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Whoa, can you say whirlwind? That was 2021. In less than 500 words (because we know you’re busy), here’s a snapshot (followed by some snapshots).
January kicked off with a little help from our friend Devon Page (Ecojustice), who, although he lives in Vancouver, taught the ELC Spring Clinic, proving anew the fringe benefits of online teaching. We also welcomed Ellen Campbell and Russell Chiong as our Articled Student and Coop Student. While we missed working with them in person, they were all fabulous additions to our spring team.
In February, we said goodbye to Admin Assistant Megan Webber, but March brought the Good News Research-a-thon, which gave everyone a lift and inspired our Good News Stories series to celebrate our 25th anniversary. That proved especially fortuitous as it had been a year or more of making, breaking and reinventing plans.
Come April, we were thrilled Gracie Chiu joined us (in person!) as our new Admin Assistant. We also started rolling out transition plans in preparation of Calvin’s August 2023 retirement through a special call for Clinic lawyers.
In May, we excitedly (and nervously) taught our first in-person classes since March 2020. Despite the blistering heat dome, everyone was happy to finally be together off screen, and we even managed a (safe) field trip. With our Board, we planned for equity and diversity training for staff and Board members, scheduled for early 2022.
In August, Christa Croos arrived as our first Articled Student since early 2020. Except for masking, it was beginning to feel a lot more normal at the ELC. Sadly, in the summer we also said goodbye to our wonderful unofficial and much-loved mascot Ruby, who was called to the Rainbow Bridge.
In September, we held a well-attended outdoor welcome event, and the Clinic was full of engaging students, who helped us mark Calvin’s official last teaching class with cake and a song in November. In December, we started to actively transition to our new team model through a reimagined collaborative case roster process.
During all this flurry, our legal team of nine professional staff and lawyers and 23 Clinic students provided over 5,300 hours of legal services to 34 client groups on 32 files, and we publicly released a dozen publications, reports and submissions. We gratefully welcomed into our fold new funders, who are helping to support us over the next few years of transition. We also received fantastic support from existing funders, who are working to make the process of applying and reporting to them more streamlined and equitable. Amazingly, over the course of the year we interacted with 67 volunteers as Clinic guest speakers, lawyers assisting with file supervision, and ELC Associates. Thank you to everyone in the ELC community for continuing to show up for us!
Come January, we will hit the ground running with three new staff members, two Clinics (the Regular Clinic and the Intensive Clinic) and one unified purpose: to make good trouble.
From all of us at the ELC, sincere wishes for a peaceful and safe holiday season. See you in 22!
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SERIES: GOOD NEWS STORIES
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Submission prepared on behalf of the BC Great Blue Heron Society requesting an investigation on the lethal impacts of transmission lines on herons and other birds at the Roberts Bank Superport near Delta, BC.
Link to ELC Submission:
Media:
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UPDATES, IMPACTS AND SHOUT OUTS:
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CONGRATULATIONS to Calvin on teaching his last ELC Clinic class. While Calvin will be with us until August 2023 in a mentorship role, we felt it was important to mark this event and to thank him. Cue cake and song (to be sung again at his formal retirement party so don’t worry that you missed out)…
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CONGRATULATIONS to ELC Executive Director Deborah Curran for receiving the Provost's Award in Engaged Scholarship. Award funds will go towards hiring Huu-ay-aht students to be involved in Deborah’s Field Course in Reconciliation, Ecology and Place-based Law over the next several years.
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NEW CLINIC LAWYER ON DECK! In January we will not only welcome a new Articled Student and a new Coop Student, we will be welcoming Patrick Canning as an ELC Clinic Lawyer! We’ve worked with Patrick for a number of years through our Associates Program and as a client, and we’re very excited to have him join the ELC Team.
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CONGRATULATIONS to ELC Associates Maegen McCallum Giltrow and Marie Potvin on being awarded the title of Queen’s Counsel.
(Photo: Maegen McCallum Giltrow, QC; Photo of Marie Potvin, QC not available)
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UPDATE ON PRINCE GEORGE LAND USE APPLICATION: In November we told you about our clients Too Close for Comfort's opposition to removing land from the Agricultural Land Reserve in order to build a natural gas extraction plant. On Dec 16, the Regional District of Fraser Fort George voted to deny the application, which means it will not be sent to the Agricultural Land Commission for consideration.
CONGRATULATIONS to ELC Clinic students Yomi and Vivian, who were voted by their peers to receive the Rocky Raccoon t-shirt!
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CONGRATULATIONS: to ELC Alum and former Articled Student Savannah and her partner Sandeep on the arrival of Ahaana Pai-Carr!
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Want to share your news with ELC alumni and friends?
Send us the details, and we’ll include them in our next newsletter.
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ELC IN THE NEWS:
Since our last newsletter:
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