About a month ago, I graduated from UBC Law … finally!

Other than President Toope’s abysmal speech, it was a fun night and I was very happy that most of my family, as well as Ian’s, were able to attend. You might wonder why I graduated in November – I didn’t fail anything, I swear! My Edinburgh transcript did not arrive in time for the May ceremony, so I joined another 8 or 9 Law students, all of whom went on exchange like me in their final year, in walking across the stage at the Chan Centre a bit later than the rest of our classmates.

It was an exciting day, although being called to the Bar (hopefully in just over a year) will be 100 times more exciting.

If you squint, you can tell it’s me because of my hot red heels!

I was holding out hope that I’d get to fly home for this, but alas, we’re doing it by conference call.  It should be quite the experience!

For those enrolled in UBC Law, the random assignment to a small group in first year usually becomes one of the greatest determining points of the overall Law school experience. Not only do the other 20 or so people assigned to the same small group become your study buddies and friends, but you also develop a close relationship with the professor assigned to your small group.

My small group was not super tight – we did not go out together all the time or anything like that, and 3 of the people ended up dropping out during first year – but we did have some unique experiences. Michael Jackson, Q.C. was our small group professor and he taught us criminal law. Our learning experience in the class was unlike that of any of the other small groups. We only learned the mechanics of it all (mens rea, actus reus, etc.) in the last couple of weeks of the year, and dedicated the rest of the year to learning about criminal law theories, alternative justice and the effect of the justice system on those in it.

One of the most memorable experiences in this class was Saskatchewan provincial court Judge Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond‘s visit. She was at UBC giving the inaugural Marlee Kline Lecture in Social Justice, and as a favour to Professor Jackson, spent about 45 minutes with our class. She brought her baby boy too, and one of my classmates (a father of six! girls!) took on the babysitting duties while she talked.

In between telling us about her experiences as a female judge and a mother of four, being the first Treaty Indian judge in Saskatchewan (appointed in 1988), and about sitting as a provincial court judge and seeing the same offenders over and over again, sitting as a pregnant judge in a baby-abuse case, working with fetal alcohol syndrome-affected offenders, and (not the least of her achievements) developing the first Circle Court of restorative justice for Aboriginal offenders … in between all this talk, she managed to breastfeed her baby too!

Today, the BC provincial government announced Judge Turpel-Lafond’s appointment as the province’s Representative for Children and Youth. She’s taking a five year leave from the Saskatchewan Bench in order to fulfill the appointment, and moving her whole family to Victoria. I say kudos to her! She’s definitely a role model for women in law (or at least for this woman in law!) and I hope she has a long and fruitful judicial and/or political career ahead of her.

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