Introduction to Canadian Law and Society

Dr. Qian Liu is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Sociology at the University of Calgary. She completed her Ph.D. in Law from the University of Victoria in 2020. Dr. Liu’s research focuses on gender and the law, feminist legal theory, law and society, legal pluralism, postcolonial feminist theory, and qualitative research. Dr. Liu is the author of several articles, including “Legal Consciousness of the Leftover Woman: Law and Qing in Chinese Family Relations,” which won the 2019 Asian Law and Society Association Graduate Student Article Award. Her doctoral research was featured by BBC World News in 2017. Dr. Liu has taught several courses at UVic and uCalgary, including Introduction to Legal Studies, Legal Process, and Sexual Orientation and the Law.

Justine Semmens has a PhD in history from the University of Victoria. Teaching in CAPI’s Introduction to Canadian Law and Society Program is important to her because building opportunities for cross-cultural exchange, knowledge, and connection is a vital component of twenty-first century post secondary instruction and learning. In addition to teaching history, Justine is also a learning strategist, humanities tutor, and matching facilitator with UVic’s Learning Assistance Program and is an Associate Fellow at the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society.

My pedagogical philosophy is grounded in a commitment to inquiry-based learning and an accessibility framework which encourages inquisitiveness and an engaged approach to problem solving.  History consists of the stories that we tell about the past. It reflects not only the values and perspectives of the people who we study, but also reflects the evolving vantage points and methods of interrogation of the historians who write this history. It is important that my students come away with an appreciation of these rich relationships between the past and the present.

Michael Abe, a Nikkei Sansei has been involved in the Japanese Canadian community in both Ontario and Victoria, maintaining close ties with Japan. He is past president of the Victoria Nikkei Cultural Society, was involved with the National Association of Japanese Canadians Victoria chapter and was the editor of the Victoria Nikkei Forum from 2001-16. Mike was instrumental in forming Support Japan 2011 Gambare Nippon, which brought the Japanese Canadian community and greater community in Victoria together to raise funds for the earthquake and tsunami victims.

Michael is currently the project manager for Landscapes of Injustice, a research project focussed on the dispossession of property owned by Japanese Canadians during the 1940s. Previous to that, he worked in the tourism industry for over 20 years, marketing and promoting Victoria and British Columbia as a world class tourist destination and holds a B.Sc. degree from McMaster University.

George P.R. Benson is a resilience practitioner and writer working on urban resilience, climate action, and equitable and inclusive economic development. He is the co-founder of the Climate Displacement Planning Initiative, a non-profit raising awareness and building solutions to address climate change displacement, and currently works on decarbonization and resilience planning in Vancouver and around the world. He is the North American lead on climate action within the World Economic Forum’s young leaders network, the Global Shapers Community, has served in the leadership of both the Canadian and American urban planning associations, and has been both a Canadian and civil society delegate to UN and other, global forums. In 2018 he was awarded the City of Vancouver’s Award of Excellence for his work on climate action and equity.

Optional video: Living and Grieving in the Age of Climate Change

• Action-oriented - focused on creating a conceptual understanding of issues to drive real work in the world
• Engagement and discussion focused - I will present and provide information, but I always aim to create a rich space for student discussion 
• Critically reflexive - I am to equip students / colleagues / collaborators with the tools to ask critical questions about contemporary issues, with an eye towards creating inclusive, just, and sustainable public policy and community responses 
• Intersectional - I strive to be as intersectional in my work as possible, highlighting the disproportionate impacts of climate change, for example, on historically marginalized communities, and, in the Canadian context specifically, to situate work in an understanding of Canada's settler-colonial history and the need for reconciliation with Indigenous peoples 
• Institutional - much of my teaching and analysis is focused on the institutional context and much of my research and teaching is focused on navigating diverse institutional contexts, particularly on transnational issues

Recently retired from Global Affairs Canada, Ken Macartney is now an Associate Fellow at the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria. Throughout his 36-year career in the Canadian foreign service, Ken served in many capacities, including as Ambassador to Sweden, Deputy High Commissioner to India, Director General for South and Southeast Asia and Oceania and Director for International Environmental Relations. He worked in the Political Affairs sections of the Canadian embassies in Norway, Sweden and Japan, and in 2018/19 filled in as acting Ambassador to Norway. At headquarters he also dealt with such issues as the UN, relations with the Middle East and anti-apartheid measures, and led Canadian delegations in numerous multilateral negotiations, in particular on global sustainable development issues.

Patricia Kidd is a cultural historian who has been working in the field of art history and material culture for more than three decades. She has lectured in those fields at the University of Victoria, and widely at the community level. She holds a B.A. in Fine Arts from the University of Victoria, an M.A. in History, Professional Certification in Cultural Resources Management, and is currently pursuing her Doctorate. 

I love to learn, and I love to teach just as much!  My life-long engagement with academia, in its many facets, is testament to those facts.  Everything I learn is in service to my greater understanding of the world’s many diverse and remarkable cultures.  As intrigued as I am by the differences we exhibit in the way we live our lives, my focus has always been commonalities.  I share what I’ve learned because I delight in seeing those remarkable moments when inspiration and understanding strikes in my students.  I know, then, that they will use what I’ve taught them in their own search for wisdom, confidence, and to better appreciate the beauty possible in humanity.