752 THE ADVOCATE
VOL. 80 PART 5 SEPTEMBER 2022
The Honourable Judge Sheila Archer
Sheila Archer is the latest of our legal stars to reach
the Provincial Court bench, and what a star she is! A
self-made woman, Judge Archer shows how success
and excellence in professional work are truly inspirational
when coupled with compassion, understanding
and a huge dose of common sense.
Sheila grew up in Port Alberni on Vancouver
Island, one of five children: Patty, Sam, Sheila, Mike
and Nancy. The forestry and fishing industries were very lucrative in the
’70s, and Port Alberni had the highest per-capita annual income in Canada
for a number of years. It was a work-hard, play-hard town and higher learning,
travel and achievement were not encouraged for young women.
Sheila grew up in tough and uncertain family circumstances that fortunately
settled when she went to live with her much-beloved grandmother.
Joining the Sea Cadets in her early teens, Sheila started a deep love of the
sea, a lifetime passion for service and a keen interest in the Navy.
Sheila paid her own way through school, working as a waitress, courier
van driver, hotel desk clerk and at other jobs. She spent summers in the military
reserves as a Cadet Instructor’s List officer at HMCS Quadra in Comox,
B.C. She received her bachelor’s degree in criminology from the University
of Ottawa in 1987 and was awarded the Faculty of Social Science Gold Medal
and the Frank Blum Memorial Award. She obtained her LL.B. from the University
of Victoria in 1990.
Sheila joined B.C. Crown Counsel in 1991 in the pre-Crown Counsel Association
days when young prosecutors were hired as contractors. The caseload
was heavy, with five to eight trials scheduled most days, four to five days per
week. Not knowing which trials would go ahead—three at most—or which
would be transferred to another colleague when time ran out, prosecutors
prepared them all as far as time, energy and youthful enthusiasm allowed.
The team felt like ER doctors, triaging cases, obtaining dispositions and
on a good day conducting a cross-examination with surgical precision.
Friendships grew tight in that pressure-cooker environment, as people tried
to balance the importance of the work with reasonable expectations. In the
evenings, after an adrenaline-filled day in court, the team would bond as
young professionals often do—all very responsibly, mind you!
Sheila was thrown in at the deep end. Like many others of her generation,
three weeks after being hired, she was in court prosecuting a child sex-