THE ADVOCATE 751
VOL. 80 PART 5 SEPTEMBER 2022
Tamera has also embraced the prairies. She has been a faithful member
of the Dawson Creek Art Gallery board for quite a number of years. For
those who know the city, the art gallery building is iconic in how it represents
the prairies, in that it is a wooden grain elevator that was moved from
elevator row to its present location right at Mile Zero of the Alaska Highway.
Tamera has also helped to satisfy the community’s legal services needs
through her guidance of local advocates for those unable to afford legal
help. For many years, she supervised the poverty law program funded by
the Law Foundation and situated within the South Peace Community
Resources Society.
For the reader looking for the unusual, there is the story of how Tamera
received notice that she had been selected to be a judge.
By July 2020, our world was convulsed by the COVID-19 pandemic. One
micro-scale consequence was that two Europeans were unable to fly to
Canada and get to the northern Rockies for a Wayne Sawchuk-led two-week
expedition to the Kechika River. Wayne is a well-known and highly
respected conservationist working in northeast British Columbia, and his
horseback riding expeditions in the Muskwa-Kechika region are booked
years in advance. After these Europeans cancelled, though, Tamera and a
friend filled the empty spots.
Picture this. The Muskwa-Kechika is just to the south of the Yukon border,
and is one of the most remote and beautiful regions of the Rocky Mountains.
Its eastern end is close to Fort Nelson. These adventures involve
horseback rides into various areas, and then a floatplane trip out as another
group flies in to ride the horses back to the highway. The trip Tamera was
on involved 16 days into the Rockies, followed by a two-hour flight back out.
All supplies were carried by horses. There was no cell service, internet or
contact with any other humans except through satellites. Wayne would
check his phone at day’s end.
Day five of the trip: Tamera has just finished 16 hours of riding across the
Rocky Mountain Divide in the rain. The group sets up camp. Wayne checks
his satellite phone and tells Tamera to power hers up and contact Rod. As
they message back and forth, Tamera realizes that she has until 1 p.m. the
next day to let the Attorney General know if she would accept the position
of judge.
There cannot be that many judicial appointments arranged within the
province by radio-phone, then confirmed by a proxy!
The first soul Tamera told was Gypsy, her spirited horse (known as one
of the “brides of Satan”). This trip of a lifetime was also her transition to a
new adventure in the courtroom. All indications are that she is fully
embracing it.