THE ADVOCATE 427
VOL. 80 PART 3 MAY 2022
Professor Nikos Harris is the academic lead for the ILS Academic Leadership
Certificate, alongside Lee, who facilitates the program’s leadership sessions.
Through the certificate program, Nikos has had the opportunity to
work with students who completed the first ILS Summer Intensive and the
new ILS Summer Intensive in Tort Law. He says he was struck by the strong
sense of community that the ILS Summer Intensive continues to foster.
“There were a couple of students who weren’t a part of the summer course,
but the group is so strong that they bring others into the community that
they’ve built,” he explains.
Professor Anne Uteck shared her reflections on the success of the course
and the value of early community building: “This was accomplished not just
by being together and getting to know everyone, but also through the mentoring
and cultural events; the Indigenous programming weaved through
the course; the constant interaction, support and presence of the team
throughout the course in person and online; encouraging all guests to share
and situate themselves; and making space for students to feel safe and
respected, and ultimately comfortable and confident sharing, speaking and
working collaboratively. We all saw, and felt, by the end of the course that
this objective was achieved, and now, we are all seeing these connections
flourish every day at Allard.”
Now in his first year of law school, Gabriel George says completing the
ILS Summer Intensive in Tort Law laid the groundwork for him and his
classmates to approach their studies through their own unique Indigenous
lens, and that increasing the representation of Indigenous lawyers in
Canada who can do just that is critical: “Although the Canadian legal system
is a vehicle of colonialism, it’s crucial for more Indigenous peoples to get
involved in this field to help assert our inherent rights and to provide
Indigenous peoples with meaningful representation and protection in the
colonial justice system.”
Summer Intensive in Tort Law Returns This Summer
We’re pleased to announce that ILS will be offering the ILS Summer Intensive
in Tort Law in summer 2022. For more information, please contact ILS
Associate Director Lee Schmidt at <lschmidt@allard.ubc.ca>.
We are grateful to the donors who made the 2021 ILS Summer Intensive in Tort
Law possible and to all who generously gave of their time and expertise.
ENDNOTE
1. Our editorial instincts usually do not allow for the
use of adjectives as nouns, let alone capitalized
adjectives as that. But we expect that the vernacular
for an intensive course at the Peter A. Allard School
of Law is very probably “Intensive” as in “did you
take the Intensive?” or “I didn’t see you at the Intensive
this morning.” And seeing as the editor has just
had a cup of Bold and is enjoying the Spectacular,
we have gone with the flow! – Ed.
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