The BCCLA’s 2020 Annual General Meeting (AGM) is an opportunity to hear highlights of the Association’s work over the past year and our key priorities into the months ahead. We will also conduct the usual AGM business.
When: Thursday, June 18, 2020 from 6:00 – 7:30 pm
Where: Virtually via Zoom. Details will be provided after registration. Please register by June 12th.
Membership
Please note that this year’s AGM is only open to members, and all members are welcome. Only members in good standing who joined before May 4, 2020 will be able to vote in the business portion of the meeting.
If you would like to renew your membership, you can do so here. If you have questions about your membership status, please contact us at [email protected] or 604-630-9757.
Board of Directors Candidates Acclaimed
This year, we received 7 nominations for 7 available seats. As a result, our board candidates will be acclaimed to the Board as of the AGM. Congratulations to the following candidates:
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[toggle title=”Lindsey Bertrand (incumbent)”]
Lindsey Bertrand is a communication professional specializing in public engagement in complex issues. She is particularly drawn to projects that aim to create meaningful structural change, and believes strongly that open discourse and access to information are crucial for individuals and communities.
Lindsey has worked with a number of social change organizations—including the BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association and OpenMedia—and has written and spoken extensively about a number of issues relating to democratic communication, including media and platform ownership, diversity of voices, privacy, and reputation management.
Currently Lindsey is the digital engagement specialist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (an independent progressive research institute), a research assistant with the College of Interdisciplinary Studies at Royal Roads University, and sits on the board of the BC Civil Liberties Association. She has a BA and an MA in Communication from Simon Fraser University and Royal Roads University, respectively.
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[toggle title=”Ian Bushfield (incumbent)”]
Ian Bushfield is an advocate for Humanism, science, and social justice living in Vancouver. He is the current and was the first Executive Director of the BC Humanist Association. He co-hosts the PolitiCoast and Cambie Report podcasts covering BC and Vancouver politics, respectively. He earned a BSc in Engineering Physics from the University of Alberta and a MSc in Physics from Simon Fraser University, and completed a BCIT certificate in non profit management.
He secured pro-bono counsel for the BC Humanists to intervene at the Supreme Court of Canada in Law Society of British Columbia v. Trinity Western University and has helped the Association produce reports that have led to changes in BC Parliamentary procedure.
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[toggle title=”Joey Doyle“]
Joey Doyle is a lawyer and activist based in Coast Salish territory (Vancouver). He has been practicing law since October 2019 as a solo practitioner, focused mainly on legal aid criminal defence work. Joey is a founding member of the revived Law Union of BC, is a director of Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada, and is a director of the Association of Legal Aid Lawyers. He is also a veteran of various political campaigns, electoral and issues-based. Unifying all his activities is a desire to fight injustice and to stand up for people who are oppressed by the status quo institutions within our society. Joey is grateful for the opportunity to continue this fight as a member of the BCCLA Board of Directors
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[toggle title=”Lisa Kerr (incumbent)”]
Dr. Lisa Kerr JD (UBC), LLM, JSD (New York University) is Assistant Professor at Queen’s University, where she is the Director of the Criminal Law Group and teaches courses on criminal law, sentencing and prison law. Professor Kerr was previously staff lawyer at Prisoners’ Legal Services in British Columbia, and she supports the work of the Queen’s Prison Law Clinic in Kingston, Ontario. She has worked on public interest litigation with Pivot Legal Society in relation to the legal rights of sex workers. She completed her doctorate at New York University as a Trudeau Scholar and has published extensively on the topics of sentencing, prison law, and punishment theory.
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[toggle title=”Lindsay Lyster (incumbent)”]
Lindsay M. Lyster, Q.C. was President of the BCCLA between 2012-2016 and 2017-2019 and currently serves as Vice President. Lindsay is a partner in the Vancouver law firm of Moore Edgar Lyster LLP. She served as a member of the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal between 2002 and 2010, where she adjudicated and mediated human rights disputes. She was the Policy Director of the BCCLA before joining the Tribunal. Before that, Lindsay practiced labour, employment, and public law with a major national law firm for seven years.
Lindsay’s legal practice includes acting for employees and trade unions in labour, employment, and human rights matters. She also conducts third party investigations and mediations. She has appeared before all levels of tribunals and courts.
Lindsay has a particular interest in administrative and constitutional law, having appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada in several leading human rights and Charter cases. She has taught Administrative Law, Federalism, Charter Litigation, Human Rights in the Workplace, and Labour Arbitration at UBC Law School. Lindsay graduated from UBC Law School in 1991 as the gold medalist, following which she clerked for Madam Justice McLachlin at the Supreme Court of Canada, before being called to the bar in 1993.
Lindsay is a frequent lecturer on labour, human rights, employment and administrative law. She was appointed Queen’s Counsel in December 2018.
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[toggle title=”Steve Savitt (incumbent)”]
Steve Savitt was born in New York City in 1942 but grew up in Wheeling, WV. He earned a BA degree from Columbia College in New York City in 1964 and a Ph. D. Degree from Brandeis University in 1972. Both degrees were in philosophy, and Steve was a member of the UBC department of Philosophy from 1969 to 2015, specializing in logic and philosophy of science. He is married, with one child and one grandchild.
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[toggle title=”Vanessa Wolff (incumbent)”]
Vanessa is a Social Worker by trade. She immigrated from Holland 30 years ago. Her first job was in Toronto at the Children’s Aid in Child Protection and her union was CUPE. She quickly started to advocate for Health & Safety Rights when she did not feel protected enough apprehending children without appropriate personal protective equipment and complained to her union. One thing lead to the next and all of a sudden she was organizing H&S training for all of Social Services in Ontario. CUPE then scooped her up and she has been working for them for 25 years now: several years here in BC as the National H&S Rep and now, for the last couple of years, the National Education Rep.
She has always stood up for the underdog. Always defended the most vulnerable. Always researched the issue she didn’t understand and needed to resolve. That is the same way she is with the BCCLA – all issues are important to her.
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Bylaw Amendments Presented to the Members for Approval
MAY IT BE RESOLVED, that Section 6.3 of the Bylaws of the Society be decided by special resolution to be deleted in its entirety and replaced with the following:
6.3 Voting Other than at a General Meeting
The Board may, in its sole discretion, conduct a vote of the Members other than at a General Meeting, whether by mail-in ballot or Electronic Means, provided in each case that the Society provides each Member in good standing with notice of:
- the names of the candidates nominated as Directors, if any;
- the text of the resolutions to be voted on, if any;
- the open and closing dates for casting a vote; and
- instructions on how a Member may cast a vote.
And it is further
RESOLVED, that Section 7.6 of the Bylaws of the Society be approved by special resolution to be deleted in its entirety and replaced with the following:
7.6 Election of Directors
- Directors will be elected by the Members at or within 30 days prior to a General Meeting.
- The results of the election will be announced at said General Meeting, and the Directors elected will take office commencing at the close of such meeting.
- All candidates to be proposed for election must submit themselves to the nomination process established by the Board from time to time. Candidates for election may not be proposed from the floor of a General Meeting.
