Course Chairs
Katrina Harry, KC — Manager, Parents Legal Centre, Legal Aid BC, Vancouver
Katherine R. LeReverend — Legal Counsel, Legal Services Branch, Ministry of Attorney General, Victoria
About the Course Chairs
Katrina Harry is a lawyer and Manager of the Parents Legal Centre, a program for child protection matters operated by Legal Aid BC.
Called to the bar in 2006, she has practiced mainly in child protection. She has represented parents and extended family members at every child protection stage.
Katrina authors and reviews numerous publications for Legal Aid in the area of children and families, and speaks frequently at the bar exam course, presents at conferences and at various speaking engagements.
She is from Esketemc First Nation, of the Shuswap nation.
Katherine LeReverend has been with the Ministry of Attorney General, Legal Services Branch since 1994. She provides legal advice to the various service streams of the Ministry for Children and Family Development, including Child Protection, Children and Youth with Special Needs, Child and Youth Mental Health Services, and Youth Forensic Psychiatric Services Services.
Prior to joining the Attorney General, she practised law in Kamloops and Kelowna with the Crown Counsel Office, the Family Maintenance Enforcement Program, and in private practice.
When not practising law she can be found at the barn with her horse or on forest trails walking her two dogs.
Opening Prayer
Elder Maria Reed — Waabigekek Ikwe
Keynote Speaker
Elaine Alec — Naqsmist, "nux`meest ~ many coming together as one" Transformative Storytelling + Whole Systems Healing, Kamloops
About the Keynote Speaker
Elaine is from the Syilx (Okanagan) Nation and Secwepemc (Shuswap) Nation and is a member of the Penticton Indian Band in the Interior of BC.
She has been a political advisor, Chief of Staff for the BC Assembly of First Nations, Community Planner for her own First Nation, employee for the Province of BC, and Federal Government and Entrepreneur. Elaine has spent over 20 years in over 100 communities across Canada to promote healing and wellness.
Elaine is a first-time author of "Calling My Spirit Back," a memoir about growing up as an Indigenous girl in Canada and the impacts of colonization. It also provides Indigenous knowledge, teachings on how to cultivate safe spaces for diversity and inclusion.
Faculty
Richel Donaldson — Manager, Strategic Child Welfare and Reconciliation Policy, Ministry of Children and Family Development, Campbell River
Kayla M. Fast — Legal Services Branch, Ministry of Attorney General, Vancouver
Debra Lazzar — Aboriginal Community Legal Worker, Parents Legal Centre, Legal Aid BC, Victoria
Scarlet Mirzaian — Staff Lawyer, Parents Legal Centre, Legal Aid BC, Surrey
Frances Rosner — Barrister & Solicitor, Vancouver
Adrienne S. Smith — Adrienne Smith Law, Vancouver (they/them)
Renae Snell — Manager, Legislation and Legal Support, Ministry of Children and Family Development, Victoria
Andrea L. Thorpe — Thorpe & Company Lawyers, Vancouver
Helen Van Wart, MSW, RSW — Addiction and Trauma Clinical Counsellor, Sheway, Vancouver
Course Materials Contributor
Sora J. Vandervelde — Advocate-Paralegal, Vancouver Parents Legal Centre-Indigenous Services, Legal Aid BC, Vancouver
Click here for full faculty bios