EQUITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION FOR LAWYERS AND MEDIATORS
DECEMBER 21, 2022
9:00AM - 12:00PM
- Connecting ethics with equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI)
- Self-assessment of EDI knowledge and practice
- Analyzing how EDI impacts legal interactions and dispute resolution
- Applying EDI principles to your legal or dispute resolution practice
Written materials will be provided.
This course is approved for 3.0 hours of LSBC CPD credits, including 2.0 hours of ethics.
COURSE PRESENTERS
Mark Tweedy, C. Med.. C. Arb
Mark Tweedy (he/him) is an experienced mediator, arbitrator, and court-appointed class action adjudicator. Mark was called to the BC bar in 1982, and practiced civil litigation for over 30 years. He commenced working exclusively as a mediator, arbitrator, and adjudicator in 2014.
Mark has a broad mediation practice. His experience ranges from relatively simple two party disputes to complex multi-party litigation. He has provided services to clients in the public and private sectors, including non-profits and community based organisations. He is frequent speaker on ADR topics to the legal profession.
Mark is a roster member of Mediate BC, the BC Arbitration and Mediation Institute, and the ADR Institute of Canada. He is a member of the Canadian Association of Dispute Neutrals, and a Distinguished Fellow of the International Academy of Mediators. He received his Chartered Mediator designation in 2017, and his Chartered Arbitrator designation in 2020.
He is active in the community and in the legal profession. He is a volunteer, board member and the President of the Lawyers Assistance Program of BC.
Mark frequently encounters equity, diversity and inclusion issues in his practice. As part of learning to deal with these issues himself, he has partnered with Taslim and Tanya to present this course.
Taslim Damji
Taslim Damji (she, her, hers) lives on the lands of the Coast Salish Nations. She is an Instructor at Vancouver Community College and at the University of the Fraser Valley. She holds a Master’s degree from King’s College, University of London and has been working in the field of Language, Settlement, Diversity and Well-being for many years as a Consultant, Teacher Educator, Trainer, and Facilitator. Taslim has designed and delivered courses and training that promote Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) for local and national audiences; she currently sits on the EDI Committee at VCC. Taslim is a Registered Yoga Teacher, Mindfulness Instructor, Intercultural Practitioner, IDI Qualified Administrator and Anti-Racism Trainer as well as Former President of SIETAR BC.
Her interest in JEDI work came out of the challenges she witnessed, and continues to witness, friends, family, colleagues, and strangers experience as well as from trying to make sense of her own experience as a racialized person. Her journey, as a person and an educator, has included an ongoing commitment to learn about our human differences and how to respond to them in honest and meaningful ways; she believes that acknowledging and tending to our differences and positionality in an intentional, genuine and respectful way, promotes the growth of equitable and healthy relationships and societies.
When she is not working, she enjoys spending time with others, traveling, exploring art and culture, swimming, and going for long walks.
Tanya Cowie
Tanya Cowie- (she, her) BA; TESOL; Socio-Cultural Training; UBC Intercultural Certificate; IDI Qualified Administrator, SIETARBC board member; Anti-Racism Response Training; BC Campus Pedagogies in Anti-Racism badge.
Tanya has been an English as an Additional language instructor, teaching English to Adult Immigrants, Refugees, and international students for over 25 years. Her interests include English Language Acquisition, Intercultural Communication, and Anti-Racism.
She began her interest in Intercultural Communication when she lived and taught English in the Cote d’Ivoire and Japan. Tanya received a certificate in Intercultural Studies from UBC and has become an Intercultural Development Inventory Qualified Administrator. She is now a board member of SIETAR BC. (Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research) and presents on her ongoing learning on Anti-Racism. She is aware of the history of racism in Canada and its impacts on Indigenous and other racialized peoples, and is committed to working toward change, reconciliation, and healing. She is currently doing her MA with University of Athabasca with a focus on Equity.
Hobbies include reading, spending time with her sons, biking, kayaking, and hiking with her dog.
As a white, cis-gendered woman, and a settler on unceded Coast Salish Territory, Tanya strives to continually reflect on her positionality.