I am Gigi Celik, a Canadian citizen, and a qualified lawyer with international legal education and experience. I earned my law degree from a university in Northern Cyprus, where I studied full-time. And later, I practiced as a lawyer in Turkey. After moving to Canada and working as a paralegal in Saskatchewan, I applied to the National Committee on Accreditation (NCA) — the body responsible for assessing foreign-trained lawyers — to begin the process of becoming licensed here.

My application was denied.
Not because of the quality of my education.
Not because I lacked legal experience.
But because of where I studied.

The NCA refuses to recognize my law degree because Northern Cyprus is not officially recognized as a country by the Canadian government. Instead of evaluating my credentials on their academic and legal merit, the NCA assessed my degree based on the standards of the Republic of Cyprus, which has no authority over institutions in Northern Cyprus. This is not a fair academic evaluation — this is discrimination based on political status.

I am not asking Canada to politically recognize Northern Cyprus.
I am asking for equal treatment and procedural fairness.
I am asking for my legal education to be judged on its quality, not on international diplomacy.

If this discriminatory approach continues, more internationally trained professionals from politically complex regions — many of whom are skilled, experienced, and eager to contribute — will be silently excluded from Canada’s legal profession. This undermines the very values Canada stands for: fairness, inclusion, and justice.

Canada calls itself a land of opportunity. But that opportunity must be real — not reserved only for those born or educated in politically recognized places. Discrimination in licensing decisions must be addressed now. The NCA must remove politics from professional accreditation and commit to evaluating legal professionals on what actually matters: education, competence, and ethical standards.

Please sign this petition to demand:

A fair reassessment of legal credentials from Northern Cyprus and other politically unrecognized regions
Removal of political status as a factor in academic recognition
Transparent, unbiased, and inclusive licensing policies for all internationally trained lawyers
This is about more than one person. It’s about building a Canadian legal system that is fair, principled, and free from political discrimination.