Access to Justice for Children Conference: Child Rights in Action

Presented in collaboration with the CBABC Children's Law Section and Youth advisory participants

(Original date: Thursday, May 11 and Friday, May 12, 2017)

Who should attend: Lawyers in all practice areas, judges, family justice counselors, mediators, arbitrators, parenting coordinators, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, law students and everyone whose work impacts children.

Learning level: All levels

We know your work directly or indirectly affects children in the justice field or administrative decision-making. For this reason, we invite you to attend the Access to Justice for Children – Child Rights in Action Conference in Vancouver on May 11 & 12, 2017.

This is an innovative, multi-disciplinary Conference (an international award winner in 2015) that will share the latest law, knowledge and practice tips to help you better support children affected by justice and administrative decision-making. Here are just three reasons why we encourage you to attend:

1. Young people are integral to this Conference and rarely do we hear their perspectives to inform our work – this will be engaging!

2. You will be the first to be introduced to the Canadian Bar Association’s Child Rights Toolkit, an online resource developed by diverse legal professionals from across Canada that will be brought to life at the Conference - you can use this long into the future – and better understand key themes that cross-cut all areas of the justice system in your practice such as:

• Cultural Competency and what this means for all of us arising from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Recommendations;
• Children living free from all forms of violence; and
• Child participation essentials from the perspectives of psychology, social work, and law enforcement as well as child and family serving agencies.

3. This Conference counts towards your professional education credits whether you are a lawyer, mediator, Hear the Child Roster member, social worker, or other relevant professionals.

Among the many first-rate conference faculty are young people such as Tru Wilson and Cormac O’Dwyer and:

• Bernard Richard, B.C.’s Representative for Children and Youth
• Grand Chief Edward Akile Ch'oh John, First Nations Summit Society
• Judge Marion Buller, Chief Commission of the Missing and Murdered Women’s Inquiry
• Caterina Tempesta, Office of the Children’s Lawyer in Ontario
• Dr. Rachel Birnbaum, Professor, School of Social Work, King’s College, Western University, with recent work focused on child participation
  

Effectively listening to children will be a focus on the afternoon of day two. From the call for cultural competency in the Truth and Reconciliation recommendations to the emergence of child advocacy centres and the Aboriginal Family Court, this Conference will update you on key recent developments affecting your practice. Children’s legal entitlements apply across all areas of legal practice: Aboriginal law; administrative law, dispute resolution, constitutional law and human rights; criminal justice; health law; immigration law; family law, child protection, privacy and access; SOGIC (sexual orientation and gender identity), and wills, estates and trusts. Children’s lives do not begin and end with any particular area of the law, so join us to reflect on how you can strengthen your practice in support of children.

Law Society of BC CPD Hours: 12 hours - 6.75 hours for each day (For Rebroadcasts: A minimum of 2.25 hours pertaining to professional responsibility and ethics, client care, and relations, and/or practice management).
Please note that the CPD hours of the rebroadcast may differ from the CPD hours of the original, live program.

ADR Professionals Annual Maintenance CPD: 6 hours of content applicable for mediators, parenting coordinators and arbitrators.

BC Hear the Child Interviewer Roster: 5 hours of content applicable to CPD towards the 17 hours of additional training required for admission to the BC Hear the Child Interviewer Roster.

Social Workers: Meets the requirements for CPD for Social Workers.

Course Chairs
The Honourable Donna J. Martinson, QC — Retired Justice of the Supreme Court of BC 
Suzanne S. Williams — Brown Henderson Melbye; International Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD), Victoria

Planning Committee
Tess Acton — Maynard Kischer Stojicevic, Vancouver
Holly Anderson — Guardianship Manager, Vancouver Aboriginal Child and Family Services Society, Vancouver
Fiona M. Beveridge — Watson Goepel LLP, Vancouver
Jessie G. Caryl — Lawyer, CBABC Children's Law Section, Vancouver
Creesa Charlette — Vancouver Aboriginal Child and Family Services Society Youth Advisory Committee, Vancouver
Yu-Han (Linda) Chen — founder of Little Lantern Cultural and Heritage Society & adult ally of Fresh Voices Initiative, Vancouver
Cherisse Friesen — Public Guardian and Trustee of BC, Vancouver
Nancy Kartsonas — Student Counsellor, Eric Hamber Secondary School, Vancouver
Kathy Louis — Elder, First Nations Court and Aboriginal Family Healing Court, New Westminster
Cormac O’Dwyer — UBC student, Vancouver
Sarah Rauch — Rauch Darby & Company, Vancouver
Cheyenne Stonechild — International Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD), Vancouver

Featured Speakers
Cormac O'Dwyer — Trans Rights Advocate, AMS Sexual Assault Support Centre Program Coordinator  and UBC Student, Vancouver
Bernard Richard — Representative for Children and Youth, Office of the Representative for Children and Youth, Victoria
Tru Wilson — Transgender Advocate, 14-year-old student, Vancouver

Featured Guests
The Honourable Chief Justice Robert J. Bauman — Court of Appeal for British Columbia, Vancouver
The Honourable Chief Judge Thomas J. Crabtree — Provincial Court of BC, Vancouver
The Honourable Donna J. Martinson, QC — Retired Justice of the Supreme Court of BC, Vancouver

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CLEBC Program Lawyer
Teresa Sheward
tsheward@cle.bc.ca

Course Chairs
The Honourable Donna J. Martinson, QC — Retired Justice of the Supreme Court of BC 
Suzanne S. Williams — Brown Henderson Melbye; International Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD), Victoria


About the Course Chairs

The Honourable Donna J. Martinson, QC was a judge for 21 years and now works on a volunteer basis as an Adjunct Professor at SFU School of Criminology, and as an Honorary Visitor at the UBC Faculty of Law, Centre for Feminist Legal Studies. She is co-chair of the CBABC’s Children’s Law Section and has spearheaded the development of the national CBA’s online Child Rights Toolkit.

Donna became a Judge of the BC Provincial Court in 1991, and of the BC Supreme Court in 1998 and a Deputy Judge of the Yukon Supreme Court in 2005. Before that, she was full-time faculty at the UBC Law Faculty for two years, and practiced as Crown Counsel, criminal defence counsel, and family law lawyer in Calgary for 14 years. Donna started Calgary’s first all-women law firm in 1981. She was appointed Queen’s Counsel in Alberta in 1986 and in 1987 obtained her LLM from Cambridge University, England. She taught family law at the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Law and criminal law at UBC’s Faculty of Law.

In the mid-1990s Donna co-chaired the social context education project for the National Judicial Institute in Ottawa, and chaired the Provincial Court’s Gender Equality Committee. While a BC Supreme Court judge she chaired the Court’s Family Law Committee. The then Chief Justice described her work as being instrumental in changing the way that Court approaches family law matters. She is a long-time member of the Federal Department of Justice Advisory Committee on Family Law and was appointed by the Chief Justice as BC’s representative on the Canadian Network of Contact Judges, which deals with international and national child abduction cases.

Donna has written numerous family law decisions that have been referred to as ground-breaking, and have been followed by courts across Canada and in other countries, including BJG. v. DLG., (2010 YKSC 44) and Hoole v. Hoole, 2008 BCSC 1248. In 2007 Donna received the University of Alberta’s Distinguished Alumnae Award, in 2010 the Trial Lawyers of BC Bench Award, and in 2016 CBABC’s Equality and Diversity Award.


Suzanne S. Williams has been an advocate for children and worked as a lawyer in private practice for a national law firm, for Canada’s Department of Justice, and with an international child rights and development organization based at a university, for over the past 20 years. She is the former Deputy and Legal Director of the International Institute for Child Rights and Development and has worked in partnership with a multitude of partners including UNICEF, Plan International, Microsoft, the European Union, national governments and local child-serving agencies in Canada and internationally to strengthen the way professionals implement child rights.  Beginning in 2004 Suzanne led work in BC to advance child rights within the family justice system and improve how adults hear from children and consider their views in decision-making.  Her research, education, training, and pilot practice on hearing the views of children were instrumental in developing the Hear the Child Interview tool and provisions contained in the BC Family Law Act, establishing the BC Hear the Child Society in 2010 and launching the BC child interviewer roster in 2012. Suzanne has been invited to present to numerous audiences such as the National Judicial Institute of Canada, the Association of Family Conciliation Courts, the World Congress on Family Law and Child Rights, the World Congress against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children and Canada’s Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights.  More recently Suzanne co-chaired with the Honourable Justice Donna J. Martinson QC (retired) a ground-breaking Access to Justice for Children Conference, and is working with the Canadian Bar Association’s National Children’s Law Committee to develop a Child Rights Toolkit to improve how the rights of children are respected and implemented in Canada.

About the Featured Speaker

Bernard Richard was confirmed by the British Columbia Legislature as the province's second Representative for Children and Youth effective Feb. 16, 2017. Mr. Richard was previously appointed by the Select Standing Committee on Children and Youth as British Columbia’s Acting Representative for Children and Youth, effective Nov. 27, 2016. Mr. Richard is a bilingual lawyer whose early career was in social work and as Secretary General of the Société Nationale de l’Acadie. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick, where he served from 1991 to 2003. During this time, he held several cabinet positions and also served as leader of the Official Opposition, Opposition House Leader and chair of the Official Opposition caucus.

In January 2004, Mr. Richard became New Brunswick’s sixth Ombudsman. In November 2006, he was named New Brunswick's first Child and Youth Advocate. Mr. Richard has chaired the Forum of Canadian Ombudsman, the Canadian Council of Parliamentary Ombudsman and the Association des Ombudsmans et Médiateurs de la Francophonie. Since leaving the Ombudsman position in 2011, Mr. Richard has completed assignments for a variety of organizations, including the New Brunswick Legislative Assembly, the City of Fredericton, the P.E.I. Auditor General and New Brunswick First Nations Chiefs.

Mr. Richard has been the recipient of numerous awards, most notably the Léger-Comeau Medal of the Société Nationale de l'Acadie, the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, an Honourary Ph.D from Mount Allison University, the Lieutenant Governor’s Dialogue Award, the Learning Partnership’s Champion of Public Education Award, the New Brunswick Human Rights Award and the designation of Queen's Counsel.
He is actively involved in several charitable organizations, mostly in the areas of children’s rights, youth mental health and enhanced opportunities for Aboriginal children.

Featuring Special Guests

The Honourable Robert J. Bauman is the Chief Justice of British Columbia, Chief Justice of the Court of Appeal for British Columbia and Chief Justice of the Court of Appeal of Yukon.

He was appointed as a justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia in 1996; as a justice of the Court of Appeal for British Columbia in 2008; as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia in 2009; and as Chief Justice of British Columbia in 2013. Prior to becoming a judge, he was in private practice with Bull, Housser & Tupper in Vancouver. He worked largely in the areas of local government and administrative law. While practicing law, he taught administrative law at the University of British Columbia Faculty of Law as an adjunct professor from 1991 to 1996.

In 2012, and again in 2013, Chief Justice Bauman was named by Canadian Lawyer Magazine as one of the “Top 25 Most Influential” in the justice system in Canada. He was also presented with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Commemorative Medal for contributions to Canada. As well, Chief Justice Bauman is the 2012 recipient of the Anthony P. Pantages, QC Medal for outstanding contributions to the field of justice, presented by The Justice Institute of British Columbia Foundation. Chief Justice Bauman was the recipient of the 2013 TLABC Bench Award by the Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia. In 2015, he was appointed First Vice-Chair of the Canadian Judicial Council. Chief Justice Bauman is the founding Chair of Access to Justice BC.

The Honourable Chief Judge Thomas J. Crabtree is the Chief Judge of the Provincial Court of British Columbia. Born in London and raised in British Columbia, he became a lawyer in 1984 and was a partner at a law firm in the Fraser Valley where he helped a wide range of people with criminal and civil litigation matters. He was appointed as a judge of the Provincial Court in February 1999.  In April 2010 Judge Crabtree was appointed Chief Judge of the Provincial Court and Chair of Judicial Council. Chief Judge Crabtree is involved with judicial education. He chaired the Provincial Court Education Committee for a number of years and the Education Review Committee which assessed the delivery of education for the Court. He frequently speaks to community organizations about the Provincial Court and the justice system. In July 2013 Chief Judge Crabtree was appointed to the Board of Governors of the National Judicial Institute.


Marion Buller was appointed the first female First Nations judge in British Columbia in 1994. Prior to being appointed to the Provincial Court bench, Judge Buller worked as a civil and criminal lawyer (1988-1994). Judge Buller served as both a director and president of Canada's Indigenous Bar Association and has been a member of the B.C. Police Commission and the Law Court Education Society. She was the Commission Counsel for the Caribou-Chilcotin Justice Inquiry and published reports and articles dealing with Aboriginal rights and legal services for First Nations in British Columbia. Judge Buller was instrumental in starting the First Nations Court of British Columbia in 2006.

Marion retired as a judge of the B.C. Provincial Court in August 2016 in order to accept the appointment as Chief Commissioner for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.


Planning Committee
Tess Acton — Maynard Kischer Stojicevic, Vancouver
Holly Anderson — Guardianship Manager, Vancouver Aboriginal Child and Family Services Society, Vancouver
Fiona M. Beveridge — Watson Goepel LLP, Vancouver
Jessie G. Caryl — Lawyer, CBABC Children's Law Section, Vancouver
Yu-Han (Linda) Chen — Founder of the Little Lantern Cultural and Heritage Society & adult ally of Fresh Voices Initiative, Vancouver
J. Cherisse Friesen — Legal Counsel, Child and Youth Services, Public Guardian and Trustee of BC, Vancouver
Nancy Kartsonas — Student Counsellor, Eric Hamber Secondary School, Vancouver
Kathy Louis, BA, MSM, OBC — Elder, First Nations Court and Aboriginal Family Healing Court, New Westminster
Cormac O’Dwyer — Student, Program Coordinator, Trans Rights Advocate, AMS Sexual Assult Support Centre, University of BC, Vancouver
Sarah Rauch — Rauch Darby & Company, Vancouver
Cheyenne Stonechild —International Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD), Vancouver

Faculty
The Honourable Chief Justice Robert J. Bauman — Court of Appeal for BC, Vancouver
The Honourable Chief Judge Thomas J. Crabtree — Provincial Court of BC, Vancouver
The Honourable Judge Rosemary Gallagher — Provincial Court of BC, Vancouver
The Honourable Donna J. Martinson, QC — Retired Justice of the Supreme Court of BC, Vancouver
Marion Buller — Chief Commissioner, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry, Vancouver
Amber Abou — Youth Advisory Committee, Vancouver Aboriginal Child and Family Services Society, Vancouver
Tess Acton — Maynard Kischer Stojicevic, Vancouver
Mary T. Ainslie, QC — Senior Crown Counsel, Ministry of Justice, Vancouver
Dr. Wilma G. Arruda — Medical Director Pediatrics, Child, Youth and Family Health, Island Health, Nanaimo
Romona Baxter, BSW — Executive Director, Nzen'man' Child and Family Development Centre Society
Deborah Bell — Aboriginal School and Student Support Worker, Vancouver
Fiona M. Beveridge — Watson Goepel LLP, Vancouver
Dr. Rachel Birnbaum, RSW, LLM — Professor, Childhood Studies & Social Institutions and Social Work, King’s University College, Western, London
Halie Kwanxwa'loga Bruce — Cedar and Sage Law Corporation, Chilliwack
George Bryce — Barrister & Solicitor, Vancouver 
Theresa Campbell — Elder, Musqueam First Nation, Vancouver
Jessie G. Caryl — Lawyer, CBABC Children's Law Section, Vancouver
Yu-Han (Linda) Chen — Founder of the Little Lantern Cultural and Heritage Society & adult ally of Fresh Voices Initiative, Vancouver
Dale Hensley, QC — Barrister & Solicitor, Former ED and Senior Counsel - Children's Legal & Educational Resource Centre, Calgary
Dr. Margaret Jackson — Director, FREDA Centre for Research on Violence Against Women and Children, Simon Fraser University, School of Criminology, Vancouver
Hanna Jacobsen — Grade 12 student, Vancouver 
Grand Chief Edward Akile Ch'oh John — First Nations Summit Society, West Vancouver
Nancy Kartsonas — Student Counsellor, Eric Hamber Secondary School, Vancouver
Frances M. Kelly — Community Legal Assistance Society, Vancouver
Dr. Mary Korpach, RPsych — Vancouver
Kathy Louis, BA, MSM, OBC — Elder, First Nations Court and Aboriginal Family Healing Court, New Westminster
Rachel Malek — Society for Children & Youth of BC, Vancouver
Weeshay McMahon — BC Youth in Care Network, New Westminster
Sharif Mohammad — Fresh Voices Initiative, Vancouver
Tiana Muskego — Youth Advisory Committee, Vancouver Aboriginal Child and Family Services Society, Vancouver
Cormac O’Dwyer — Trans Rights Advocate, AMS Sexual Assault Support Centre Program Coordinator and UBC Student, Vancouver
Sarah Rauch — Rauch Darby & Company, Vancouver
Joanna Recalma — Barrister & Solicitor, Nanaimo
Bernard Richard — Representative for Children and Youth, Office of the Representative for Children and Youth, Victoria
D. Wayne Robertson, QC — Law Foundation of BC, Vancouver
Catherine M. Romanko — Public Guardian and Trustee of BC
Sienna Russell — Grade 12 student, Vancouver
Jaye Simpson — BC Youth in Care Network, New Westminster
Cheyenne Stonechild — International Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD), Vancouver
Edward James Taylor — Bladerunners - Aboriginal Community Career Employment Services Society, Vancouver
Caterina E. Tempesta — Senior Counsel, Office of the Children's Lawyer, Ministry of the Attorney General, Toronto 
Amber Timothy — Martland & Saulnier, UBC First Nations Legal Clinic, Vancouver
Erika Trube — Youth Advisory Committee, Vancouver Aboriginal Child and Family Services Society, Vancouver
Ardith Walpetko We’dalx Walkem — Cedar and Sage Law Corporation, Chilliwack
Michael F. Welsh — President, Candian Bar Association of BC, Mott Welsh & Associates, Penticton
Derek Wiebe —Barrister & Solicitor, Vancouver
Suzanne S. Williams — Brown Henderson Melbye, International Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD), Victoria
Tru Wilson — Transgender Advocate, 14-year-old student, Ladner
Judith Wright — Clinical Coordinator, Victoria Child Abuse Prevention and Counselling Centre, Victoria Child and Youth Advocacy Centre, Victoria
Sajedeh Zaki — Fresh Voices Initiative, Vancouver

Day 1: Thursday, May 11, 2017

Welcome and Introduction

Welcome Prayer and Opening Remarks

The Honourable Donna J. Martinson, QC — Retired Justice of the Supreme Court of BC, Vancouver
Elder Theresa Campbell — Musqueam First Nation
Suzanne S. Williams — Brown Henderson Melbye, International Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD), Victoria

Unveiling the CBA Child Rights Toolkit: A Child Rights Framework

The Canadian Bar Association, as part of its Reaching Equal Justice initiatives, recognized that while adults face access to justice challenges that are significant and difficult to remedy, these problems are amplified for young people, especially vulnerable, high risk and marginalized children and youth. Young people have broad legal entitlements under domestic and international law, and in particular under the Charter and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, designed to ensure their overall well-being. Yet legal education about these rights has been limited and there is a lack of user-friendly resources available to assist.

The CBA national Children’s Law Committee has collaborated with lawyers and other professionals across Canada to create a comprehensive Child Rights Toolkit. We are pleased to introduce it in collaboration with young people who will discuss why child rights matter to them. The Toolkit provides a framework for analysis over many areas of law and focuses on practical suggestions for legal professionals that can be incorporated into their day to day work.

Why Child Rights Matter — Young People’s Perspectives

Jessie G. Caryl — Lawyer, CBABC Children's Law Section, Vancouver
Yu-Han (Linda) Chen — Founder of the Little Lantern Cultural and Heritage Society & adult ally of Fresh Voices Initiative, Vancouver
Cheyenne Stonechild — International Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD), Vancouver

Addressing Child Rights through the CBA Online Toolkit

The Honourable Donna J. Martinson, QC — Retired Justice of the Supreme Court of BC, Vancouver
Dale Hensley, QC — Barrister & Solicitor, Former ED and Senior Counsel - Children's Legal & Educational Resource Centre, Calgary
Caterina E. Tempesta — Senior Counsel, Office of the Children's Lawyer, Ministry of the Attorney General, Toronto
Suzanne S. Williams — Brown Henderson Melbye, International Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD), Victoria

Why Access to Justice for Children Matters

The Honourable Chief Justice Robert J. Bauman — Court of Appeal for British Columbia, Vancouver
The Honourable Chief Judge Thomas J. Crabtree — Provincial Court of BC, Vancouver
D. Wayne Robertson, QC — Law Foundation of British Columbia, Vancouver
Michael F. Welsh — President, CBABC, Mott Welsh & Associates, Penticton

Break

The Child: Cultural Competency for Lawyers

In all areas of practice, including family law, criminal law/youth criminal justice, and child protection, cultural competency is an essential aspect of legal professionalism.

This session provides information about how you can obtain the knowledge you need to be culturally competent. We will focus on understanding the lived realities of children in a diverse society, and the responsibilities of legal professionals as identified by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report.

Moderator: Sarah Rauch — Rauch Darby & Company, Vancouver
The Honourable Judge Rosemary Gallagher — Provincial Court of BC, Vancouver
Amber Abou — Youth Advisory Committee, Vancouver Aboriginal Child and Family Services Society, Vancouver
Grand Chief Edward Akile Ch'oh John — First Nations Summit Society, West Vancouver
Tiana Muskego — Youth Advisory Committee, Vancouver Aboriginal Child and Family Services Society, Vancouver
Joanna Recalma — Barrister & Solicitor, Nanaimo
Erika Trube — Youth Advisory Committee, Vancouver Aboriginal Child and Family Services Society, Vancouver
Ardith Walpetko We’dalx Walkem — Cedar and Sage Law Corporation, Chilliwack

Lunch with Featured Speaker:
The Convention on the Rights of the Child as Foundational to Competency in Work With Children

Bernard Richard — Representative for Children and Youth, Office of the Representative for Children and Youth, Victoria

Youth Criminal Justice

Canada’s Youth Criminal Justice Act expressly references the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and contains processes and a range of sentences for young people to enhance their rights and protections.

This session will review the realities of young people in conflict with law, key cases that recognize the special vulnerability of children and their right to legal counsel, as well as multi-disciplinary practices that support the rights of children who have been witnesses or victims of crime.

Moderator: Sarah Rauch — Rauch Darby & Company, Vancouver
Edward James Taylor — Bladerunners - Aboriginal Community Career Employment Services Society, Vancouver
Amber Timothy — Martland & Saulnier, UBC First Nations Legal Clinic, Vancouver
Derek H. Wiebe — Barrister & Solicitor, Vancouver

Child Protection

When the level of care parents provide to children falls below minimum standards the State will intervene. Child protection laws, regulations, and practices that provide for this intervention, particularly when the child is removed from the home, must conform with the child’s rights under the Charter and under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

With “best interests of the child” as the overarching consideration in child protection legislation across Canada, this session will explore ways the legal fundamentals can be applied in practice to advance the child’s rights and well-being, even when faced with competing interests and rights.

Moderator: Suzanne S. Williams — Brown Henderson Melbye; International Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD), Victoria
Halie Kwanxwa'loga Bruce — Cedar and Sage Law Corporation, Chilliwack
Grand Chief Edward Akile Ch'oh John — First Nations Summit Society, West Vancouver
Wheeshay McMahon — BC Youth in Care Network, New Westminster
Jaye Simpson — BC Youth in Care Network, New Westminster

Break

Education & Health

The link between educational services and universal child rights standards is often not made despite the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child addressing both access and quality of young people’s education. With young people spending most of their time in educational settings both their educational rights and many interrelated rights such as the right to health, privacy or consent arise.

In this session, we cover the legal fundamentals in these critical areas, as well as concrete examples of the interconnected nature of these rights and considerations to strengthen your daily practice as legal, education or mental health practitioner.

Moderator: Suzanne S. Williams — Brown Henderson Melbye; International Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD), Victoria
Dr. Wilma Arruda — Medical Director Pediatrics, Child, Youth and Family Health, Island Health, Nanaimo
Deborah Bell — Aboriginal School and Student Support Worker, Vancouver
George K. Bryce — Barrister & Solicitor, Vancouver
Hanna Jacobsen — Grade 12 student, Vancouver
Nancy Kartsonas — Student Counsellor, Eric Hamber Secondary School, Vancouver
Frances M. Kelly — Community Legal Assistance Society, Vancouver
Sienna Russell — Grade 12 student, Vancouver

Day 2: Friday, May 12, 2017

Opening Remarks: Highlights from Day One

Freedom from Violence

The Convention on the Rights of the Child establishes a child's right to be free from all forms of violence. It places responsibilities on professionals to implement this right, using a holistic approach and just, timely, child-friendly processes that do not cause further harm, while facilitating child victim participation.

This session with help improve your practice by:

(a) providing an enhanced understanding of the nature of violence against children, its impact, and potential remedies.
(b)  providing practical tips on how to ensure that decision making processes in criminal cases where children are victims of violence are just, timely, and child-friendly.

Moderator: Jessie G. Caryl — Lawyer, CBABC Children’s Law Section, Vancouver
Mary T. Ainslie, QC — Senior Crown Counsel, Ministry of Justice, Vancouver
Dr. Margaret Jackson —  Director, FREDA Centre for Research on Violence Against Women and Children, Simon Fraser University, School of Criminology, Vancouver
Cheyenne Stonechild — International Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD), Vancouver
Judith Wright — Clinical Coordinator, Victoria Child Abuse Prevention and Counselling Centre, Victoria Child and Youth Advocacy Centre, Victoria

Immigration and Refugee Children

Immigrant and refugee children are among the most vulnerable. Cases involving these children intersect with many areas of law, including family law, children protection, and criminal law/youth criminal justice. Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act must be interpreted in ways that comply with children’s rights under the Charter and the Convention on the Rights of the Child but there are significant gaps in implementing it in this way.

This session identifies special considerations that apply to such children and provides practical practice tips on what professionals can to do address those gaps.

Moderator: Tess Acton — Maynard Kischer Stojicevic, Vancouver
Yu-Han (Linda) Chen — founder of Little Lantern Cultural and Heritage Society & adult ally of Fresh Voices Initiative, Vancouver
Sharif Mohammad — Fresh Voices Initiative
Caterina E. Tempesta — Senior Counsel, Office of the Children's Lawyer, Ministry of the Attorney General, Toronto
Sajedeh Zaki — Fresh Voices Initiative, Vancouver

Break

Civil Justice

Young people have an array of civil legal needs beyond criminal, parental custody and access disputes, and child protection matters. They may face employment challenges, landlord and tenant issues, estates, litigation, business or administrative law matters. A young person who does not have the benefit of parents or other adults advocating for them faces many of the same legal issues confronting adults.

In this session you will learn about some of the civil justice issues young people experience, receive tips on supporting child rights in practice, and gain an understanding of systemic supports available such as through the Public Guardian and Trustee.

Moderator: J. Cherisse Friesen — Public Guardian and Trustee of BC, Vancouver
Dale Hensley, QC — Barrister & Solicitor, Former ED and Senior Counsel - Children's Legal & Educational Resource Centre, Calgary
Rachel Malek — Society for Children & Youth of BC, Vancouver
Catherine M. Romanko — Public Guardian and Trustee of BC

Family Law

The CBA Child Rights Toolkit states that “with children so reliant on the adults around them to realize their rights in family law, responsibility rests with the adults - parents, lawyers, judges, mediators, counselors and child specialists to facilitate this realization.” This includes meaningful participation rights.

This session will feature the Aboriginal Family Healing Court Conference Initiative, and the lessons everyone can learn from it.  It provides specific practice tools to address the numerous ways in which child rights are directly engaged in family law cases, ways which include, but go well beyond their participation. It will consider independent legal representation for children.

Moderator: Fiona M. Beveridge — Watson Goepel LLP, Vancouver
The Honourable Donna J. Martinson, QC — Retired Justice of the Supreme Court of BC, Vancouver
Marion Buller — Chief Commissioner, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry
Kathy Louis, BA, MSM, OBC — Elder, Aboriginal Family Healing Court, New Westminster
Caterina E. Tempesta — Senior Counsel, Office of the Children's Lawyer, Ministry of Attorney General, Toronto

Lunch with Featured Speakers:
Child Rights in Action: Lived Experiences

Cormac O’Dwyer — Trans Rights Advocate, AMS Sexual Assault Support Centre Program Coordinator and UBC Student, Vancouver
Tru Wilson — Transgender Advocate, 14-year-old student, Ladner

Fundamentals of Child Participation in Practice

Child participation is essential to informing best interests and making good decisions about children, whether the child is a party with standing, the subject, a witness, or an affected third party in legal or administrative decision-making. Five essential steps are required to implement a child’s right to participation, in every context and area of law.

In this session, young people and diverse professionals including an evaluator of children in family law and child protection matters and legal counsel to children will discuss these essentials and offer practical tips that participants can implement both during the session and in future practice.

Fundamentals of Child Participation in Practice – Part I

Introduction and high points from Toolkit

Moderator: Suzanne S. Williams — Brown Henderson Melbye; International Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD), Victoria

Step 1: Prepare the Child

Step 2: Hear the Child

Young People’s Perspectives

Cheyenne Stonechild — International Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD), Vancouver

Child and Family Serving Agency Perspective

Romona Baxter, BSW — Executive Director, Nzen'man' Child and Family Development Centre Society, Lytton

Interviewers of Children (Including Criminal vs. Civil Interview Context)

Dr. Mary Korpach, RPsych — Vancouver
Dr. Rachel Birnbaum, RSW, LLM — Professor, Cross-appointed to Childhood Studies & Social Institutions and Social Work, King’s University College, Western, Ontario

Lawyer for Children

Caterina E. Tempesta — Senior Counsel, Office of the Children's Lawyer, Ministry of Attorney General, Toronto

Audience Participation — Discussion and Practice

Break

Fundamentals of Child Participation in Practice Part II

Step 3: Assess the Child’s Capacity

Step 4: Give Due Weight to the Child’s Views, Explain the Decision to the Child

Dr. Mary Korpach, RPsych — Vancouver
Dr. Rachel Birnbaum, RSW, LLM — Professor, Cross-appointed to Childhood Studies & Social Institutions and Social Work, Member, College of Royal Society of Canada, King’s University College, Western, Ontario
The Honourable Donna J. Martinson, QC — Retired Justice of the Supreme Court of BC, Vancouver

Questions and Discussion

Step 5: Complaints, Remedies & Redress — Accountability to Children

Romona Baxter, BSW — Executive Director, Nzen'man' Child and Family Development Centre Society, Lytton
Cheyenne Stonechild — International Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD), Vancouver
Caterina E. Tempesta — Senior Counsel, Office of the Children's Lawyer, Ministry of Attorney General, Toronto

Closing