The Role of Faith and the Rule of Law

Event Overview

The idea of the rule of law has been the bedrock of western civilization for hundreds of years. Today, western democracies face increasing challenges to the rule of law from notions such as social license and inclusivism. On the one hand, citizens and advocacy groups increasingly distrust the law as manipulable by powerful corporate interests. On the other hand, well organized campaign groups have sought to use the law as an instrument of social change. Is our trust in the law reaching a critical low point? What are the limits to law and the appropriate use of law? And what contribution can Christian faith make to these issues?

 

Speaker Bios

Preston Manning – Mr. Manning served as a member of Parliament from 1993 to 2001. He founded two new political parties – the Reform Party of Canada and the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance – both of which became the official Opposition in the Canadian Parliament, and laid the foundation for the new Conservative Party of Canada. Mr. Manning served as Leader of the Opposition from 1997 to 2000 and was also his party’s science and technology critic. In 2007 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada and in 2013 was appointed to the Privy Council.

Mary Margaret MacKinnon – Ms. MacKinnon is a partner at Guild, Yule LLP. where she has been practicing law for over 30 years. Her practice focuses on the defence of personal injury and sexual abuse claims. She is counsel to a number of national religious institutions, and provides advice on the formation and implementation of policies for responding to allegations of sexual abuse or sexual harassment. She has been defence counsel for numerous municipalities for over thirty years.  She appears regularly as counsel in the British Columbia Supreme Court and British Columbia Court of Appeal.

Lisa Alexander – Ms. Alexander is an experienced mediator in British Columbia and cofounder of The Collaborative Centre. Prior to refocusing her work on family mediation in 2003 she did general commercial and family law litigation. She also teaches on mediation, collaboration and communication skills. She limits her practice to collaborative, co-operative and mediation matters in order to give her clients the reassurance they need to trust that their disputes will not end up in the adversarial court system.