Fight For Your Rights

About Fight For Your Rights

Fight For Your Rights is the online presence of Michael A. Johnston, a criminal defence lawyer who practices in Ottawa as part of Shore & Johnston, Barristers at Law. Johnston was called to the Ontario Bar in 2010 and is a Law Society of Ontario Certified Specialist in Criminal Law. Johnston holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Philosophy from Queen's University (2006) and a law degree with Great Distinction from the University of Saskatchewan's College of Law (2009), then articled with Greenspan Humphrey Levine in Toronto. The practice handles bail hearings, trials, and appeals across a wide range of criminal charges, including impaired driving, weapons offences, and drug and regulatory prosecutions, and represents Indigenous clients with attention to Gladue factors.

Shore & Johnston's practice in Ottawa spans almost fifty years, and the firm says it has helped clients through nearly every kind of criminal charge in Ontario. Leonard Shore, appointed Queen's Counsel in 1980, practiced criminal law in Ottawa for nearly sixty years before retiring in January 2026 and now serves the firm as a consultant. Shore co-founded the Defence Counsel Association of Ottawa in 1974, served as its first president, and later appeared before the Gomery and Arar federal inquiries. Johnston is fluent in Spanish and conversant in French.