Anna Matas is an associate in our Litigation Group in Toronto. She maintains a general litigation practice that focuses on civil litigation, including medical negligence and commercial cases. Her interests also include criminal and constitutional cases, as well as privacy and professional responsibility matters.
Ms. Matas has appeared before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Divisional Court, and Court of Appeal; the Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeal; and various administrative boards and tribunals. Ms. Matas regularly represents physicians before the courts, the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Ontario, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, and the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board.
Ms. Matas participates in several of the Firm's pro bono projects, including the Unaccompanied Minors Project and the Small Claims Court Duty Counsel Project.
Ms. Matas obtained degrees in both common law and civil law from McGill University in 2006. While there, she worked as an editor of the McGill Law Journal and was awarded the I. Ballon Memorial Medal for exceptional editorial contribution to the Journal. Ms. Matas also completed a human rights internship at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, in Tanzania, and was awarded the Lindsay Anne Cameron Award for an outstanding student completing a human rights internship.
Prior to joining McCarthy Tétrault, Ms. Matas worked as an Associate Legal Officer in Trial Chamber I of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, a war crimes tribunal in West Africa. In 2009, while on a leave of absence from McCarthy Tétrault, Ms. Matas worked as an Associate Legal Officer at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. She has maintained her interest in humanitarian law and international criminal law and speaks regularly to various groups on these issues on behalf of non-governmental organizations in Toronto.
Ms. Matas is a member of the Advocates' Society, the Toronto Lawyers' Association, the Law Society of Upper Canada, the Ontario Bar Association and the Canadian Bar Association. She was called to the Ontario bar in 2008.
Some of Ms. Matas' notable cases include:
· Public Mobile v. Canada (Attorney General), 2011 FCA 194, 333 D.L.R. (4th) 463 [successful appeal of a Federal Court decision quashing an Order in Council that varied a decision of the CRTC which had concluded Globalive was controlled by a non-Canadian]; [2011] S.C.C.A. No. 349 [successfully opposed leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada].
· Bergstrome v. College of Physicians & Surgeons (Ontario), 2010 CarswellOnt 9846 [obtained a sealing order to protect personal information of the client that had been filed by the CPSO].
· Hill v. Allen, 2009 ONCA 70, 244 O.A.C. 346 [successful trial decision in a medical negligence case upheld on appeal].