Today (April 9, 2021), Mr. Syrtash celebrates his fortieth anniversary of being called to the Bar as a lawyer, following his attendance at Queen’s University Law School, Osgoode Hall Law School (York University), and the University of Toronto. This is a momentous accomplishment. Since 1981, he has acted as family law Counsel to hundreds of satisfied clients in his busy practice across Canada and worldwide.
On reaching this milestone, Mr. Syrtash reminisced about his long career, “It’s been a privilege helping victims of separation/divorce and their children for so many years.”
He is currently Senior Family Law Associate to the law firm of Garfin Zeidenberg LLP, Toronto, Canada, serving clients across the country. He is recognized for delivering the highest legal services related to the complete separation and divorce process, including expertise in property division, child and spousal support, child protection, and international parental child abduction cases. John is a member of the Law Society of Ontario and a veteran, senior trial lawyer. He also conducts a family law mediation and arbitration practice.
Martin Zeidenberg, Founder and Senior Partner at the firm, commented, “John’s tremendous knowledge in his field and ability to bring compassion and understanding of his various clients serves him well in dealing with the emotionally difficult cases he takes on as a senior family law lawyer.”
Community Advocacy
John’s dedication and hard work led to the “Get” legislation, amendments to Canada’s Divorce Act, and Ontario’s Family Law Act, designed to help Jewish and Iranian spouses obtain a religious divorce when their partners refused to consent. The Government of Israel also invited John to present this Canadian model to their Rabbinical courts and Justice Ministry officials, explaining how the Canadian innovations helped lower the number of stranded spouses escape from their abusive spouses. Details are contained in this article from the Jerusalem Post entitled “Canada to the Rescue of Israel’s agunot.”
National Advocacy
An award-winning, dedicated and tenacious advocate with training in advanced mediation, John is devoted to assisting his clients in obtaining excellent results. The Department of Justice has also retained John for Canada’s Government to provide recommendations on amendments to Canada’s spousal and child support laws. He is also a featured speaker across Canada on family law issues. This includes several Law Schools’ conferences and Canada’s bi-annual National Family Law Program sponsored by the Canadian Bar Association/[Canadian]Federation of Law Societies. He has presented published researched papers on a broad spectrum of topics for other family law lawyers.
Columnist/Author
A former adjunct Professor of Law at the Union Institute (Ohio), John is the author of Religion and Culture in Family Law, Butterworth’s 1992 and a humorous work of fiction, A Calendar of Northern Fables, Carrington Publications. For the past four decades, he was a regular columnist on family law in both the Canadian Jewish News, B’nai Brith’s “Tribune“ and Ontario’s The Lawyers Weekly. John also edits and publishes the weekly Syrtash Family Law Newsletter on LexisNexis and helped develop Canada’s national “Spousal Support Database” in partnership with the Quebec government and the nationwide Family Law Research Service (http://www.spousalsupport.com/). He has also written for the Toronto Star, National Post, Sun Media (24 Hours), and has appeared on CBC, CTV, and Global TV to comment on family law matters.
Accomplishments
B’nai Brith Canada Human Rights Award for instrumental changes to Canadian family law
Speaker on Bill 78, Proposed Changes to Canada’s Divorce Act, invited by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights (November 26, 2018)
Editor of the weekly Syrtash Family Law Newsletter, Lexis Nexis for 30 years
President of the Syrtash Spousal Support Database
Author of Religion and Culture in Canadian Family Law, Butterworths [cited by the Supreme Court of Canada]
Author: A Calendar of Northern Fables, Carrington Publications, and Amazon
John T. Syrtash
Associate Garfin Zeidenberg, LLP
Family Law Lawyer, Toronto
Phone: (416) 886-0359
Fax: (416) 512-9992
E-mail: [email protected]