Steve Mulhall
Ginny, Sarah, Ben, Shannon and Steve Mulhall
After graduating from MRHS I attended Bishop's University for two years, then transferred to Queen's University, where I graduated with a B. Comm. (Hons.) in 1969. I spent a year doing labouring jobs, skiing and travelling in Europe, then attended University of Toronto Law School starting in 1970, where I graduated with an LLB in 1973.
Ginny Tatam and I married Dec. 31, 1970 and are still together. While in law school I became involved with Rochdale College, where we lived in a commune (on and off). Ginny (Dalhousie BSc 1968, McGill BPT 1970) supported us by working as a physiotherapist. I received a BA from Rochdale—one of my greatest accomplishments. To earn a Rochdale BA you must pay $25 and answer a skill-testing question.
After my graduation from law school in the spring of 1973 we headed to Vancouver, together with the remnants of the Rochdale commune. Ginny continued work as a physiotherapist, I articled with a small law firm, and our commune bought a house. The commune lasted about a year, before it amicably dissolved. Ginny and I kept the house.
Our first daughter, Sarah, was born in 1975. (She has a BA in Recreational Management from Dalhousie, and was one of the people who organized the torch relay for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.) Our son Ben was born in 1977. (He has a BA in Geography from the University of Victoria and a Masters degree in Landscape Architecture from UBC. He is a landscape architect in Vancouver.) Our second daughter, Shannon, was born in 1981. (She has a BA from Dalhousie and a B. Ed from UBC. She teaches elementary school in Vancouver.) All our kids are sports oriented. We have lived in the West Point Grey area of Vancouver since 1982. Our first grandchild, Maia Tatam Gillespie, arrived on May 29, 2010 via our daughter Sarah. Our second grandchild, Fraser Gray Gillespie, arrived on January 25, 2012. Both are healthy and beautiful. I help look after them on a regular basis.
In 1977 I switched law firms, joining Ladner Downs (now Borden Ladner Gervais LLP), where I remained until I retired from the partnership in 2003. My practice was mostly commercial litigation, with a concentration on securities law and shareholders disputes. I was appointed Queen's Counsel in 2002. I retired from the Law Society of British Columbia at the end of 2011.
In addition to physiotherapy, Ginny developed an interest in Healing Touch, and has been an HT certified practitioner and instructor for many years.
After retiring from my firm, I did some pro bono legal work with Pivot Legal Society, which concentrates on the legal rights of residents of the Downtown East Side of Vancouver (containing Canada's most poverty-stricken postal code).
A case I worked on for several years, and that concluded in September 2011, is a lawsuit for the operators and the injection drug users at Insite, North America's only government-authorized safe injection site. It is funded by the B.C. government. My client was the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU). The suit was against the current Conservative federal government, which threatened to close Insite by terminating its statutory exemption from the possession and trafficking provisions of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA). The exemption was originally granted by the former Liberal government.
In 2008 we were successful in the summary trial in the Supreme Court of B.C. The trial judge held that the possession and trafficking provisions of the CDSA violated the right to life (i.e. the right to access health care) of the Insite injection drug users under the Canadian Charter of Rights. In effect, the court held that even if there were no statutory exemption granted to Insite by the federal Minister of Health, the CDSA prohibitions of possession and trafficking of controlled drugs and substances are unconstitutional because they impede access by addicted injection drug users to health care.
The federal government appealed that ruling. In early 2010 the B.C. Court of Appeal ruled 2–1 in our favour, but on different grounds. It held that under the doctrine of interjurisdictional immunity the provincial power over health care trumped the federal criminal law power in this case and therefore the CDSA did not apply to Insite.
The federal government obtained leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. The case was heard by the Supreme Court on May 12, 2011 and it issued its judgment on September 30, 2011.
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the possession provisions of the CDSA did not violate the Charter of Rights and that they therefore applied to Insite. It also ruled that the doctrine of interjurisdictional immunity did not apply in this case and therefore did not protect Insite. However, the court went on to find that the federal Minister of Health, in exercising his discretion not to extend the original exemption from the application of the CDSA, had violated the section 7 Charter rights of the staff and clients of Insite.
The Supreme Court accordingly issued a mandamus order compelling the federal Minister of Health to grant an exemption from the application of the drug possession provisions of the CDSA to Insite. The court also held that the trafficking provisions of the CDSA did not apply to Insite staff or clients because their activities within Insite did not meet the definition of trafficking.
The end result was a victory for the Safe Injection Site and for the injection drug addicts. Insite will be able to remain open and to provide safe injection support services to addicts. This includes allowing addicts to bring their illegally acquired drugs into the Insite facility for the purpose of self-administering them in a safe environment.
I've also done some writing on the World Anti Doping Code and on other ethical issues.
We've been enjoying relatively good health. We hike, ski, boat and travel. I do renovation jobs in our homes. I look after our grandchildren. Ginny has retired from physiotherapy, but continues with her vocation and teaching of Healing Touch. We spend about half of each year at our house on Hornby Island.
Steve Mulhall