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Avvy Yao-Yao Go is a Canadian lawyer. She is the Clinic Director of the Metro Toronto Chinese & Southeast Asian Legal Clinic based in Toronto, Canada. In 2014, she was made a Member of the Order of Ontario.

Education
Go received her B.A. from the University of Waterloo in 1986, her L.L.B. from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in 1989, and her L.L.M. from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1999. She was called to the Bar in Ontario in 1991.

Career
Go became Acting Executive Director of the Chinese Canadian National Council (CCNC) in 1988 and President of the Toronto Chapter of the CCNC in 1989. In that role, she became involved in the Redress Campaign for the Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act.

After completing her articles with Toronto-based law firm WeirFoulds, Go worked as a Legal Researcher at Women's Legal Education & Action Fund (LEAF) before entering the legal clinic system as a Staff Lawyer for East Toronto Community Legal Services and Parkdale Community Legal Services.

In 1992, she became the Executive Director of the Metro Toronto Chinese & Southeast Asian Legal Clinic, a community legal aid clinic which provides free legal services to low-income, non-English speaking individuals in the Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian communities in the Greater Toronto Area.

In 2002, Go was co-counsel in a class action lawsuit, Mack v Canada (AG), on behalf of Chinese head tax payers and their descendants against the Government of Canada to seek redress for the harmful effect of discriminatory Chinese head tax and Chinese Exclusion Act. Although the litigation was ultimately unsuccessful, it increased political pressure on the government to address this issue and help lead to an official apology by the Prime Minister of Canada on June 22, 2006 and the payment of symbolic reparations for survivors and their spouses.

Over the years Go has lectured on immigration, human rights, and employment law. She has also published articles dealing with redress and reparations, constitutional litigation, and other legal and policy issues affecting immigrants and racialized communities.

Go was elected as a Bencher of Law Society of Upper Canada in 2001, 2006, and again in 2013. In 2007, she co-founded the Colour of Poverty Campaign (COPC), a campaign to address the increasing racialization of poverty in Ontario and currently serves as a steering committee member of COPC.

Awards and Honours

 * Women’s Law Association of Ontario President’s Award (2002)
 * City of Toronto William P. Hubbard Race Relations Award (2008)
 * Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers (FACL) Lawyer of Distinction Award (2012)
 * Member of the Order of Ontario (2014)