Law History Profiles

Leslie Peterson grew up on a farm outside Viking, Alberta, and recognized the value of education at an early age. At fourteen, he moved away from the family farm to go to school, and paid for a small housekeeping room by doing part-time janitorial work.

Mr. Peterson served in the Canadian Artillery during the Second World War, and graduated from law school at UBC in 1949 alongside many other veterans.

According to Malcolm G. King, he never seriously considered a legal career until his father suggested that he go to work in the family sawmill. At that point, he says, he ran for cover and after having consulted a career psychologist who thought he had some latent potential for the law he decided to enroll in law school at UBC rather than continue with an arts program - which he admits he would have preferred.

When David Tupper takes office as Treasurer of The Law Society of British Columbia in January, 1987, he will be following in the footsteps of his father, Reginald Hibbert Tupper, Q.C. who was Treasurer for two years from 1949 to 1951, and his grandfather, Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper, Q.C., who was Treasurer in the nineteen twenties. David's great-grandfather, also Sir Charles Tupper, being a physician rather than a lawyer, was not eligible to be Treasurer and so contented himself by serving as a Founder of Confederation and as Prime Minister of Canada…

Edward Thomas Cantell, QC (1918 – 2007) was always very proud of his West Coast roots. Born in New Westminster, BC, Mr. Cantell naturally entered UBC after graduating high school. However, the young man’s studies were interrupted by World War II, whereupon he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force, trained as a navigator and completed numerous tours of duty over Europe. Upon his safe return, Mr. Cantell applied and was admitted into the newly created Faculty of Law at UBC.

Gordon Martin graduated as a member of the first class of the law school at UBC, completed his articles and appeared to fulfill all of the requirements for admission to the bar of British Columbia. His application was controversially rejected by the Law Society of British Columbia “based on the finding that [he was] a communist and an adherent to and a supporter of communist doctrines and teachings..." This ostensibly violated the requirement of being "a person of good repute within the meaning of the Legal Professions Act, R.S.B.C. 1936, c. 149".

Robert William Bonner, Q.C., B.A., L.L.B., C.D., a native son of Vancouver, British Columbia, has distinguished himself in a varied and interesting career. His early education took place at Hastings School, Templeton Junior High School and he later attended Britannia High School and the University of British Columbia. While at the University, he became an accomplished debater and won the McGown cup, returning it to the University after a lapse of many years ... 

Robert Delorme Plommer grew up in Vancouver, attended Magee high school and fell in love with golf as a junior at the old Shaughnessy Golf Club. While he was attending UBC, the Second World War broke out. After Germany attacked Russia in July 1941, Bob, at 19, decided that he had better enlist because the war might end before his draft number came up. He joined the air force where he became a navigator. He completed 27 bombing missions over Germany and Occupied France with RCAF 432 Squadron under Bomber Command.

“Seventy-eight of us rose from the ash cans of war—76 men and two women—and descended on the campus looking for the law school,” McKenzie recalls. “It existed only in the abstract, as there was no building. We found it embodied in the person of Dean George Curtis.” With two years of Arts courses at Victoria College and an honours degree in English and Philosophy from UBC, McKenzie had joined the Army and was posted to Europe.

“I was born in 1922, when you had to have cranks to start the cars - some of us have remained cranky ever since. I was born in Saskatchewan in a snow storm ... My father was a general manager there. He remained in the prairies until about 1925. Immediately prior to his departure from Saskatchewan, he was involved in the bank hold up," begins Blair Baillie ...

Allard Law alum Aleem Bharmal, KC (LLB '94) began his legal career as an articling student at one of Vancouver’s oldest law firms.