Water Law: Collaborative Solutions within Multiple Legal Orders 2025

Course Chairs
Oliver M. Brandes — Co-Director, Associate Director of Strategic Partnerships and Public Policy, POLIS Project; Centre for Global Studies, UVic, Victoria
Deborah L. Curran — Professor, Faculty of Law and School of Environmental Studies, Executive Director, Environmental Law Centre, UVic, Victoria

About the Course Chairs
Oliver Brandes is an economist and lawyer by training and a trans-disciplinarian by design. He serves as co-director of the POLIS Project on Ecological Governance, based at the University of Victoria's Centre for Global Studies (CFGS), where he leads the award-winning POLIS Water Sustainability Project. His work focuses on water sustainability, sound resource management, public policy development, and ecologically based legal and institutional reform.

Oliver serves as the Associate Director of Strategic Partnerships and Public Policy at CFGS. He is an Adjunct Professor in the University of Victoria Faculty of Law and School of Public Administration, and is a fellow of the Environmental Law Centre. In 2012, he co-developed BC's first water law course at the University of Victoria Faculty of Law. He also has affiliations at the University of Manitoba and Brock University.

Oliver is a technical advisor to the BC Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, supporting the ongoing development of the provincial Water Sustainability Act. He also provides ongoing advisory support to the provincial government and Indigenous nations on issues of governance and water law for watershed governance pilots and planning projects underway in regions across the province, including the Koksilah, Cowichan, Skeena, Nicola, Hullcar, and Coquitlam watersheds. In 2017, Oliver was appointed to lead an independent expert review on source drinking water protection in BC, which resulted in regulatory change and informed the Auditor General of BC’s work on drinking water.

Working in various settings, including scholarly, community, and expert practitioner forums, Oliver is a regular speaker and actively drives public dialogue and champions water sustainability and watershed security. This work includes chairing and planning the decade-long series of innovative biennial national Watersheds forums. He is also a founding member and chair of the national Forum for Leadership on Water (FLOW), and an advisor to numerous national, provincial, and local governments, water funders, and water organizations, including the First Nations Fisheries Council, Freshwater Legacy Initiative, and the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources.

Deborah Curran is a Professor at the University of Victoria who is cross-appointed in the Faculties of Law and Social Sciences (School of Environmental Studies). Focusing on our relationships with land, water, and how we make responsible decisions relating to them, her courses include water law, environmental law, municipal law, environmental solutions, and the environmental law clinic.

Deborah's research addresses all aspects of adapting water law and governance, responsible land use and how Indigenous law is shaping state law. As the Executive Director with the Environmental Law Centre (envirolawcentre.ca), Deborah provides legal advice and supervises students working pro bono for community and Indigenous organizations. For over 20 years, she has supported community and Indigenous organizations on creating sustainable communities using green bylaws and new models for watershed governance.

Faculty
Stanley H. Ashcroft — Ashcroft & Company, West Vancouver
Clayton Leonard — JFK Law LLP, Victoria
Tara Marsden/Naxginkw — Wilp Sustainability Director, Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs; Principal, Hlimoo Sustainability Solutions, Kitwanga
Julian Riddell — Woodward & Company Lawyers LLP, Victoria
Melinda J. Skeels — Ratcliff LLP, North Vancouver
Dr. Shannon Waters — Deputy Provincial Health Officer, Planetary and Water Health, Office of the Provincial Health Officer, Victoria 
Rosalie C.N. Yazzie — Nesika Law Corporation, Westbank

Click here for full faculty bios

Course Introduction and Land Acknowledgement (9:00 – 9:10)

Teresa Sheward — Program Lawyer, CLEBC, Vancouver
Oliver M. Brandes — Co-Director, Associate Director of Strategic Partnerships and Public Policy, POLIS Project; Centre for Global Studies, UVic, Victoria
Deborah L. Curran — Professor, Faculty of Law and School of Environmental Studies, Executive Director, Environmental Law Centre, UVic, Victoria

Indigenous Water Relationships (9:10 – 10:20)

• Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs Aks Ayookxw Water Policy

Tara Marsden/Naxginkw — Wilp Sustainability Director, Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs; Principal, Hlimoo Sustainability Solutions, Kitwanga

• Implications of claim to submerged lands in Cowichan Tribes v. Canada (Attorney General)    

Julian Riddell — Woodward & Company Lawyers LLP, Victoria

BREAK (10:20 – 10:30)

Addressing Water Harms (10:30 – 12:00)

• Thomas and Saik'uz First Nation v. Rio Tinto Alcan—tort claims grounded in the Aboriginal right to fish, and Crown responsibility

Melinda J. Skeels — Ratcliff LLP, North Vancouver

• Esk'etemc Specific Claim

Stanley H. Ashcroft — Ashcroft & Company, West Vancouver

Watersheds as Health Systems (12:00 – 12:30)

Dr. Shannon Waters — Deputy Provincial Health Officer, Planetary and Water Health, Office of the Provincial Health Officer, Victoria 

LUNCH (12:30 – 1:15)

Water Allocation (1:15 – 3:00)

• FITFIR, water scarcity, and water sustainability plans
• groundwater
• water quality and objectives
• Indigenous interests and rights
• watershed-specific innovation

Oliver M. Brandes — Co-Director, Associate Director of Strategic Partnerships and
Public Policy, POLIS Project; Centre for Global Studies, UVic, Victoria
Deborah L. Curran — Professor, Faculty of Law and School of Environmental Studies, Executive Director, Environmental Law Centre, UVic, Victoria
Clayton Leonard — JFK Law LLP, Victoria
Rosalie C.N. Yazzie — Nesika Law Corporation, Westbank

BREAK (3:00 – 3:15)

Daylighting Legal Issues Roundtable (3:15 – 4:00)

• legal scope of water
• wildfire
• beneficial use
• changing water licenses (allocation)

Oliver M. Brandes — Co-Director, Associate Director of Strategic Partnerships and Public Policy, POLIS Project; Centre for Global Studies, UVic, Victoria
Deborah L. Curran — Professor, Faculty of Law and School of Environmental Studies, Executive Director, Environmental Law Centre, UVic, Victoria
Clayton Leonard — JFK Law LLP, Victoria
Julian Riddell — Woodward & Company Lawyers LLP, Victoria
Dr. Shannon Waters — Deputy Provincial Health Officer, Planetary and Water Health, Office of the Provincial Health Officer, Victoria 
Rosalie C.N. Yazzie — Nesika Law Corporation, Westbank

Closing Comments (4:00 – 4:05)

Oliver M. Brandes — Co-Director, Associate Director of Strategic Partnerships and Public Policy, POLIS Project; Centre for Global Studies, UVic, Victoria
Deborah L. Curran — Professor, Faculty of Law and School of Environmental Studies, Executive Director, Environmental Law Centre, UVic, Victoria