public interest.
Part of Aleem’s passion for human rights comes from his previous work abroad. As a young lawyer in the mid-nineties, he worked as a Human Rights Officer for the U.N. High Commission of Human Rights, where he assisted in reporting on the administration of justice and ongoing human rights violations in Rwanda, less than two years after the genocide there.