Cassandra Kobayashi

Cassandra Kobayashi graduated from the University of Toronto law school, hoping to make a difference. A few years later, she joined and helped shape the grass-roots community movement in Vancouver to seek redress for the forced removal, internment, and abrogation of the rights of Canadians of Japanese ancestry. She served on the national Redress Committee that negotiated the historic 1988 settlement with the Government of Canada. The struggle for redress is documented in her book, Justice in Our Time: The Japanese Canadian Redress Settlement, co-authored with Roy Miki.

In 1990, she closed her boutique law practice, to become an Appeal Commissioner at the final level of appeal in the workers’ compensation system. She held many executive positions in the tribunal, including Deputy Chief and Registrar.

Now retired, Cassandra writes about the art of living with diabetes, with a good measure of scepticism for the usual management ideas.