New judges worked as assistant Crown attorney, law professor, Cassels partner
Arif Virani, federal justice minister and attorney general, recently announced the appointments of Bhavneet K. Bhangu, Jasminka Kalajdzic, and Jane O. Dietrich to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Newmarket, Windsor, and Toronto, respectively.
“I wish Justices Bhangu, Kalajdzic, and Dietrich every success as they take on their new roles,” said Virani in a news release of the federal justice department. “I am confident they will serve Ontarians well as members of the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario.”
Bhangu, an assistant Crown attorney at the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General in Barrie for the last 24 years, joined the Superior Court in Newmarket. She replaced Justice Jonathan Dawe, who was elevated to the Ontario Court of Appeal last Nov. 3, said the news release.
Bhangu’s Sikh family immigrated to Canada from Punjab, India in 1974 and settled in Vancouver. She graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1992 and was called to the Ontario bar in 1994.
Since 1996, she has been an assistant Crown attorney at offices in Thunder Bay, Sudbury, and Barrie. She handled labour matters before shifting her focus to criminal law and prosecutions.
She has mentored young lawyers for the past two decades and has coached high school students in the Simcoe County mock trial competitions. She has also helped educate police officers around Simcoe County and has volunteered within her Punjabi Sikh community.
Kalajdzic, a professor at the University of Windsor Faculty of Law, became a judge of the Superior Court in Windsor. She took the place of Justice Renee Pomerance, who was appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal last July 19, according to the news release.
Born and raised in Windsor, Kalajdzic obtained her LLB in 1995 and her LLM in 2009, both from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. She was admitted to the Ontario bar in 1997. For 12 years, she was a civil litigator at Torys LLP then at Sutts, Strosberg LLP.
She began teaching at the University of Windsor in 2009 and covered the subjects of evidence, class actions, access to justice, and legal ethics. At the law school, she has served as a full professor, as associate dean, and as director of the Advocacy and Mooting Program.
She was also founder and director of Windsor Law’s Class Action Clinic, the world’s first clinic focusing on the needs and interests of class members. She has written extensively on the topic of class actions. She has been a bencher of the Law Society of Ontario, elected in 2023, and an adjudicator at the Law Society Tribunal.
Dietrich, a partner at Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP in Toronto for 10 years, was named a judge of the Superior Court in Toronto. She replaced Justice Darla Wilson, who was elevated to the Ontario Court of Appeal last Apr. 30, said the news release.
Dietrich’s work at Cassels focused on insolvency, restructuring, and related commercial litigation. She was also a partner at Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP in Toronto and an adjunct professor teaching bankruptcy law at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law.
She has been a fellow and a board member of INSOL International and a member of the Insolvency Institute of Canada and the International Insolvency Institute. She has contributed regularly to continuing professional development programs.
