STEVEN M. KELLIHER*
B.A., LL.B.
[email protected]
8Steven Kelliher has been a leading courtroom lawyer (both criminal and civil) for the past 40 years. He was called to the Bar in October of 1979 and opened his own office the same day. He successfully argued the case R. v. I (LR.) and T. (E), 1993 4 SCR, 504 before the Supreme Court of Canada, which is now referred to as the leading criminal case on ‘derived confessions’. He has been counsel in more than 100 reported cases. His most recent criminal law cases have been in relation to malicious prosecution, corporate defence and allegations of Income Tax Act evasion. He was an Instructor at the International Criminal Court's initial training seminar on cross-examination. Mr. Kelliher has also been an instructor at the International Criminal Bar Training Sessions on criminal procedure and cross-examination. He was a presenter at a recent Canadian Bar Association Seminar on cross-examination and has been a guest speaker at the University of Victoria on the subjects of ethics, criminal law and cross-examination. He has appeared as counsel in a host of disciplinary and administrative proceedings. He is the former Vice-President of the International Criminal Bar - an association of lawyers practicing before the International Criminal Court and International Tribunals. He has continued his involvement in International criminal law with the International Criminal Bar / International Criminal Court annual Moot Court Competition and the China Tribunal convened by the Court of the Citizens of the World.
Mr. Kelliher was appointed Counsel for the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner on its creation and has conducted numerous public hearings. He appeared as Counsel for the family of Frank Paul and for the First Nations Leadership Council of British Columbia on the Davis Commission Inquiry into the death of Frank Paul; he appeared for the Aboriginal Aqua-cultural Association at the Cohen Commission Inquiry into the decline of sockeye salmon in the Fraser River; appeared as Defence Counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda between 2006 -2008 in Arusha, Tanzania, and is on the List of Counsel permitted to practice before the International Criminal Court. He was lead negotiator for a Vancouver Island First Nation in reaching an Impact Benefit Agreement for the development of major hydro-electric projects. He was honoured with the 'Contribution to the Law Award' by the Victoria Bar Association in 2018. He has also been lead counsel on two Aboriginal Title cases before the Supreme Court of British Columbia. Both of these cases are founded upon the proposition that the existing narrative of the founding of Victoria is false and serves principally to continue to deny the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations their rightful place in their homeland. To understand why this is so please go to "More" in the upper right hand corner of this page and download Justice Douglas Lambert's analysis of the events of April 29th and 30th 1850. It is a compelling argument that the documents referred to as the "Douglas Treaties" are forgeries and constitute a fraudulent effort to transfer Aboriginal Title from the Indigenous inhabitants to the Crown. The consequence of this reality is that the Crown acknowledged the existence of Aboriginal Title, but did not lawfully transfer title. It is held today, as it was in 1850 and long before that - with the Indigenous people of what is now called Victoria.
Mr. Kelliher has worked with the Indian Brotherhood of the Northwest Territories (now Dene Nation), and the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada (now, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami) on the 'Government Structures Project' which began the political framework for the Nunavut Land Claim. He also worked for the the Government of the Northwest Territories on issues of Indigenous governance in the role of Head of the Community Development Section within the Department of Local Government. Mr. Kelliher co-authored the ‘Philosophy of the Development of Local Government in the Northwest Territories’ tabled before the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories. Recently he was a presenter at the National Judicial Institute's Indigenous Law Seminar. He headed the Forensic Document Review Project evaluating police investigations of all police forces across Canada for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. In this capacity Mr. Kelliher and his team prepared a report that was adopted by the Inquiry.
Currently Mr. Kelliher is acting for The Friends of Fairy Creek Society in application for a Declaration challenging the lawfulness of logging of old growth forests in the Fairy Creek area of Vancouver Island.
Mr. Kelliher is no longer in full-time practice but is available for consultations and a limited number of cases and projects.
*A professional corporation
Mr. Kelliher was appointed Counsel for the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner on its creation and has conducted numerous public hearings. He appeared as Counsel for the family of Frank Paul and for the First Nations Leadership Council of British Columbia on the Davis Commission Inquiry into the death of Frank Paul; he appeared for the Aboriginal Aqua-cultural Association at the Cohen Commission Inquiry into the decline of sockeye salmon in the Fraser River; appeared as Defence Counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda between 2006 -2008 in Arusha, Tanzania, and is on the List of Counsel permitted to practice before the International Criminal Court. He was lead negotiator for a Vancouver Island First Nation in reaching an Impact Benefit Agreement for the development of major hydro-electric projects. He was honoured with the 'Contribution to the Law Award' by the Victoria Bar Association in 2018. He has also been lead counsel on two Aboriginal Title cases before the Supreme Court of British Columbia. Both of these cases are founded upon the proposition that the existing narrative of the founding of Victoria is false and serves principally to continue to deny the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations their rightful place in their homeland. To understand why this is so please go to "More" in the upper right hand corner of this page and download Justice Douglas Lambert's analysis of the events of April 29th and 30th 1850. It is a compelling argument that the documents referred to as the "Douglas Treaties" are forgeries and constitute a fraudulent effort to transfer Aboriginal Title from the Indigenous inhabitants to the Crown. The consequence of this reality is that the Crown acknowledged the existence of Aboriginal Title, but did not lawfully transfer title. It is held today, as it was in 1850 and long before that - with the Indigenous people of what is now called Victoria.
Mr. Kelliher has worked with the Indian Brotherhood of the Northwest Territories (now Dene Nation), and the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada (now, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami) on the 'Government Structures Project' which began the political framework for the Nunavut Land Claim. He also worked for the the Government of the Northwest Territories on issues of Indigenous governance in the role of Head of the Community Development Section within the Department of Local Government. Mr. Kelliher co-authored the ‘Philosophy of the Development of Local Government in the Northwest Territories’ tabled before the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories. Recently he was a presenter at the National Judicial Institute's Indigenous Law Seminar. He headed the Forensic Document Review Project evaluating police investigations of all police forces across Canada for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. In this capacity Mr. Kelliher and his team prepared a report that was adopted by the Inquiry.
Currently Mr. Kelliher is acting for The Friends of Fairy Creek Society in application for a Declaration challenging the lawfulness of logging of old growth forests in the Fairy Creek area of Vancouver Island.
Mr. Kelliher is no longer in full-time practice but is available for consultations and a limited number of cases and projects.
*A professional corporation
DIANE I. TURNER, K.C.
B.A., B.Ed., LL.B., LL.M.
[email protected]
Diane Turner was called to the Bar in 1984, practiced family law briefly and then obtained a Master of Laws at King’s College, London in 1986. She worked for a decade as a Crown prosecutor and policy lawyer in the Criminal Justice Branch. She entered private practice in 1996, doing residential conveyancing and a year later began her current personal injury practice. Ms. Turner has represented many clients in civil proceedings who have been injured or sexually assaulted and traumatized. She spent a number of years representing residential school survivors. In 2008/2009 she acted as counsel for an association of victim serving agencies in a coroner’s inquest examining the deaths of five family members in Oak Bay. Her efforts in that case, the media attention it generated and a paper she co-authored, helped spur improvements in the justice system response to violence within relationships. It also brought the of concept of trauma informed practice to the work of police and justice system personnel through the introduction of evidence from Dr. Lori Haskell on the then novel topic. Ms. Turner has worked in the realm of victims' advocacy since sitting on a provincial anti-violence task force in 1989, continuing her contribution as a member of the BC Community Coordination for Survivor’s Safety Committee until 2024.
Ms. Turner has volunteered for the Victoria Bar Association, the Canadian Bar Association BC branch and participated on various BC Law Society Committees, including the Discipline Committee. In 2001 she was appointed as the Law Society representative to the Provincial Judicial Council for 4 years. In 2006 she was placed on the list of counsel entitled to practice before the International Criminal Court (ICC) and was active in the International Criminal Bar (ICB), including representation of the ICB at ICC roundtable NGO meetings. She taught as an associate faculty member at Royal Roads University between 2006 and 2013 and taught international criminal law, evidence, human rights, ethics and advocacy at the University of The Hague, in the Netherlands from 2011 to 2017. She received a Queen's Counsel designation in 2011.
Ms. Turner was elected for a 4 year term as one of two permanent members of the Disciplinary Board of the ICC and completed her term as its Chair in October 2017. During that time she undertook a child protection case in BC that prompted a paper authored with members of the Victoria family bar on child apprehension. The goal was to improve the deficiencies in the law and system of child protection in BC. The call to action, although now dated, may be accessed by clicking this link. In 2019 she was appointed by the Presidency of the ICC as the Commissioner for the investigation of disciplinary complaints at the Court. Her term ended in 2023 but the cases she undertook during her tenure continue, as do the ICC training sessions at which she presents. Her work in 2024 involved a protracted disciplinary matter at the ICC, currently under a publication ban. Her most recent BC court appearance was at the Court of Appeal in November 2021, addressing the legality of old growth logging on Vancouver Island.
Diane Turner is mainly occupied with the work stemming from her terms on the ICC disciplinary organs, but is available for consultation regarding sexual assault matters. Her CV can be viewed here.
Ms. Turner has volunteered for the Victoria Bar Association, the Canadian Bar Association BC branch and participated on various BC Law Society Committees, including the Discipline Committee. In 2001 she was appointed as the Law Society representative to the Provincial Judicial Council for 4 years. In 2006 she was placed on the list of counsel entitled to practice before the International Criminal Court (ICC) and was active in the International Criminal Bar (ICB), including representation of the ICB at ICC roundtable NGO meetings. She taught as an associate faculty member at Royal Roads University between 2006 and 2013 and taught international criminal law, evidence, human rights, ethics and advocacy at the University of The Hague, in the Netherlands from 2011 to 2017. She received a Queen's Counsel designation in 2011.
Ms. Turner was elected for a 4 year term as one of two permanent members of the Disciplinary Board of the ICC and completed her term as its Chair in October 2017. During that time she undertook a child protection case in BC that prompted a paper authored with members of the Victoria family bar on child apprehension. The goal was to improve the deficiencies in the law and system of child protection in BC. The call to action, although now dated, may be accessed by clicking this link. In 2019 she was appointed by the Presidency of the ICC as the Commissioner for the investigation of disciplinary complaints at the Court. Her term ended in 2023 but the cases she undertook during her tenure continue, as do the ICC training sessions at which she presents. Her work in 2024 involved a protracted disciplinary matter at the ICC, currently under a publication ban. Her most recent BC court appearance was at the Court of Appeal in November 2021, addressing the legality of old growth logging on Vancouver Island.
Diane Turner is mainly occupied with the work stemming from her terms on the ICC disciplinary organs, but is available for consultation regarding sexual assault matters. Her CV can be viewed here.