Zool Suleman

Zool Suleman, Executive Director and Lawyer, has been active in law, migration, culture and anti-racism initiatives over the past three decades.

As a member of the Canadian Bar Association, he served as a co-chair of the Constitutional/Civil Liberties section. In addition, he contributed on the Board of Directors of the Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Integration in the Metropolis (Metropolis BC) and as the Chair of the Vancouver Mayor’s Working Group on Immigration. In 2011, he was retained by the City of Vancouver as a consultant, which included engagement with Indigenous and immigrant communities and the authoring of the City of Vancouver report, Dialogues between First Nations, Urban Aboriginal and Immigrant Communities in Vancouver (2011). In 2016, he was one of the co-founders of the British Columbia Islamophobia Legal Assistance Hotline and is active on its Steering Committee. In 2021, he was a presenter at, and a member on the Steering Committee for, The National Forum on Anti-Asian Racism, hosted by the University of British Columbia.

His writing has been published in various law and cultural publications, as well as Canada’s National Observer, New Canadian Media, Business in Vancouver, and Rungh Magazine. He has presented talks at the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, and the University of Windsor amongst others. His media commentary has been cited in international, national and regional media outlets including CBC, CTV, Macleans, The Globe and Mail, National Post, The Georgia Straight, This Magazine, The Tyee, Vancouver Sun, and Co-op Radio.

For his contributions as an advocate against racial profiling and Islamophobia, including other civic engagements, he was awarded the City of Vancouver – Diversity and Inclusion Award, by the Mayor of Vancouver (2017), and the title of King’s Counsel by the Attorney General of British Columbia (2017).