Walter Tom
Montreal 45° 30' 11.46" N, 73° 34' 11.30" W Academic and Education Politics and Law Activist Person
Walter Chiyan Tom is the principal partner of a law firm specializing in immigration and business law and coordinator of a university legal information clinic but his real passion is community activism. Among his numerous volunteer activities, he has fought against racist practices affecting Chinese and other ethnocultural Canadians in Quebec, challenged governmental policies that systemically discriminate against visible minorities, advocated the cause of community economic development in Montreal, campaigned for Redress and social justice for Chinese Canadian Headtax payers and their families, and helped free wrongfully jailed protesters at the 2001 Summit of the Americas in Quebec City.
Walter has been an executive board member and advisor of more than a dozen community and professional organizations, such as: the Federation of Chinese Canadian Professionals-Quebec, the Montreal Chinese Community United Centre, the Federation of Filipino-Canadian Association of Quebec, the Pinay Filipino Women Association, Centre d’Aide aux Familles Latino Américaines, the Centre for Research Action and Race Relations, the Canadian Bar Association- Quebec Immigration section, the American Association of Jurists- continental section, the Montreal Mayor’s Foundation for Youth, a City of Montreal advisor on municipal policies on economic development, immigration and integration of ethnocultural communities, etc.
As a lawyer, businessperson, social activist, parent of 3 young children, he has managed to blend and balance the daily demands of his professional and family life with his volunteer community work.