Benjamin C. Ries (BA ‘06 Political Science and Arts Applied Studies Co-op) is the recipient of the Faculty of Arts Young Alumni Award. The award recognizes Arts young alumni who have made outstanding contributions to their professional field and in community and public service.
Ben first attended the University of Waterloo as a Systems Design Engineering student in 2001, but soon transferred to the Faculty of Arts to pursue a major in political science. Ben also continued his co-op program, transitioning from work terms at the Arts Computing Office to join the Legislative Learner Program at the Ontario Legislative Assembly.
In 2006, Ben entered law school at the University of Toronto where he immediately began assisting low-income tenants as a volunteer at Downtown Legal Services (DLS), the Faculty of Law’s student legal aid clinic. By 2008, Ben had taken a leadership role within DLS and his casework included test-case litigation on behalf of 70 tenants facing illegal electricity surcharges from their landlord. Ben received his Juris Doctor degree in 2009, completed his articles of clerkship with Ontario’s Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, and was called to the bar in 2010.
Ben returned to the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in receipt of a Faculty Graduate Fellowship, the Houlden & Morawetz Scholarship and the Albert S. Abel Award, studying the legal theory and economic analysis of Ontario’s low-income housing policies and receiving a Master of Laws degree in 2011. While writing his thesis, Ben also served as Duty Counsel at the Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board, which eventually led him to practice poverty law for community legal aid clinics in Hamilton, Etobicoke, and downtown Toronto.
He currently provides advice and representation to low-income clients in the areas of housing, income security, disability, employment, and human rights law with Neighbourhood Legal Services in Toronto. Ben’s academic and professional focus on housing and homelessness has also led him to leadership roles in several municipal and provincial law reform campaigns. Most recently, he was counsel to a coalition of interveners at the Ontario Court of Appeal in a landmark constitutional case seeking to establish a human right to housing under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Ben lives in downtown Toronto with his wife (BSc ‘06) - they met and married as Waterloo students.