CLF Staff & Support Team

 

 

Derek Ross
Executive Director & General counsel

Derek B.M. Ross, LL.B. (Western), LL.M. (Toronto), is the Executive Director & General Counsel for Christian Legal Fellowship. His litigation practice focuses on human rights and religious freedom, and he has acted for public interest interveners in a number of cases involving the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms at all levels of court, including the Supreme Court of Canada. He has also appeared before legislative and Parliamentary committees to present on constitutional and legal issues.

Derek previously served as Director of Legal Affairs for the Canadian Council of Christian Charities, Canada's largest association of religious organizations, where he served on the Canada Revenue Agency's Technical Issues Working Group and as the general editor of the Charities Handbook, 19th Edition (2014), a comprehensive legal guide for Canadian charities. Prior to that, Derek practiced civil litigation with a focus on insurance and municipal law.

Derek is a centre associate with the UBC Centre for Constitutional Law and Legal Studies. He also served as an Executive Member of the Charity and Not-for-Profit Law and Constitutional and Human Rights Law sections of both the Canadian Bar Association and the Ontario Bar Association. His writings have appeared in a number of publications, including The Globe and Mail, The National Post, The Montreal Gazette, The Lawyer's Daily, Canadian Lawyer, Policy Options, and The Public Discourse. He is the general editor of two editions of The Supreme Court Law Review, which were also published as correlated books: Assisted Death: Legal Social, and Ethical Issues After Carter (LexisNexis Canada, 2018), and Canadian Pluralism and the Charter: Moral Diversity in a Free and Democratic Society (LexisNexis Canada, 2019). He also co-edited The Forgotten Fundamental Freedoms of the Charter (LexisNexis Canada, 2020), Forgotten Foundations of the Canadian Constitution (LexisNexis Canada, 2021), and Rights, Freedoms, and Their Limits: Reimagining Section 1 of the Charter (LexisNexis Canada, 2023).

Derek spent his formative years growing up in Port Hedland, Australia and considers himself a Quasi-Aussie (he can still speak fluent Australian, if you ask him). As much as he loves his second Aussie home, he couldn’t be prouder to be a Canadian (and a Canadiens fan).


André Schutten
SENIOR COUNSEL & DIRECTOR OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

André serves as Senior Counsel and Director of Training & Development at Christian Legal Fellowship. He researches and writes on law and public policy, particularly from a Christian perspective, and conducts regular analysis on the impact of different government bills and court judgments. He has represented Christian groups in various court interventions, having made arguments before the Supreme Court of Canada in four cases and written and oral arguments in four provincial courts of appeal. André has been published in five law journal collections on issues including constitutional interpretation, equality and disability rights, religious and associational freedom, and freedom of expression. He is also the co-author (with Dr. Michael Wagner) of the book A Christian Citizenship Guide (2nd ed.).

André previously worked as General Counsel and Director of Law & Public Policy at ARPA Canada, and as an intern for the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada and for the Centre for Faith and Public Life. André was also an adjunct faculty at Trinity Western University's Laurentian Leadership Centre (2021-2023) and currently teaches as adjunct faculty at Redeemer University in Hamilton, Ontario.

André has a Certificate in Human Rights Law (Osgoode Hall, 2015), an LL.M. in Constitutional Law (Osgoode Hall, 2013), an LL.B. (uOttawa, 2010), and an Hons.B.A. in Classics and Religion (McMaster, 2007). He was called to the Ontario Bar on June 21, 2011. 

He, his wife Karyn and their four children live in Caledonia, Ontario, after having lived and worked in Ottawa for 16 years. They are active members in their local church. André has served as an ordained elder and a part-time, wannabe organist. André is a former Infantry Reservist and a recent Muay Thai and CrossFit enthusiast.


vivian clemence
BILINGUAL COUNSEL & student ministries coordinator

Vivian Clemence, J.D. (University of Ottawa), serves as Bilingual Counsel & Student Ministries Coordinator with CLF.

Vivian is based in Northern Ontario, where she lives with her husband and two young daughters. She keeps herself busy with her young family and her baking, sewing and musical endeavors.

Vivian first learned of CLF on Clubs' Day at uOttawa's Fauteux Hall. Vivian graduated from the Programme de common law en français in 2017 and was called to the Bar of Ontario in 2018. She completed her articles and began her law practice in the Ontario community legal clinic system, with a focus on social assistance and housing law.

Vivian served as a CLF Student Executive during her legal studies and, after her Call to the Bar, continued as a volunteer writer, translator and contributor to CLF's advocacy work as well as the Christian Legal Journal. She later joined the CLF Board of Directors in the Fall of 2020, and later served as Associate Legal Counsel in 2022-2023.

With a poverty law background, Vivian has a heart for justice. She has always said that, in becoming a lawyer, she wanted to be one of many points of light which, when working together, form one strong beam aimed at bringing justice to those who need it. Integrating Christian faith with law, that initial objective takes on a new focus: being a point of light that, in seeking justice, brings honour and glory to Christ.


Annamarie Carruthers
Office manager

Annamarie Carruthers, RN, BScN, holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree and completed her undergraduate degree at Western University in 2019. Annamarie has practiced as a hospice nurse in London, ON. 

During her nursing education, Annamarie was drawn to the end-of-life, palliative care setting. Annamarie was excited to learn of the CLF Christian Legal Institute and attended the 2018 CLI as a student delegate. This amazing and inspirational experience led her to volunteer, and subsequently join the CLF team as administrative support to assist with the 2019 CLF National Conference. 

She has since stayed on in an administrative role and now serves as CLF’s office manager, assisting the CLF legal team in a wide variety of duties including membership management, referral requests, communications and correspondence, publications, and events.


RUTH A.M. ROSS
SPECIAL ADVISOR

Ruth Ross serves as Special Advisor for Christian Legal Fellowship. Ruth previously served in the roles of Executive Director and General Counsel for CLF (2000-2012), Interim Executive Director (2013 - 2014), and a member of CLF’s Board of Directors for several years. Ruth is the former Deputy Executive Director and past Chair of Advocates International (AI), a worldwide fellowship of advocates bearing witness of Jesus Christ through the legal profession. AI has helped to build over 120 national Christian lawyer organizations and is formally linked with lawyers in 156 nations. Ruth continues to serve on its Board and Global Council. After graduating from Dalhousie University with her B.A. (1972) and LL.B. (1975), Ruth was called to the Bars of New Brunswick (1975), Nova Scotia (1976), British Columbia (1983) and Ontario (1985) and practiced law in those four provinces intermittently over three decades. Ruth also serves on the boards of several charities. Ruth and her husband, Patrick, live in London, Ontario and serve as elders in their local church


support team

Calvin Beresh
Student Ministries

Calvin Beresh graduated with a B.A. from Oral Roberts University, Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1975 before obtaining his LL.B from Western University in 1978. During his final year at law school, he hosted the student law conference at Western during which the Christian Legal Fellowship was founded and was a member of the steering committee for incorporation of CLF. 

Mr. Beresh has a passion to share his vision of the practice of law as a ministry particularly to students. He enjoys meeting with law students across the country.


Timothy Stonhouse
Western Canada

Timothy Stonhouse has practiced criminal and family law for over 22 years.  He articled with a well-known criminal firm in Edmonton and then opened his own office.  Tim is trained as a mediator and collaborative family lawyer.  He was a presiding Justice of the Peace in Edmonton for 10 years. Beginning his working career as a teacher in a private, Christian school, Tim served as a board member and finally as president of the Association of Christian Schools and Colleges of Alberta where he contributed to the drafting of the School Act in the 1980’s.  

Tim has been a member of Christian Legal Fellowship since the early 1990’s, serving on the board for several years. Tim meets regularly with Christian lawyers and law students, encouraging them to integrate their faith with their practice and study of the law.  


board of directors

Jonathan Kulathungam, President – Ontario

Marie-Louise Fast, VICE PRESIDENT – British Columbia

shawn smith, Treasurer – British Columbia

Shawn Knights, SECRETARY – Ontario

Melanie Bueckert – Manitoba

andrea dicksinon – Ontario

SARAH MACRITCHIE RUSSELL – NOVA SCOTIA

WINSTON SAYSON, KC – British Columbia

Renée Short – ALBERTA

Andrea Sim, Student Rep. – Quebec