The University of British Columbia

Peter Andrew Allard (Class of 1971)

Peter A. Allard, Q.C.

Peter Allard is of mixed French Canadian and English-Scottish ancestry. The Allards came from Poitiers, France, to New France in the 1680s, while his mother's family, the Dallamores (Peter's maternal grandfather) came from St. Helena and South Africa via Somersetshire, England at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and the Ritchies, Macdonalds, and Camerons came to Canada from around Stirling and Edinburgh, Scotland, in about 1900.

Peter and his twin brother, Charles Richard Allard, were born in Boston in 1946, the sons of Dr. Charles Alexander Allard (1919-1991), a Canadian doctor who was then completing his post doctoral degree in surgery at the Lahey Clinic in Boston. Their mother was Effie ("Betty") Cameron Allard (nee Dallamore), and their older brother and sister were John Cameron (Cam) and Judith Frances ("Judy"). The family moved to Montreal in 1947 and to Edmonton a year later, where Dr. Allard became Chief of Surgery at the Edmonton General Hospital. In 1951, his parents separated and his mother, with her four children, moved to Vancouver. Peter was educated at Queen Elizabeth School and Lord Byng, where he was active in the drama class. He and his twin brother were also active in the Boy Scouts.

Meanwhile Dr. Allard, in addition to a full time surgeon's role, became involved in finance and business. Among his interests were the oil sands, methanol, petroleum development, radio, television, car dealerships, sports franchises (the Edmonton Oilers), jet aviation, construction, land development, insurance, trust companies, and banking (the Bank of Alberta, which later merged with the Canadian Western Bank).

Peter Allard attended UBC Law School from 1968-71. Among the professors he remembers are Leon Getz, George Curtis, Tony Shepherd, Jerome Atrens, Michael Jackson, Bertie MacClean, and Jim McIntyre. Among his friends were the feisty Roger Cardinal of Victoria (of French Canadian ancestry), Allan Rogers, who became a legislative drafter in Victoria, Rolando Wiebel of Geneva, Switzerland  (LLM), and Rocco Bonzanigo (LLM) of Lugano, Switzerland. His twin brother Charles (Chuck) Allard graduated a year after him at UBC Law, and his niece Wendy King followed in 1994. Of his two half siblings, Tony Allard and Cathy Roozen (nee Allard), Tony graduated from Law at the University of Alberta in the 1980s.

Dr. Allard had wanted both Peter and his twin brother to work in Edmonton, for law firms that he did business with, but in the end, Chuck returned to Edmonton while Peter stayed in Vancouver and articled and practiced for the Law Firm of Barbeau, McKercher, Collingwood, and Hanna, with Jacques Barbeau as his mentor. He built up his own client base and soon formed Allard & Company in 1976, which specialized in property law. He had two partners, and several other lawyers and articling students from time to time, and headed the firm for twenty years. He recalls the dedicated and incredible help of many top-notch secretaries and administrators over those years, especially Phyllis Glassock for the first five years and then the outstanding service of his assistant and friend, Dennie Flynn.

Following his father's death in 1991, Peter Allard started the Highbury Foundation. He became a non-practicing lawyer in December 1993, selling his interest in his law firm to his two remaining law partners. Since that time, Peter Allard has been active in managing investments and assisting philanthropically, both through the Highbury Foundation and on his own account, including grants and investments for clinical research through several organizations.

Peter helped fund Allard Hall and the Allard Prize for International Integrity.

The Honourable Justice Randall (Buddy) Wong (Class of 1966)

The Honourable Justice
Randall Wong

The Honourable Justice Randall Wong is a pioneer in Canadian law. He served as the first Chinese Canadian provincial Crown Counsel (1967) and became a BC Provincial Court judge in 1974. In 1981 he became the first Chinese Canadian federally appointed judge with his appointment to the British Columbia County Court. In 1990 he was promoted to a position on Canada's Supreme Court serving the

Supreme Courts of British Columbia, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut's Court of Justice.
In 2006 Justice Wong gave an address in Vancouver to the Association of Chinese Canadian Professionals, and reflected on the early years of Chinese Canadians practicing law:

"Even in the 1960s, not many Chinese-Canadians studied law as a career. UBC Law School only graduated one or two Chinese-Canadians out of a class of sixty students per year. Andrew Joe was the First Chinese-Canadian who graduated from UBC Law ... and was the first to be admitted to The Law Society of B.C. Most Chinese-Canadian lawyers practised in Chinatown and were primarily solicitors and not litigators. None were employed with major law firms in Vancouver until the late 1970s."

Marvin Storrow, QC, LLD (Class of 1962)

Marvin Storrow

Marvin Storrow is an accomplished lawyer whose career includes several groundbreaking cases that have steered the course of legal history in Canada. He has received many distinctions including the highest award from the Canadian Bar Association's British Columbia Branch and the Milvain Chair of Advocacy Award from the University of Calgary, which is awarded to a leading Canadian courtroom lawyer.

Mr. Storrow's career has included both civil and criminal cases, including more than 20 presented to the Supreme Court of Canada. His expertise covers many areas, but Aboriginal law is where his efforts have had the biggest impact. During the 1980s and '90s, he successfully litigated several groundbreaking cases on constitutional rights and land titles. Three of them have been ranked by a body of Canadian legal scholars as among the top 15 most important cases in the history of Canada.

Mr. Storrow is a life bencher of the Law Society of British Columbia, an honorary director of the Justice Institute of British Columbia and a trustee of the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame and Museum. He is a past director of the West Coast Environmental Law Society, Greenpeace, the Aboriginal Law Student Scholarship Trust and the BC Epilepsy Society.

The Honourable Alfred J Scow (Class of 1961)

The Honourable Alfred J Scow

Mr. Alfred Scow was born at a time when Aboriginals were prohibited from entering the legal profession, but went on to become the first Aboriginal person to graduate from a BC Law School and the first Aboriginal lawyer in BC to be called to the Bar. In 1971, he became a Provincial Court judge and served BC in this capacity until 1992. His accomplishments have broken down many barriers and his life has been an inspiration for others to reach their full potential.

Mr. Scow has demonstrated deep commitment to social justice and volunteered his leadership to many community organizations including UBC, where he helped guide the establishment of First Nations studies. He has served on the university's Senate, the President's Advisory Committee, the Faculty of Law First Nations Advisory Committee, and the Alumni Association board. He is a founding member of the Elders Committee for the First Nations House of Learning.

Prior to becoming a judge, he was City Prosecutor for New Westminster, chair of the board of review for the Workmen's Compensation Board, and completed a two-year assignment to Guyana on the Amerindian Lands Commission fact-finding committee, assisting the government determine land policy in regard to its native population. After leaving the Provincial Court, Mr. Scow's roles have included work on behalf of the Musqueam, Fraser Valley and Penticton Indian bands.

In 2001, he founded The Scow Institute, which works to promote a greater understanding between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people regarding issues that affect all Canadians, using information that is fact-based, non-partisan, and accessible.

Mr. Scow has contributed further to his community through volunteer board work for the John Howard Society, United Good Neighbour Fund and Credit Union, BC Lions Society for Children with Disabilities, Aboriginal Justice Centre, Pacific Salmon Foundation, YVR Art Foundation, and the Institute of Indigenous Government.

Alfred Scow passed away on February 26, 2013: http://aboriginal.ubc.ca/2013/03/05/remembering-elder-alfred-scow/

Frank Karwandy (Class of 1952)

Frank Karwandy (Class of 1952)

Born in Neidpath, Saskatchewan, in 1927, Frank Karwandy came from a family with roots in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Keen on education, his father served as a councillor and reeve in the Municipality of Lawtonia. Frank was educated locally in one and two room schools, in high school in Herbert, Saskatchewan, and came to UBC in 1947 to study History, English, and French. He entered UBC law school in 1949, when he was twenty-one.

He recalls his years at UBC law school with affection. "Four of us banded together," he says. "Bill Quinn, Roland Barnes, Al MacDonnell, and myself. Law classes were in the morning, and we met in the afternoons and talked about our classes and cases. We'd say, 'What did you think?' and, 'How important is such-and-such a case?" The four of us stayed together for the three years of law school. Law School was difficult! But not so much academically: the main problem was the amount of work and remembering case names. There were so many cases! The library was quiet and I used to stay there until 9 at night. Of the four of us, Bill, who was also from Saskatchewan, moved to Alberta and practiced law there; Roland went into the Royal Canadian Navy legal branch; and Al, who was from Vernon, practiced in Prince Rupert and became a judge in the Supreme Court of British Columbia. I was in the same class as Mary Southin and Patricia Proudfoot [nee Fahlman], both of whom became well-known judges in British Columbia."
  
Karwandy enrolled in the Canadian Officers" Training Corps (COTC) at UBC in 1950, spent the summers training, and enlisted in the Regular Army prior to the third year of law school. Upon graduation, he was posted to The Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians) in Calgary. In 1955, he gained admission to the BC Law Society and obtained his articles with the Burnaby law firm of Hean, Wylie and Hyde. "Burnaby was being developed so it was primarily real estate," he recalls. "I did a lot of title searches!"

His combination of legal and military training made Karwandy an ideal candidate for the Office of the Judge Advocate General (JAG), which he joined in 1956. This office provides legal advice to the senior and commanding officers of the Canadian Forces. JAG officers also serve as prosecuting and defending officers at General Courts Martial, which deal with serious military offences, and at Disciplinary Courts Martial, which deal with less serious military offences. Additionally, legal officers provide a limited legal aid service to all members of the Forces involving such matters as marital problems and landlord and tenant issues. Karwandy was stationed in Canada and in Germany and saw service in Cyprus and France. In 1982, he was promoted to Brigadier General and appointed Judge Advocate General of the Canadian Forces. He retired from the Forces in 1987 and now lives in Surrey, BC, with his wife Esther.

For further details, see R. Arthur McDonald, Canada's Military Lawyers (Ottawa: 2002).

The Honourable Patricia M. Proudfoot (Class of 1952)

The Honourable
Patricia M. Proudfoot

The Honourable Patricia Proudfoot is a retired Justice of the BC Court of Appeal, who served with distinction as a judge on all levels of court in BC. She was the first female judge appointed to the Criminal Division of the Provincial Court in 1971, the County Court of BC in 1974, and the BC Supreme Court in 1977. She was appointed to the BC and Yukon Territory Court of Appeals, and sat on the first all-female panel of that court. She was also appointed Deputy Judge to the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories.

She was the lone woman on the County Court for seven years, which according to Proudfoot set up two competing voices in her head. The first said "You're not doing a good job, so they're not appointing any more women." The second said, "You must be awfully damn good!" The first was louder, but the second kept her going until 1981, when the Honourable Judge Beverley McLachlin, now Chief Justice of Canada, was appointed.

From her childhood on a Saskatchewan farm to high school in Rutland, BC, through the Great Depression and the second World War, Proudfoot was unwavering in her desire to become a lawyer. She left her family in the Interior to attend UBC in 1946, arriving to find the campus bursting at its seams with returning soldiers. Residences were full, and many families around the city turned spare rooms into room and board. Proudfoot lived with the same family throughout her university career, working three jobs to put herself through school.

Proudfoot's career, which spanned a very full 50 years, included appointments as Commissioner for the Royal Commission on the Incarceration of Female Offenders and as a member of the Committee on Sexual Offenses Against Children and Youth, and service on the advisory committee on Family and Youth for the Vancouver Foundation.