Course Chairs
C.D. Saint — Mediate BC Society, Vancouver
Sharon Sutherland — True North Dispute Management, Delta
About the Course Chairs
C.D. Saint, Mediate BC Society, Vancouver, is the Senior Communications and Project Coordinator with Mediate BC's Roster Program. C.D.'s role is to promote mediation and to help facilitate new conversations within the DR community around processes, roles and more. Previously, he worked as an administrator with Mediate BC's Child Protection Mediation Practicum and helped create the Child Protection Mediation Conference in 2012. C.D. studied project management at UBC and Conflict Resolution at the European University Centre for Peace Studies in Austria. He is also active as a professional singer and arts administrator.
Sharon Sutherland, True North Dispute Management in Delta, is a mediator and lawyer with expertise in conflict resolution training and program design. From 2000-2014, she was a full-time faculty member at the University of BC Faculty of Law where, in addition to a range of substantive legal courses, she taught an intensive clinical mediation program. She has taught dispute resolution at Thompson Rivers Law School since 2012. Sharon is a member of the Mediate BC Civil Roster and the Child Protection Roster. She is currently applying her dispute resolution and design skills as a Knowledge Engineer in the development of the Civil Resolution Tribunal. Sharon was honoured with the 2011 Susanna Jani Prize for Excellence in Mediation.
Featured Speakers
Keynote Speaker: Stella Sabiiti is a survivor of war and violence in Uganda during the 1970s and early 80s and has lived on three different continents as a refugee, raising her children and working for peace and security. She has spent more than three decades brokering and facilitating peace with armed groups, national militaries, governments, and civil society organizations in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia/Pacific regions through dialogue, negotiation, and mediation. She helped develop the Human Rights Network of Uganda and is the founder of the Center for Conflict Resolution, an NGO addressing conflicts in the Horn of Africa and Great Lakes Region.
In 2002 Sabiiti facilitated negotiations between the Uganda National Rescue Front II rebel group (the national army in the 1970s that had tortured her) and the Government of Uganda, ultimately leading to a signed peace agreement with actors in the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA)-affected areas.
In 2012 she joined the AU’s Women, Gender and Development Directorate (WGDD), strengthening African women’s voices to be heard in peace processes within the framework of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 and the AU’s Gender Architecture (AUGA). Sabiiti supports women’s peace efforts for UN Women and, as a member of the Women Waging Peace Network, links women with top decision-makers in Africa.
Adam Francis Proulx is an actor, singer, voiceover artist, puppeteer, and content producer living in Toronto, Ontario. He is a graduate of the University of Waterloo where he obtained a degree in Theatre and in Business. Additional training has come from New York University (MA level voice), The Second City, and The Broadway Dance Center to name a few.
Professionally Adam has worked with such companies as Drayton Entertainment, Sky Gilbert's The Cabaret Company, The Victoria Playhouse in Petrolia, Sudbury Theatre Centre, The Lower Ossington Theatre, Green Door Cabaret, Little Red Theatre, Mad Science Productions, Theatre To Go, Playful Notions Inc., and Walt Disney World.
About the Planning Committee
Jennifer Lang-Hodge, Jamal Law Group, Vancouver, Jennifer is a recent graduate of the Allard School of Law at UBC. She completed her undergraduate degree in psychology at UBC. She is currently articling at a small family law firm in downtown Vancouver. While in law school, Jennifer volunteered with the Access Pro Bono Mental Health Program and West Coast LEAF, and spent her final term working as a Provincial Court Intern. In her second year of law school, Jennifer was a silver medalist in the CoRe Mediation Advocacy Moot. She is very interested in learning more about dispute resolution as she is particularly interested in a career in mediation and collaborative family law.
Mark McKamey, Villani and Co, Powell River, is an articled student in his hometown of Powell River, BC. He completed his JD at the University of Victoria and holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Calgary. Mark has written about a range of technology related topics, including distance mediation, computational statistics and law, and legal expert systems. While at law school, Mark’s law and technology projects included development of an IT business plan to integrate a distance family mediation program into Justice Access Centers in BC; creation of a computer program that helps detect discrimination in the judicial process; development of a web application that helps users develop bylaws for new non-profit societies.
Rowan Meredith is a law student at UCLA. She graduated from the University of Victoria with a degree in Slavic Studies. Rowan was Assistant Director on Mediation Works: Family Matters, a video series discussing family conflict resolution. In 2015, she was a research assistant with the BC Civil Resolution Tribunal. She is currently a Social Media and Speaker Series assistant for CoRe Conflict Resolution Society and a Staff Editor for the UCLA Indigenous Peoples’ Journal of Law, Culture, and Resistance.
Jaime Sarophim - (photo and bio to come)
Ashley Syer, Syer Law, Vancouver, was called to the BC Bar in 2010, after studying law at the University of British Columbia and the University of Glasgow. Ashley practices employment law, commercial litigation, residential tenancy, and what she lovingly refers to as “Random Law” (aka “Crazy Law”), and is actively growing her practice as a mediator. Ashley is a past co-chair of the Young Lawyers Lower Mainland subsection of the BC Branch of the Canadian Bar Association (CBABC), a member-at-large on the executive of the ADR and Civil Litigation subsections of the CBABC, and a member of the Women Lawyers Committee of the Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia. Ashley also volunteers her time as Chambers Duty Counsel for Access Pro Bono.
Amanda Semenoff - (photo and bio to come)
Greg von Euw is a law student at Thompson Rivers University. He graduated from Simon Fraser University with a degree in Political Science. Greg is an Executive Member of the CBA Law Student Forum and the elected liaison between the CBA and TRU Law. Greg was a member of the TRU Law Conference Committee and has been active in organizing speakers, panels and events at the school. He has a particular interest in Law and Technology, Access to Justice, and the potential overlaps between those topics.
Faculty
The Honourable Chief Judge Thomas J. Crabtree — BC Provincial Court, Vancouver
Christina Bahr — Justice Institute of BC, New Westminster
Ron Bewski — Director, Dispute Resolution Project (Manitoba), Winnipeg
Fazal Bhimji — Instructor, Canadian Construction Institute
Jereme Brooks — RONIN Consulting and Mediation Services, Langley
J. Garth Cambrey — Cambrey Consulting Inc., Port Coquitlam
Chliwin Cheng — Ascendion Law, Vancouver
Jenifer Crawford — Crawford Law Office, Kamloops
Roshan Danesh — President, Education for Peace Canada, Victoria
Julie Daum — Mediator, Fraser Lake
Jori Faibish — YES Resolution Group, Vancouver
Carrie Gallant — Gallant Solutions Inc., Vancouver
Vanessa Gray — Mediator, Government of Alberta, Calgary
Brandon Hastings — MacLean Law, Vancouver
Kent Highnam — Program Director, School of Health & Community Society Social Justice, Justice Institute of BC, New Westminster
John Kleefeld — University of Saskatchewan College of Law, Saskatoon
Jennifer Lang-Hodge — Jamal Group, Vancouver
Andy MacKay — Sergeant, Thompson Fraser Zone, Ministry of Environment, Merritt
Mark McKamey — Articled Student, Villani and Company, Powell River
Rowan Meredith — Law Student, University of California, Los Angeles
Joven Narwal — Narwal Litigation LLP, Vancouver
Hersh Perlis — Director, Legal Innovation Zone, Toronto
Adam Francis Proulx — Puppeteer, Toronto
Stella Sabiiti — International Peacekeeping and Security Consultant, Uganda
C.D. Saint — Mediate BC Society, Vancouver
Jaime Sarophim — Klein Lawyers LLP, Vancouver
Amanda Semenoff — Mediator, New Westminster
Elton Simoes — President, British Columbia Arbitration & Mediation Institute, Vancouver
Jen Sungshine — Love Intersections, Vancouver
Sharon Sutherland — True North Dispute Management, Delta
Ashley Syer — Syer Law, Vancouver
Darin Thompson — Ministry of Justice, Justice Services, Victoria
Greg von Euw — Law Student, Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops
James D. Vilvang, QC — Richards Buell Sutton LLP, Vancouver
Miguel Willis — Founder, Social Justice Hackathon, Seattle