Welcome Back!
Your PBSC team would like to extend a big warm welcome back to all our volunteers at UVic Law. At the end of last term we received an overwhelming amount of excellent feedback from our partners and lawyer supervisors regarding the work and dedication our volunteers put into their projects. We couldn’t be more proud and grateful to you all! Thank you for all the work you do for the community. We look forward to seeing what else you accomplish this semester.
Work with PBSC!
We have some exciting positions available for two interested students! We are hiring two new coordinators this semester. The Program Coordinators take on a great deal of responsibility and develop an important skill set that is transferable to legal practice. One student is selected to work full-time over the summer months and then part-time over the school year managing PBSC programs. A second Program Coordinator will join PBSC September part-time until the end of the school year. Applications are due via e-mail by noon on January 30 and require a resume and cover letter. Candidates selected for an interview will be contacted by February 1st and interviews will be held the week of February 4 -8. If this sounds like something you’re interested in, please see our job posting:
Program Coordinator Job Posting 2019-2020
Project Announcement:
This semester we are excited to start a new project with Access to Justice BC (A2JBC). A2JBC is offering three Student Volunteer Positions – one position for each of the three law schools – Allard, TRU and UVic. The Student Volunteer Positions provide students with the opportunity to contribute to access to justice in BC and to learn about the work that is being done to improve access to justice. Each student will be supervised by a professor from their respective university and will work in collaboration with the A2JBC Engagement Committee. Specifically, the Student Volunteer Positions will focus on supporting the A2JBC story/narrative strategy, including assisting with the development of written and video “access to justice” stories for the A2JBC website; doing interviews and videos related to various access to justice events; supporting a social media campaign; being part of the organizing group for access to justice week 2019, and participating in the A2JBC Engagement Committee.
Indigenous Law Panel Event:
On Wednesday, February 13 from 12- 1:20 pm in Rm. 158, we are hosting three speakers for “Conversations on Access to (Indigenous) Justice”. Our speakers are John Borrows, David Milward, and Patricia Barkaskas, and the conversation will be facilitated by Corbin Greening from ILSA. Lunch and refreshments will be provided.
About the Speakers:
Dr. John Borrows is a Professor at UVic Law and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Law. Professor Borrows is a recipient of an Aboriginal Achievement Award in Law and Justice, a Fellow of the Trudeau Foundation, and a Fellow of the Academy of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (RSC), Canada’s highest academic honor. He is also a 2012 recipient of the Indigenous Peoples Counsel (I.P.C.) from the Indigenous Bar Association, for honor and integrity in service to Indigenous communities. John helped develop Canada’s first joint degree program in Canadian Common Law and Indigenous Legal Orders. John is Anishinaabe/Ojibway and a member of the Chippewa of the Nawash First Nation in Ontario, Canada.
Dr. David Milward is an Associate Professor at UVic Law and was previously an Associate Professor of Law with the University of Manitoba. He has numerous publications in international and leading national law journals in the areas of criminal law, evidence, and Indigenous justice. He assisted the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada with completing portions of its Final Reports that focused on Indigenous Justice Issues. David also published Aboriginal Justice and the Charter, which won the K.D. Srivastrava Prize in 2012 for the best book published by U.B.C. Press that year. It was also short-listed for the Canadian Law and Society Association Book Prize Award that same year. David Milward is a member of the Beardy’s & Okemasis First Nation in Saskatchewan.
Patricia Barkaskas is the Academic Director of the Indigenous Community Legal Clinic and an Instructor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law. Patricia has practiced in the areas of child protection (as parent’s counsel), criminal, family, as well as civil litigation and prison law. She has worked closely with Indigenous peoples in their encounters with the justice system and has worked for residential school survivors as an historical legal researcher for the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. In addition, she has written Gladue reports for all levels of court in BC. Her current and future teaching and research interests include access to justice, clinical legal education, decolonizing and Indigenizing law, particularly examining the value of Indigenous pedagogies in experiential and clinical learning for legal education, and Indigenous laws. Patricia is Métis from Alberta.
Volunteer Appreciation Event:
To thank all of our wonderful volunteers we will be hosting a volunteer appreciation event in March so keep your eyes peeled for an upcoming announcement about time and location. A big thanks to McCarthy Tétrault, and specifically Douglas Yoshida, for sponsoring the event!