Longtime league legal counsel honoured for outstanding service
Stephen Shamie, longtime legal counsel for the Canadian Football League (CFL), has been honoured with the Hugh Campbell Distinguished Leadership Award.
“For nearly two decades, our league has benefitted from the tremendous counsel and in-depth insight of Steve Shamie,” said CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie. “He has dutifully served the league, and he has become instrumental in helping to ensure its future success.”
Shamie is a senior labour and employment lawyer at Hicks Morley’s Toronto Office. For over 35 years, he has represented employers across a wide variety of matters relating to human resources law. He has acted for a number of other professional sports leagues and sports organizations, as well as acting for clients in the hospitality, media, financial and industrial sectors.
Since 2007, Shamie has been advising the CFL, and he has served as league General Counsel since 2017. During that time, he has been the chief spokesperson in collective bargaining negotiations with the CFL Players’ Association, including when the two sides agreed to a seven-year collective bargaining agreement that ensures labour peace until 2029. He represents the league and its nine member clubs in numerous arbitration hearings and lawsuits to protect the league’s interests and safeguard its reputation. As an advisor to the Board of Governors and Management Council, he offers guidance on a variety of league-wide matters.
“Steve’s work has never gone unnoticed, nor unappreciated, but many will never know the impact that he has had. As he prepares now to transition into the next phase of his career, we felt it was finally time to share and celebrate his lasting imprint on our game,” added the Commissioner.
Hugh Campbell is a ten-time Grey Cup champion and one of the greatest players, coaches, general managers and team executives in CFL history. Since 2006, the award bearing his name has been presented to someone who has demonstrated great leadership and made significant contributions to the CFL.
Stephen Shamie will receive the Hugh Campbell Distinguished Leadership Award during the Commissioner’s Tailgate ahead of the 111th Grey Cup. Canada’s largest single-day sporting event, featuring the internationally-acclaimed Jonas Brothers in the Twisted Tea Grey Cup Halftime Show, will be played at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver on Sunday, November 17, with kickoff slated for 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT. A limited number of tickets are still available via Ticketmaster. The championship contest will be broadcast live across the nation on TSN, CTV and RDS. CBS Sports Network will exclusively televise the Grey Cup in the U.S. Viewers outside of North America can tune in via the league’s livestreaming platform, CFL+.
