The BCCLA’s Elections Committee thanks all nominees for our 2019 Board of Directors and is recommending 10 nominees for election.

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[toggle title=”When recommending nominees to the membership, the Elections Committee is guided by rule 2.9 of the BCCLA’s Election Rules, which notes that the Committee:”]

1. will strive to ensure knowledgeable, experienced and diverse participation in the Association, putting forth candidates that support the Association’s object, as set out in the BCCLA Constitution, and charitable goals;
2. may consider a candidate’s demonstrated interest and involvement in the Association;
3. may consider whether candidates have the ability and skills necessary to contribute to the work of the Board of Directors;
4. may consider whether candidates provide any necessary or relevant expertise or knowledge, taking into account organizational needs identified by the Board Development Committee;
5. may consider whether candidates are members of groups that have been traditionally under-represented in the Association’s governance, taking into account any gaps identified by the Board Development Committee.

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[toggle title=”All of this year’s nominees have completed and endorsed the candidate declaration as laid out in s. 2.3 of the BCCLA Board of Directors Election Rules. For clarity, section 2.3 is as follows:”]

Every member who seeks to become a candidate for election as a Board Director will file with the Elections Committee, in a form prescribed by the Elections Committee and by the deadline prescribed by the Elections Committee, a written and signed declaration stating:

1. that they are willing to stand for election;
2. that they are a member in good standing of the Association and that they have been a member in good standing for at least six (6) months prior to being nominated;
3. that they will comply with and uphold the BCCLA Constitution and Bylaws;
4. that they will comply with the policies adopted from time to time by the Board on the conduct of Board Directors, and without limiting the generality of the foregoing, including policies that may be in effect on confidentiality, attendance and conflict of interest;
5. that they will comply with these Rules and other procedures adopted by the Board relating to the election process;
6. that they will submit themselves to the nomination process established by the Board;
7. all known conflicts of interest between the nominated individual and the BCCLA (for example, and without limiting the generality of the foregoing, actual or potential financial conflicts of interest or membership on boards of organizations that are opposed to the purposes, objectives and interests of the BCCLA);
8. any factor that could make that member an “ineligible individual” to serve as a director of a charity within the meaning of section 149.1(1) of the Income Tax Act, including but not limited to:
   1. convictions for a relevant criminal offence for which a pardon has not been granted, inside or outside Canada, relating to financial dishonesty, tax evasion, theft, fraud or other offence that is relevant to the operation of a charity;
   2. convictions for a non-criminal relevant offence inside or outside Canada relating to financial dishonesty, such as offences under fundraising legislation, consumer protection legislation or securities legislation, or other offence that is relevant to the operation of a charity;
   3. being or having been a member of the board of directors, trustee, officer or individual who controlled or managed or oversaw the operation of a charity or registered Canadian amateur athletic association (“RCAAA”) during a period in which the charity or RCAAA engaged in conduct that constituted a serious breach of the requirements for registration for which the charity or RCAAA had its registration revoked within the past five years;
   4. being or having been the promoter of a gifting arrangement or other tax shelter in which a charity or RCAAA has participated and the registration of the charity or RCAAA was revoked within the past five years for reasons that were related to participation in the tax shelter.
9. their relevant experience, education and work history;
10. a description of their past or current involvement with the BCCLA;
11. a description of their choosing about their candidacy of no more than 500 words.

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The following BCCLA members are candidates for election to the Board of Directors for a three-year term (8 positions are open; members can vote for up to 8 candidates):

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[toggle title=”Haran Aruliah (recommended)”]

Candidate Statement: I am the CTO and in-house counsel for a Vancouver-based legal technology company. Prior to moving to BC I practiced as a criminal defence lawyer with Legal Aid Ontario for over seven years, and have a law degree from the University of Windsor (2008). I am also a software developer with a Computer Science degree from the University of Waterloo (2004).

My career as defence counsel introduced me to seeking justice and protecting rights on an individual client level. I expanded that interest to include more systemic actions including being a founding member for both the campaign for collective bargaining rights of LAO lawyers (2011) and Comdu.it (2014), a volunteer network dedicated to sustainable development in war-affected regions of Sri Lanka. I currently serve as a Board Member for the Elizabeth Fry Society of Greater Vancouver and as a steering committee member for the Law Union of BC.

As a candidate my interests focus on criminal law reform, privacy, and algorithmic accountability – particularly in how these intersect with Indigenous and racialized communities. I am running for the Board as I believe my domain experience in law and technology would be a benefit to the organization as technology becomes the central concern for civil liberties and human rights in the next decade.

Summary of past or current involvement with the BCCLA: Since moving to BC I have become a member and attended events put on by the BCCLA.

Biography (including relevant experience, education, and work history): Haran is the CTO and in-house counsel for a Vancouver-based legal technology company. Prior to moving to BC he practiced as a criminal defence lawyer with Legal Aid Ontario for over seven years. He is also a software developer and continues to code today.

His career as defence counsel introduced him to seeking justice and protecting rights on an individual client level. He expanded that interest to include more systemic actions including being a founding member for both the campaign for collective bargaining rights of LAO lawyers (2011) and Comdu.it (2014), a volunteer network dedicated to sustainable development in war-affected regions of Sri Lanka. He currently serves as a Board Member for the Elizabeth Fry Society of Greater Vancouver and as a steering committee member for the Law Union of BC.

His interests in civil liberties and human rights focus on criminal law reform, privacy, and algorithmic accountability – particularly in how these intersect with Indigenous and racialized communities.

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[toggle title=”Derek Brackley (recommended)”]
Candidate Statement: Derek was born to immigrant parents and raised in Vancouver. He grew up implicitly understanding that a society is defined by the way it protects the rights of vulnerable people and minorities. One of his first jobs was a youth worker in diversion programs for troubled youth. Now retired, he had a career with the federal government in policy related roles including program evaluation (regional lead), research on social policy issues such as labour market issues and the federal homelessness initiative. Derek has served on the BCCLA Board of Directors since 2016, currently he is a Member-at-Large on the Executive, and a member of the Finance and the Board Development Committees.

Derek was active in his professional union where he served as National Director for several years, including two years as National Vice President. He participated on Collective Bargaining teams, and was active on Finance and Constitution and Bylaws committees. Locally, he was a long time steward, founding director of BC/Yukon Local, and represented members at several departments in the grievance procedure with excellent results, including issues of harassment, and health and safety.

Derek volunteers with Leadnow as the Vancouver Team Lead and has volunteered with the Wallenberg-Sugihara Civil Courage Society. Derek has an MA in Economics, with a focus on labour economics and labour relations. This came with an understanding that economics is all about how members of the society relate to each other rather than a science that justifies corporate activity. He enjoys self propelled outdoor activities including backcountry skiing, mountaineering, hiking and sailing.

Summary of past or current involvement with the BCCLA: Served on the Board of Directors since 2016, currently Member at Large on the Executive, and a member of the Finance Committee and the Board Development Committee.

Biography (including relevant experience, education, and work history): Derek was born to immigrant parents and raised in Vancouver. He grew up implicitly understanding that a society is defined by the way it protects the rights of vulnerable people and minorities. One of his first jobs was a youth worker in diversion programs for troubled youth. Now retired, he had a career with the federal government in policy related roles including program evaluation (regional lead), research on social policy issues such as labour market issues and the federal homelessness initiative. Derek has served on the BCCLA Board of Directors since 2016.

Derek was active in his professional union where he served as National Director for several years, including two years as National Vice President. He participated on Collective Bargaining teams, and was active on Finance and Constitution and Bylaws committees. Locally, he was a long time steward, founding director of BC/Yukon Local, and represented members at several departments in the grievance procedure with excellent results, including issues of harassment, and health and safety.

Derek volunteers with Leadnow as the Vancouver Team Lead and has volunteered with the Wallenberg-Sugihara Civil Courage Society. Derek has an MA in Economics, with a focus on labour economics and labour relations. This came with an understanding that economics is all about how members of the society relate to each other rather than a science that justifies corporate activity. He enjoys self propelled outdoor activities including backcountry skiing, mountaineering, hiking and sailing.

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[toggle title=”Stuart Cadwallader (recommended)”]

Candidate Statement: Beyond my work in the criminal justice system, and to me more important, I have been a father to a son with nonverbal autism. Until my son unexpected passed away (age 21) two years ago, it was a constant battle in advocating for the basic rights which would afford him an education, quality of life, and the basic dignity that we should all enjoy as a basic right. My respectful intent in being considered as a candidate for the Board of Directors of the BCCLA is an extension of this and to ensure that others who may not have a voice do not go unheard.

Summary of past or current involvement with the BCCLA: Current member in good standing

Biography (including relevant experience, education, and work history):
Stuart is a Tongas Tlingit of the Raven Clan.

He completed his BA’s in Criminology/Psychology at SFU and has worked within the criminal justice field for over 30 years. He has facilitated an Aboriginal Youth Mentorship program through MCFD; contracted with CSC as a Community Assessment and Parole Supervisor; and Corcan-Métis Nation British Columbia (MNBC) as an Offender Reintegration Case-Manager and Employment Specialist. Stuart is a past board member of the Klahoweya Aboriginal Centre and the former founder/Chair of the 5-Nations Aboriginal House of Justice/Section 84 Committee with representation from the Katzie, Tsawwassen, Semiahmoo, Kwantlen, Squamish First Nations.
Stuart sat on MNBC’s Justice Advisory Committee, Surrey’s Crime Reduction Task Force, and Fraser Health’s Aboriginal Mental Health & Addictions Steering Committee. In 2006, he designed the template for Gladue Reports in BC and developed a curriculum for training Legal Aid Gladue Report writers. He has written over 1000 Gladue Reports and provided seminars as a recognized subject expert to the BC Trial Lawyers Association, Corrections Branch, and UVIC Law School, among others.

Stuart has been honoured to work with the Office of the Chief Judge and others in the development of the First Nations Provincial Court of British Columbia. He collaborated with Legal Services in the provision of Aboriginal legal education and community capacity development workshops and a Gladue Report writing immersion-program that focused on increasing Indigenous involvement and meaningful representation within the criminal justice system. Stuart continues to provide Gladue reports for hearings in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Yukon.

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[toggle title=”Caily DiPuma (recommended)”]

Candidate Statement: Growing up in a racially diverse, working class neighbourhood in Las Vegas, Nevada caused me to recognize, at a young age, some of the structural inequalities that perpetuate disadvantage. In the fourth grade, I decided to stop participating in the daily classroom recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance because I did not think the U.S. was affording “liberty and justice for all”. Exercising my right to refuse to engage in speech that I did not believe in sparked a life-long passion for civil liberties and the protection of fundamental freedoms.

It has been an honour to support the work of the BCCLA for the past six years. As a BCCLA staff lawyer (2013 – 2014), I worked to launch the BCCLA’s lawsuit challenging government spying on Canadians. As the Acting Litigation Director (2016- 2018), I led the litigation department through our successful trial to end solitary confinement in Canada. I have also served on the Board of Directors (2014- 2016) as both Vice-President and briefly as President.

Having seen the organization from various perspectives has given me a deep respect for the roles of both Board and staff, and strong practical knowledge of the historic and current work of the organization. I sincerely believe that the work of the BCCLA is critical to Canada’s future. There are many challenges: technological advances that threaten to undermine democracy, persistent and growing inequalities that undermine human rights, and never-ending threats to fundamental freedoms to which civil libertarians are compelled to respond.

The BCCLA has been, and will continue to be, at the vanguard of protecting and extending civil liberties and human rights in Canada. And it would be a privilege and a pleasure to support that work as a member of the Board of Directors.

Summary of past or current involvement with the BCCLA: I took a hiatus from private practice to serve as a BCCLA staff lawyer on a one-year contract from 2013-2014. I was then elected to the Board of Directors in 2014, eventually serving on the Executive Committee as Vice-President and briefly as President. I resigned my position on the Board in 2016 to join staff as the Acting Litigation Director. I was in that role for 18 months.

Biography (including relevant experience, education, and work history): Caily DiPuma has served the BCCLA in various capacities, including as staff lawyer (2013- 2014), Acting Litigation Director (2016 – 2018) and as a member of the Board of Directors (2014-2016). Caily was called to the bar in 2009 after graduating from UBC Law and clerking with the B.C. Court of Appeal. She currently practises law in Victoria, B.C., focusing on litigation for Indigenous clients. Caily has a passion for complex constitutional litigation and advocacy in the areas of civil liberties and human rights.

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[toggle title=”David Fai (recommended)”]

Candidate Statement: I have been an advocate for civil liberties for over three decades as a lawyer. I started law school in 1982, the year the Charter of Rights was enacted. I have extensive experience arguing Charter cases in all levels of courts including the Supreme Court of Canada. In 2016, I successfully challenged the 1 year mandatory minimum sentence for trafficking in the Supreme Court of Canada in the case of R. v. Lloyd – a case in which one of the intervenors was the BCCLA. Subsequently, I have been involved in four additional successful constitutional challenges to mandatory minimums.

I have strongly fought in the Courts for marginalized people, with a major focus on those living in the DTES of Vancouver. Addicts, impoverished, indigenous and mentally challenged offenders make up a large portion of my diverse practice. In my experience, I have found they are more often than not, the victims of civil rights abuses. I believe that the true test of a just society is not how it treats its most worthy but how it treats it’s seemingly least worthy.

I understand how vigilant we must be in protecting all of our rights and freedoms. I believe the BCCLA is an extremely important organization in that fight. The BCCLA does timely and valuable work in defending our rights, those enshrined in the Charter of Rights and beyond. I welcome the opportunity to continue on be a part of the Board of the BCCLA. I bring a wealth of hands on experience to the Board.

Summary of past or current involvement with the BCCLA: BCCLA was an intervenor in my case R . v. Lloyd. The case involved a constitutional challenge to a mandatory minimum sentence and went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. The exceptional work that the BCCLA did on that case 5 years ago motivated me to become a member. I had not been involved with the organization until that case began. It was then, while preparing for the trial, through many months of compiling the factums for the various levels of Court that staff members of the BCCLA provided feedback and assistance. They supported the case all the way to my successful challenge in the Supreme Court of Canada where they appeared as an Intervener. Through those months of working with members of the BCCLA I began to fully understand their mandate and realized that it fit perfectly into my own value system.

I have been a Board Member since 2016 and an Executive Committee member since 2017. I have been on the New Policy Working Group and Election Committee.

Biography (including relevant experience, education, and work history):
Education: UVic – LL.B. 1985; UVic – B.A. Poli. Sci. 1982

I have 33 years of experience as an accomplished criminal defence counsel in all levels of Courts including the Supreme Court of Canada. I am a member in Good Standing of the Law Society, a Director on the Board of the Association of Legal Aid Lawyers and a member of the Legal Services Society Criminal Tariff Advisory Committee. I have provided pro bono legal counsel to Kinder Morgan/TMP protestors. I have taught several courses through CLEBC and have supervised law students for UBC’s clinical program. I received the 2016 Access to Justice Award from Pivot Legal.

I have considerable volunteer experience including coaching Little League baseball and I was a Scouting leader with Scouts Canada for 11 years (awarded the medal of Good Service). I helped coordinate and deliver a monthly sandwich making project for the homeless on the North Shore and chaired a forum on poverty reduction for the Fulcrum Project.

I am a passionate and effective advocate focusing on helping to improve the lives of the most disenfranchised members of our society with a strong focus on constitutional challenges to criminal legislation.

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[toggle title=”Michael Friedlaender (recommended)”]

Candidate Statement: As a serving BCCLA Board member since 2016, I’m honoured to have been able to contribute to the work of the organization this term as an active member of a working group on strategic planning. My involvement with BCCLA dates back about 30 years when I became a supporter; I’ve been a member since 2000. BCCLA does tremendously important work to protect all of our civil liberties through its law reform initiatives, litigation, and public education – this work needs to be supported and expanded. My own civil liberties concerns are currently focused on two relatively new themes: (1) how do we address the implications for civil liberties of technological change/the cyber age (i.e., the fact that more and more of life is happening online), and, (2) there appear to be growing threats to the functioning of our democracy – in what ways can BCCLA contribute to strengthening Canadian democracy? Another way of putting this is: the world is changing rapidly in ways that do have implications for civil liberties. How do we make sure we as an organization adapt to those changes, so we remain fully relevant in the 21st Century? A bit about myself: I live in Vancouver with my partner Catherine. I have also lived in Ottawa and Halifax, after immigrating from Switzerland as a child. I studied mathematics, and worked on economic and social policy issues in the government of Canada until my retirement in 2012; in my last role there, I was a member of the federal office in Vancouver negotiating treaties with First Nations in BC. I have experience in negotiation, intergovernmental relations, policy development and team leadership. I’m keen to continue to serve and request your support so I may continue as an active Board member for another term.

Summary of past or current involvement with the BCCLA: Michael has been a BCCLA member since 2000 and a supporter for many years before that. He joined the Board in May 2016 and served on the strategic planning working group during this term.

Biography (including relevant experience, education, and work history): Michael is a long-time BCCLA supporter and a Board member since 2016. During his 2016-2019 term he served as a member of BCCLA’s strategic planning working group. His current interests are centered on the implications of technological change for the civil liberties landscape, as well as, how to protect the functioning of Canada’s democracy against threats from technological change or otherwise. Michael has experience in negotiation, intergovernmental relations, and policy development/policy change. He worked on social policy and fiscal issues before his retirement from Canada’s federal public service. In his last role there, he worked towards reconciliation with First Nations in BC as a member of the leadership team of Canada’s treaty negotiation office in Vancouver, where he was responsible for fiscal negotiations and federal-provincial financial arrangements. Michael was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal in 2013. Michael has a Master of Arts in Mathematics from the University of British Columbia and has completed the Public Executive Program at Queen’s University.

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[toggle title=”Melody Mason (recommended)”]

Candidate Statement: I have been an active member of the Board over the last two years. Apart from my committee duties, I have worked for the Policy Director carrying out research on secure care and gun control. I have also carried out my own research on the erosion of democracy in Canada, starting a discussion within the organization about what could be done to protect our democracy.

Summary of past or current involvement with the BCCLA:
Board member two year 2017-19.
Member Fundraising Working Group.
Member Finance Committee.

Biography (including relevant experience, education, and work history): I have worked as a psychiatric social worker, but most of my career has been in economic development. I worked for the World Bank, both on staff and as a consultant, for about 20 years, working as a project manager, researcher and evaluation officer. My skills include economics, finance (MBA), and social policy analysis.

Whilst living in the UK, I was on the board of a charity (health rights) and the University of Plymouth (20,000+ students). I was Chair of the Finance Committee for several years. I also acted as liaison between the staff and the Board.

I am also on the board of Early Music Vancouver and belong to several committees of the Unitarian Church of Vancouver.

My education includes:
B.Sc Sociology (London University)
M.Sc Development Economics (School of Oriental + African Studies)
MBA Wharton Business School, Philadelphia

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[toggle title=”Sancho McCann (recommended)”]

Candidate Statement: I am a law student at UBC’s Peter A. Allard School of Law and have a PhD in computer science, which focused on artificial vision and machine learning. I’m interested how law, policy, and technology can work together to either share or suppress our stories, and the promises and pitfalls of technology, especially regarding privacy.

My personal experiences have been those of privilege, but I have seen how disparities in privilege and empathy have affected people around me. I admire the work that the BCCLA has done over the decades to fight against overlapping and compounding sources of disadvantage, especially those rooted in government power. I also believe in a positive, ameliorative role for our government, but one which is informed by all our voices, one which is evidence-based, and one which addresses our colonial legacy.

Through my work on the BCCLA archives project, I have seen the rich history of the organization and its support for an evidence-based balance between these competing visions of government. I hope that my computer science expertise would be useful to the BCCLA in informing its technology-related policy positions. I want to help connect the BCCLA with justice-focused data and tech organizations in Vancouver. And I want help set up the BCCLA to succeed in the fights happening today and in the years to come.

Summary of past or current involvement with the BCCLA: I was a communications-and-development volunteer from January–May 2018. In this role, I helped with the membership database, email templates, tabling, and a press conference, scanned documents for the archives project, provided support for the AGM and Gala, and researched and wrote material for the Electronic Devices Privacy Handbook.

I was placed with the BCCLA through Pro Bono Students Canada from October 2018–March 2019. In this role, I reviewed documents for the archives project. I had the opportunity to sift through decades-old Board minutes, read about the BCCLA’s transition from a Board-only organization to one with a strong Board-staff partnership, seen fundraising highs and lows, and followed policy positions over the years.

Biography (including relevant experience, education, and work history): Sancho was born in Winnipeg and has lived in Vancouver since 2006. He is a law student at UBC’s Peter A. Allard School of Law and has a PhD in computer science from UBC.

Previously, he has worked as a flight instructor, as a Canadian Forces officer (as an instructor for the Air Cadets youth program), as a software engineer, and as a researcher. He has governance experience as the President of UBC’s Computer Science Graduate Student Association and as a councillor on UBC’s Graduate Student Society (GSS). He was active in several committees in both of these positions including the Computer Science Department’s strategic planning committee and the GSS’s finance committee.

He enjoys research and writing, is an editor and administrator at Wikipedia, and maintains his own blog/website. Topics of his writing include solitary confinement, BC’s anti-SLAPP legislation, the role of interveners, digital privacy, and judicial review of administrative decision-makers, including a forthcoming case comment in the Dalhousie Journal of Legal Studies on Law Society of British Columbia v Trinity Western University.

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[toggle title=”Kevin Millsip (recommended)”]

Candidate Statement: I’ve lived and worked on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations my entire life. I hadn’t given a lot of thought to the importance of civil liberties until 1999, when I began working with an array of organizations and groups who had come together to protest at the World Trade Organization (WTO) meetings to be held in Seattle, Washington in November of that year. During the WTO meetings I was one of ten’s of thousands of people who gathered to protest the restrictions that trade agreements could have in so many areas of justice work. It was during this period of working on trade agreements in both the United States and Canada that I witnessed how quickly civil liberties could be restricted and how essential groups like the BCCLA were, in both defending and enhancing those rights. I have seen the BCCLA take on a host of pressing civil liberty issues over the years and have come to see the association as one of the most important non-governmental organizations in the country. My own relationship with the BCCLA has included delivering workshops on global issues and social justice at BCCLA student conferences and supporting the association as a member and monthly supporter and serving this past term of a board member. As voices and movements rise that thrive on the suppression of the rights of others, in particular the rights of those who are already the most marginalzed, I feel that the work that the BCCLA does across the country to protect and enhance civil rights, has never been more needed, or more relevant.

Summary of past or current involvement with the BCCLA: I have served one term on the BCCLA board. During this term I’ve been a membe of the Fundraising and Finance committee’s and supporting the internal processes of the organization. I have also helped with board recruitment.

Biography (including relevant experience, education, and work history): I’m currently the Managing Director of the BC Libraries Cooperative. I’ve spent over 20 years working in education and social justice, with a focus on capacity building and advocacy work. I’ve co-founded two capacity building organizations; Check Your Head and Next UP and helped to build Canada’s largest social change leadership training organization. I was the Vancouver School Board’s first Sustainability Coordinator where I worked on both sustainability programs and policy. I’ve served as a School Board Trustee in Vancouver where I wrote policy to protect students from advertising in schools and served on the Board’s of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives BC-Office, The Centre for Civic Governance and Theatre for Living.

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[toggle title=”Tamara Reader”]

Candidate Statement: As a métis grandmother, artist and mental-health advocate, I believe in B.C.C.L.A.’s mandate which strives to protect, defend and extend human rights and civil liberties in British Columbia. My experience on the boards of La Boussole and Réseau-Femmes Colombie-Britannique has educated me with valuable skills that would enable me to serve effectively on the board of B.C.C.L.A. My personal history of defending the friends and relatives in my sphere from bullying, violence and the infringement of their human rights has honed my skills as an able negociator and advocate. I stood up against injustice, violence and religious abuse on a personal level in order to preserve the right of any other woman facing similar challenges. Women, children and mental patients are especially vulnerable to breaches of human rights if they have no access financially to good lawyers and effective support. I want to stand behind B.C.C.L.A. on its Board of Directors for these reasons.

Summary of past or current involvement with the BCCLA: I am a member in good standing with BCCLA.

Biography (including relevant experience, education, and work history): In 1987, I was slammed twice in the face, six weeks pregnant, by a Montréal police officer in the back seat of a police cruiser on the way to Côte-des-Neiges detachment. The man in question took the opportunity to call me a slut and a whore, in French. They took the back streets, less in view but in broad daylight. When we arrived, they shoved my forehead flat on the countertop, ripped off my jewelry, made me take off my sandals and threw me into the jail cell without reading my rights or allowing me access to support of any kind. I sang “O Canada” for the first time in 14 years, couldn’t even remember the words as they echoed up, off the walls into the ceiling. In Canada, we espouse human rights, we are renowned for this. But, in practical terms, the equation is simple: no money plus no lawyer equals no rights!

This paradigm has been sustained for decades. Who do I think I am? An Air Force Brat, a volunteer, a mother, and grandmother, musician, visual artist, and above all else, a human being. As I move forward to finish my degree at St. Boniface University, in French Translation, at distance, I feel the need to make a difference with an organization that espouses the same values as I espouse. I would like to make it easier for the next human being who steps up to the plate.

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[toggle title=”Paul Tétrault (recommended)”]

Candidate Statement:

THE BCCLA : NOW AND IN THE FUTURE:
I believe that the BCCLA is the most important civil liberties/human rights organization in Canada. Our work on solitary confinement, police accountability, anti-SLAPP legislation, medically assisted death and other files have actively protected and promoted civil and human rights for many including the most marginalized in our community.
I support the continuation of our current work and believe that we should take steps to develop policy on the impact of tech change /computers on democracy, equality and privacy.
I feel we must build a more diverse BCCLA. We have taken important steps in this direction with our work with Indigenous communities. I think that it is important to develop a plan to reach out to the East and South Asian Canadian communities who have historically been targets of serious civil liberty and human rights abuses.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE.
I have been a BCCLA Board member since 2016 and a member of the Board Development Committee. I am a retired staff lawyer with the Canadian Union of Public Employees where I worked for 25 years.
My education includes BCom (Accounting), MA (PoliSci) (McGill), LLB (UBC).

COMMUNITY WORK /ACTIVISM.
I was a member of the British Columbia Organization to Fight Racism and the Vice-Chair of the Farmworkers’ Union fundraising organization. I have been involved in peace and justice work in Palestine/Israel (chair of the Middle East Working Group at the Vancouver World Peace Forum), founder of the Trade Union Committee for Justice in the Middle East.
Recently I have been a fundraiser and organizer for the Free Omar Khadr Committee, and a member of the Hassan Diab Support Committee. I continue to do pro bono legal work in the labour movement and in defence of free speech for Palestinian solidarity activists

Summary of past or current involvement with the BCCLA:
Board Member – 2016-19
Board Development Committee – 2016-19
Organized BCCLA meeting to support Hassan Diab with NAT as a member of the HDS Committee

Biography (including relevant experience, education, and work history): Prior to Paul’s retirement, he had been employed as staff lawyer and national representative for CUPE, a large trade union, where he worked for the past 25 years. Before that he worked for a number of years as a youth worker and, prior to that, taught political science at a junior college in Montreal for five years. He has extensive experience advocating for workers and others in a number of different forums. He graduated with a Bachelors in Commerce (Accounting) and Master of Arts (Political Science) from McGill University, and obtained his Bachelor of Laws from UBC.

As a community member, he has been involved in municipal politics with COPE and now ONECITY, as well as participating in housing co-op committees and parent committees at school. He was an active member of the BC Organization to Fight Racism and Vice Chair of the Board of the Farmworkers fundraising organization. Paul has been involved in international solidarity work, particularly Palestine solidarity work in a number of capacities (he was chair of the Middle East Working Group at the Vancouver World Peace Forum, 2006). He helped author the CUPE booklet “The Wall Must Fall”. He founded and chaired the Trade Union Committee for Justice in the Middle East. Recently, he has been a fundraiser and organiser for the Free Omar Khadr Committee, as well as being active in the Seriously Free Speech Committee. He continues to have extensive contacts in the trade union movement and in community organizations.
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Read the BCCLA Board of Directors Election Rules here.