Board of Directors

Valarie Steele is a veteran community activist and community leader. She was a Vice President and President of the Jamaican Canadian Association for several terms, and was the president of the Jamaican Diaspora Canada Foundation.  She has also served in numerous other, capacities and boards and committees and organizations throughout Toronto’s Black community and as one of two Canadian representatives/Directors on the Jamaican Diaspora Advisory Board, which advises the Jamaican government, through its Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, on matters of import to the diaspora and in particular to Jamaicans residing in Canada. Valarie is the vice president of Black Action Defense Committee Inc. 

Selwyn is an experienced litigator licensed to practice law in Ontario, the Republic of Guyana and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. He has appeared at all levels of court, including the Supreme Court of Canada and the Federal Court of Appeal. He has also appeared in numerous trials in the Ontario Court of Justice and the Superior Court of Justice.

Selwyn is also a human rights activist and lawyer with a commitment to grass root community work and fearless advocacy. He successfully represented himself in the human rights case of Peel Law Association v. Pieters 2013 CarswellOnt 7881, 2013 ONCA 396, 116 O.R. (3d) 81. He also appeared in the Supreme Court of Canada for the Montreal based Center for Research-Action on Race Relations in Quebec (Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse) v. Bombardier Inc. (Bombardier Aerospace Training Center), 2015 SCC 39, [2015] S.C.J. No. 39), in which the Court adopted the analytical framework in Pieters as an accurate statement of the law in proving discrimination.

Prior to entering private practice, Selwyn was a Refugee Protection Officer at the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. He has guest lectured at law schools in Ontario including Toronto, Osgoode, Queens, and Windsor. Selwyn is a contributor to the ebook “Civil Procedure and Practice in Ontario”. Selwyn is the President of the Toronto Centre of Learning & Development.

Neto Frank Naniwambote is a Licensed Legal Practitioner and is a member of the Law Society of Ontario and Association des juristes d’expression française de l’Ontario (AJEFO). He is the founder and executive director of NNWAMBOTE LEGAL SERVICES. Neto’s practice encompasses a variety of legal areas—including, but not limited to, torts, accident benefits, provincial offences, summary convictions, human rights, residential tenancies, and immigration; Neto has appeared in the Ontario Court of Justice, Small Claims Court and various tribunals on numerous legal matters—including motions, mediations, pre-trial hearings, settlement conferences, examinations for discovery, and trials.

Neto is currently serving as a member of the Board of Directors of the Harriet Tubman Community Organization—a not-for-profit organization for Black/African youth that provides services and programs to promote Black/African heritage, academic success, and leadership and life skills in Black/African youth. He also served as Chair of the Board of Directors of IGNITE.

Neto holds a Bachelor’s Degree in ParaJuriste Studies, Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting Management (Honours), and Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics & Physics (Honours). He speaks English, French, Portuguese, and Dutch/Afrikaans.

Br. Badri Adam is President of the Oromo Canadian Cultural Assn. (OCCA) of Toronto. It is an organization dedicated to preserving the Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Heritage, Gadaa, of Oromo/KushAfrikan – Black – peoples. Br. Adam and the members of OCCA have continuously embraced opportunities which permit them to spread the benefits of their ancestral gifts, both across Canada and beyond. The OCCA, this thriving association, which Br. Adam is presently privileged to lead, has now been serving Oromo communities within Canadian society since 2012.

It is Br. Badri Adam’s intention to contribute his demonstrated organizational skills and community-building experience to the ongoing reconstruction of a thriving Black Legal Action Centre, one he envisions as increasingly equipping itself to expand its reach towards meeting the many demands for legal support by Black individuals or groups within its mandate.