http://www.barbarafindlay.com/
I became a lawyer in 1976. Before I went to law school at U.B.C., I completed a B.C. at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, and an M.A. in sociology at U.B.C.
I have had a broad range of legal experience.
I have practised as a union-side labour lawyer; worked for the Legal Services Society (legal aid) doing poverty law, and in policy-making capacities; been a member of the Faculty of Law at UBC; and now have a general practice.
In my non-lawyer capacity, I have done political work and advocacy around issues of sexism, racism, homophobia and disability. As a member of AWARE (the Alliance of Women against Racism Etc.) and as a member of Across Our Differences, I have done hundreds of [unlearning oppression workshops] for groups ranging from workplaces to university classes to legal audiences. It is my conviction that unless we work as hard on the ways we are privileged – whether by white skin, by heterosexuality, by able bodiedness, or by economic advantage– as we do on the ways we are oppressed, equality will never come.
I was also a founding member of the December 9 Coalition, a working coalition of leaders in the LGBT community which does political action and advocacy.
Within the legal profession, I have been a founding member of the provincial and national queer lawyers' groups in the Canadian Bar Association; and a member of the equality committees of the Law Society, the B.C. Branch and the National Canadian Bar Association. I have also been a member of LEAF (the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund) as a board member of West Coast LEAF and as a member of the National Legal Committee.
I have done a good deal of writing on legal topics, ranging from a handbook for West Coast Environmental Law called "Here Today/Here Tomorrow" to theoretical papers on legal issues to free legal information pamphlets.
I co-host a series of legal information workshops on issues affecting the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities with The Centre (the queer community centre in Vancouver).
My name is spelled without capital letters. People make many assumptions about why that is. Here is the story. I have always signed my name without capital letters. When I was taking a graduate studies program in law in 1990, I had letterhead designed and my name was in lower case. I liked it, so I continued it when I went back into private practice. What an uproar! Lawyers called me up to say that they had a vote in their firm about why I chose that spelling; a court once rejected an Order because ‘my name was not properly spelled’ the local queer newspaper refused for years to spell my name without capitals; etc. etc. I realized that I had a perfect illustration of how we react when someone moves even a tiny bit away from the norm, and even with respect to something that impacts no one else at all. So I have kept that spelling, and I tell this story in unlearning oppression workshops.
Many people ask me what ‘Q.C.’ stands for. It means ‘Queen’s Counsel’, and is a designation awarded to the most distinguished members of the legal profession by the Queen (actually, in B.C., through the Attorney General of the Province). I was given a Q.C. in 2001.
Most recently, I have been honoured by being granted an Award of Merit by the new Sexual Diversity Studies Department at the University of Toronto, in recognition of my advocacy on behalf of queer communities in Canada.
THAT's her?
Someone might want to suggest the South Beach Diet to her. Of course, then she'd have no way to prove 'weight-bias' in the courts.
The woman is obtuse and obese. I feel sorry for her. All that education and still looking for something to fill the emptiness inside. She might want to try attending the Church next to the KofC Hall she's attacking.
How about some prayers for a spiritual awakening for the poor woman?