Antonella Ceddia is a litigation lawyer at the City of Toronto, with expertise in human rights law and policy. Before joining City Legal, Antonella practiced law at McCarthy Tetrault LLP for six years. She completed her articles of law at the Court of Appeal for Ontario where she clerked for Justices Abella, Moldaver, Feldman, and Austin.
Before studying law, Antonella held senior professional roles in the public and private sectors, with a focus on strategic policy advice and analysis. She worked at the Ontario Cabinet Office, the Office of the Mayor (City of Toronto, Mayor Barbara Hall), the Ontario Human Rights Commission, and Ryerson University. Antonella operated her own management-side consulting practice with private and not for profit corporations turning to her to problem solve contentious issues. As a trained Investigator she conducted investigations, advised on problem-solving sensitive and highly contentious issues, designed human rights compliant organizational systems and policies, and trained Boards of Directors and Senior Management on human rights leadership. Antonella continued to operate her consulting practice while she was in law school full-time.
Antonella has an LL.B (Queen’s) and M.A. (Waterloo). She holds Certificates in Advanced Alternative Dispute Resolution (Windsor Law) and Not-for-Profit Governance (Rotman School of Management). She is a skilled negotiator and known for her creative yet practical approach to resolving difficult disputes.
In the legal community, Antonella Co-Chairs the Practice Advisory Committee to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. She has served on the Executive of the Ontario Bar Association Constitutional Civil Liberties and Human Rights Section, and the Executive of the Women’s Law Association of Ontario. She teaches at the Osgoode Professional Development Intensive Course on Written Advocacy, each year for the last 14 years. She believes in sharing knowledge and is a regular presenter at legal conferences to the tune of presenting at least three conferences a year, on average, for the past ten years. She also regularly lectures at Ryerson University at the graduate and undergraduate level on human rights law and incorporating human rights requirements into the planning of cities.
In the not-for-profit community and outside of her work life, Antonella is the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of WoodGreen Community Services, one of Toronto’s largest and most experienced multi-service not for profit corporation. She has served as Director on various not for profits in the City including serving as Director on the Board of Directors of the United Way of Toronto where she was also Chair of the United Way Allocations Committee, responsible for oversight of United Way member agencies’ organizational performance and use of donor dollars and for allocation of donor funds across United Way member agencies. In the last four years and continuing, Antonella has lead a women’s network- MAKE IT HAPPEN!- that provides information and knowledge sharing across a network of women across different sectors and from different backgrounds in the city.
Antonella speaks Italian, French (with a minor in French, as part of her B.A,U of T) , and some Spanish. She is a first generation Canadian, whose first language is Italian. She was raised in Toronto by working class parents who continue to call Toronto their home. She is trained in classical piano and she taught Royal Conservatory curriculum piano, part-time, for ten years as a way to earn money through high school and university. She enjoys a variety of activities outside of work: mentoring young women, teaching, film, reading fiction, the Walrus, classical (esp. baroque), flamenco, Latin and jazz music, dance, theatre, travel, wandering around Toronto, hard core challenging spin classes at Torq studio and lots and lots of running.