Lascaris heading to Russia

Dimitri Lascaris is a Canadian lawyer, journalist and activist, based in Montreal and southern Greece.

After a lengthy and successful career in corporate and class actions law, Dimitri decided his horizons needed widening.  From 2012 to 2022, he served as a correspondent and Board member for the Baltimore-based Real News Network, and on the boards of a variety of not-for-profit and public interest groups. He has also represented clients on a pro bono basis, on matters related to human rights and free speech on Palestine-related matters. 

Lascaris has also been active in Canadian politics. In 2015, he contested a seat in the Ontario riding of London West, with the Green Party of Canada. In the wake of that unsuccessful bid, he served as Justice Critic in the Shadow Cabinet of the Federal Greens, and as Justice Critic in the Shadow Cabinet of the Green Party of Quebec (PVQ). Lascaris was instrumental in advancing a pro-BDS resolution within the Federal Greens. That resolution passed, but has been effectively ignored by the party’s leadership.

In the Fall of 2020, Dimitri ran for the leadership of the Green Party of Canada, placing second out of eight candidates in a highly lively race. Disenchanted with the core positions of Canada’s Greens, Lascaris established an Eco-Socialist wing within the party.

Dimitri is now on his way to Russia, to learn more about the origins of its conflict with Ukraine through the eyes of Russians themselves.

The Green Planet Monitor reached Dimitri Lascaris in Beirut. Apologies for my own audio. Slightly out of synch with the video.

Full disclosure: Dimitri Lascaris represented David Kattenburg in a five-year legal struggle over the sale of Israeli settlement wines by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, falsely labeled as products of Israel. In July 2019, the Federal Court of Canada declared such labeling to be “false, misleading and deceptive,” and an infringement of the Canadian Charter-protected right of consumers to exercise conscientious consumer choices, based on truthful labeling.