THE ADVOCATE 907
VOL. 79 PART 6 NOVEMBER 2021
countless appeals in the Court of Appeal for British Columbia and appeared
twice as co-counsel in the Supreme Court of Canada.
Liz was a cornerstone of the Appeals Office and universally respected by
her colleagues, defence counsel, and the staff and justices of the Court of
Appeal for her intelligence, professionalism and judgment. She would take
on files when everyone was too busy, volunteer for assignments that no one
wanted and deal with administrative tasks for which there was no reward.
She regularly championed hard workers and those who deserved an opportunity
to take on more demanding files.
Liz was a founding member of the DNA Resource Counsel Group because
of her vast knowledge of this developing science. Due to her interest in preventing
wrongful convictions, she joined and was a committed member of
the Post-Conviction Review Committee. She was also instrumental in assisting
the Prosecution Support Unit with its constitutional litigation when it
was first created.
At the 2015 Crown Counsel Conference, Liz, who was at that time the
Criminal Appeals Sentence Admin Crown, was presented with a Recognition
Award. This was more than apt because following the Supreme Court
of Canada’s decision in R. v. Summers (which altered the approach to calculating
credit for pre-disposition custody), she had to deal with upwards of
100 sentence appeals that year. She did so in her usual way: efficiently and
effectively and without a word of complaint.
In addition to Liz’s court work, she was an active legal writer and educator.
Liz co-authored the “Criminal Law” chapter in the CLEBC publication
Annual Review of Law & Practice for many years. She was also a contributing
author to the Working Manual of Criminal Law and co-authored papers for
the National Criminal Law Program with Greg Fitch, Q.C. (now Justice
Fitch of the Court of Appeal for British Columbia). For many years, Liz
served on the executive of the CBABC’s International Section and spoke at
many Crown counsel conferences and continuing legal education events.
She was also awarded the Young Justice Professionals Award by the International
Society for the Reform of the Criminal Law for her work in South
Africa.
Liz carried herself with poise, intelligence, humility and grace. She was a
treasured friend and colleague to many within the BC Prosecution Service
and to countless others in the judiciary, at the court registry and among the
ranks of defence counsel. Collectively, they remember her deep voice and
dry sense of humour; her unbounded kindness and compassion; and her
judgment and unwavering commitment to justice, always wanting to do the
right thing. She had a vast knowledge of criminal law, which she openly