Abdiwahid Osman Haji
Founding Principal, Somali Institute for Continuing Legal Education
Early Career in Somalia
Bar admission, 1977
At his office in Mogadishu, 1983
Community Leadership in Canada
Awarded Master of Laws (LLM), University of Ottawa
With John Manley — Deputy PM, Finance & Foreign Affairs Minister
With Jean Augustine — Canada’s first Black woman elected to Parliament; established Black History Month in 1995
With the late Jack Layton — NDP leader who led the party to Official Opposition
With Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario (2003-2013), and his brother David McGuinty (now Minister of National Defence)
With Jim Watson — longest-serving Mayor of Ottawa, Canada’s capital
With Bob Chiarelli — first Mayor of Ottawa, Canada’s capital; Ontario Minister of Energy, Infrastructure & Transportation
With Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario (2003-2013)
With the Chief of Police of Ottawa — building community relations
Marching with the Assembly of First Nations — representing 630+ Indigenous communities
Attending an international legal conference
keynote speaker at a community event
With his son — both sons followed him into the legal profession
Advocacy and Legal Practice
Advocating for the community in Crown prosecution proceedings
Community advocacy work
Return to Somalia
With President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud
Meeting with the President of Somalia
With his brother Prof. Aweis O. Ahmed — Principals of Mogadishu Law Office
Reviewing case materials in court
Teaching at a legal education seminar
Training lawyers at workshop
Speaking at a lawyer training event
— Abdiwahid Osman Haji“I did not inherit power. I inherited responsibility. Carry the law forward.”