Closing Plenary: A panel conversation on Recovery and Reconnection

August 26, 2022 9:00 a.m.–10:10 p.m.

Cheyenne Stonechild

Cheyenne Stonechild, Cree (Nehiyaw) and Irish. Member of the Muscowpetung Saulteaux First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada. Raised in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

Cheyenne gained interesting life experience through her time with the Ministry of Child and Family Development, BC, due to the quality of “care” she received over a lengthy period in her youth. That is where she started to advocate for change in the world. She is currently working as an independent contractor on a case-by-case basis. She became a member of the advisory at the FREDA Centre for Research on Violence Against Women and Children to lend her voice to issues that matter. Cheyenne has been an advocate for Indigenous children involved with the Ministry of Child and Family Development since 2012. She has hosted workshops for the public on Indigenous genealogy and a variety of other topics. She has presented at conferences for organizations such as Continuing Legal Education Society of BC (CLEBC), The Canadian Bar Association BC Branch (CBABC), The Trial Lawyers Association of BC, and a public speaker on select issues. Cheyenne was the “4 the Generation Project” manager from 2015–21 and was a member of the International Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD) from 2018–20. Cheyenne has actively contributed to the growth of her community in various capacities and is committed to continuing this work going forward.

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Dr. Melissa Lem

Dr. Melissa Lem is a Vancouver family physician and President-Elect of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. Also Director of PaRx, Canada’s national nature prescription program powered by the BC Parks Foundation, she is an internationally recognized expert on the nature-health connection. She has engaged in advocacy and policy work on a broad range of other issues, from climate change and hydraulic fracturing to sustainable health care and low-carbon transportation. A widely published writer, she was the resident medical expert on CBC TV’s hit lifestyle show Steven and Chris for four seasons and continues to appear on air as a regular contributor to CBC Radio, CBC TV, and CTV News.

Dr. Lem was the inaugural winner of University College’s Young Alumni of Influence Award at the University of Toronto, a 2021 World Parks Week Ambassador, sits on the Advisory Committee of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas Health and Well-being Specialist Group, and is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia.

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Gurleen Dhial Sangha

Gurleen Dhial Sangha, MEd is a Registered Clinical Counsellor, PhD (Psych) Candidate, and AntiRacism Consultant based out of Langley, BC. She serves on the Program Council at the Justice Institute of BC while concurrently completing her Family Mediation certificate.

Gurleen has spent the last decade working with individuals, couples, and families struggling with addiction, mental health, poverty, homelessness, racism, trauma, the justice system, sexual exploitation, grief, and homicide. As part of her master’s thesis, Gurleen researched contemporary racism in Canada and has spent the last few years disseminating the findings locally, nationally, and internationally. As a member of the BIPOC community, Gurleen has dedicated her life to social activism through her clinical work, writing, and research.

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Salima Samnani

Salima Samnani is a Kenyan Indo-Canadian Muslim immigrant. Her experiences as a litigator and a lecturer focus on public law and civil law, including family, child protection, and employment law. Salima’s research, areas of expertise, and advocacy focus mainly on access to justice, anti-racism, clinical legal education, and education for self-represented and underrepresented litigants. As a lecturer, she is passionate about implementing clinical legal education pedagogies that focus on trauma-informed, skills-based legal training from a feminist, anti-racist, and decolonization perspective.

Salima is a lecturer and supervising lawyer at the Indigenous Community Legal Clinic, which is located in the Downtown Eastside community of Vancouver on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəyəm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlílwətaʔɬ (TsleilWaututh) Nations.

In addition to being a lecturer at the Peter A. Allard School of Law, Salima is a Tribunal Member on the Civil Resolution Tribunal and creates legal content for the Legal Services Society with an eye on access to justice for groups made vulnerable by society in society. She also manages an active private legal practice with a focus on employment law, especially complex workplace investigations.

Salima has served Indigenous groups for over a decade, first as Associate Counsel for the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry and then as counsel for the Union of BC Indian Chiefs at the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Salima earned a Juris Doctorate from the University of Victoria, and a Master of Laws from the University of Fribourg in conjunction with the University of Bern and University of Neuchâtel, graduating at the top of her class. Her thesis, written for and in conjunction with the World Trade Organization and the Aga Khan Agency of Micro-finance, explored the impact of micro-finance banking under-regulation on people made vulnerable by society.

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