THE ADVOCATE 271
VOL. 79 PART 2 MARCH 2021
As a prosecutor, Paul quickly developed a reputation as someone whose
ethics and service to the public interest could not be compromised in any
way. He understood intuitively the prosecutorial virtues of objectivity, fair
dealing and discretion. He developed his skills at Lakes Whyte before moving
to Smithers to take a job with the Ministry of the Attorney General as a
Crown prosecutor with the BC Prosecution Service in 2015. In Smithers, his
legal career blossomed as he worked on a number of lengthy and complex
trials, with excellent results. Paul was a careful and well-prepared prosecutor,
highly respected in the profession and well liked by his colleagues. His
last act as a prosecutor, a few hours before his accident, was to offer to fill
in for a prosecutor who had been called away by a death in the family, in a
location more than seven hours from Smithers.
Paul was a skilled and respected member of our profession. But his real
passions were his love for the mountains, his wife Kristen Brewer (called to
the bar in 2013) and his young son born in 2018. He was devoted to both
Kristen and his son.
None of Paul’s teammates on the UBC law school rugby team, if speaking
candidly, would describe him as a naturally gifted rugby player. This was
quite in contrast, however, with his skills as a climber, alpinist and backcountry
skier. Paul was talented and accomplished in all of those areas and
worked hard to hone and maintain his skills. His dedication was matched
by a deep enthusiasm for challenging himself and a love for long days in the
wilderness. He climbed alpine routes in the Coast Mountains, Selkirks and
Bugaboos of British Columbia; the Cascades of Washington; the Sierra
Nevada of California; and countless rock-climbing locales from Squamish to
Europe and back. In recent years he was known in the Bulkley Valley as a
motivated and prolific ski mountaineer, though he rarely talked about his
weekend adventures. I recall a particularly memorable trip on the north
ridge of Mount Baker with our friend Matt Walker (called to the bar in 2009)
in which Paul led the ice pitches with an ease and grace that was inspiring
to watch from the safety of my belay station below. Paul was generous with
his advice about climbing and how to reduce the risk. In one case this
helped to calm, to the extent possible in the circumstances, the fears of a
colleague whose daughters had taken up the sport.
Paul met the love of his life, Kristen, in 2010. They fell in love and, since
Kristen met Paul’s precondition for life partner suitability of also being a
skilled climber, skier and alpinist, they were married in a beautiful ceremony
at Kristen’s family home on Salt Spring Island in 2015. After moving
to Smithers, Paul and Kristen immediately developed a community with
others who enjoyed mountain sports. Paul was proud to be able to tell me