Green Party of Canada
Age: 60
Occupation: University of Victoria law professor
Previous elected experience: None
Community involvement: pro bono work on behalf of the vulnerable; chairman of tenure review committee at University of Victoria
Scottish-born law professor Donald Galloway says his father so devoted himself to his kids and their education that he lacked his own personality.
While it might have taken Galloway until after his dad's death to fully appreciate that, his father knew all along what he was doing. When young Donald earned a full graduate scholarship to Harvard Law School, a father's dream was fulfilled.
"I owe it all to my dad," Galloway said. "He was born in 1907 and looking for work in 1929. He took as job as a chemist and went to night school in order to get civil service training." By 1930, James Galloway landed that government job and stayed until his retirement 40 years later. His life with wife Agnes was about his children, and their education.
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1952, Galloway immigrated to Canada in 1975 and taught public, criminal and immigration law at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., before becoming a professor of law at the University of Victoria. He teaches immigration and citizenship law.
In 1989 he met Hester Lessard, also a constitutional lawyer who teaches at UVic, and the two married in 1999. The couple have one child, Sylvie, 13. In his father's footsteps, Galloway teaches a reduced workload to care for his daughter. His mother suffers from dementia and remains in Scotland. He said he acutely understands the challenges facing the sandwich generation.
A human-rights advocate, Galloway formed a coalition of organizations, including Amnesty International, to fight Bill C-31; and he is a founding member of the Canadian Association for Refugee Lawyers, which will challenge the constitutionality of the Conservative government's changes to citizenship, immigration and refugee laws.
One of just two or three citizenship law experts in Canada, Galloway is sought out nationally and internationally for advice - called from Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Omar Khadr's case, for example, on the application of the Canadian constitution outside the country.
Unlike his father, Galloway is not looking for a job for the rest of his life. He said he's asking Victoria voters for the "privilege" of just 2 1 /2 years until the federal election.
"If they think the government can be held to account better by somebody else [in 2015] I say go for it, but give me the shot now because I think I have the experience to deal with whatever omnibus bills or authoritarian bills that are brought into Parliament," Galloway said.
"We're not going to change the government and that's not the role I'm undertaking, but we can embarrass the government and shame the government by communicating to the electorate exactly what they are doing," Galloway said.
While his father stressed a good education, Galloway said the education he received as a witness before parliamentary and senate committees has probably most influenced his desire to be inside government, rather than working for advocates on the outside.
"I was just devastated by how dysfunctional and inappropriate it all was. I just saw some awful things about how the members of parliament and senate committees were abusing the witnesses who were meant to be the experts," Galloway said. "They were not paying attention to any of the opinions being cited.
They were just squabbling amongst themselves."
In one example, Galloway's allotted eight minutes to address immigration legislation was cut in half as people argued. Afterwards, Green party leader Elizabeth May introduced Galloway to several MPs from different parties. Galloway informally briefed them on the proposed changes. It was why he had come to Ottawa.
"I thought this is the way it should work," Galloway said. "I think Elizabeth knows how to communicate with people from all parties."
"Of all our MPs, I think that Elizabeth May is the most accomplished," Galloway said. This week at Macleans' annual awards she was named "Parliamentarian of the Year." Together, we can accomplish even more, he said.
"Part of the excitement for me is to see the way in which she has been able to achieve success within these ancient institutions," he said. He is convinced his role is beside May in the House of Commons, where their skills will complement one another.
He says he wants to reclaim democracy, stop all pipelines in B.C., address homelessness and advocate for science-based decision making.
"I am excited by the possibility of this job. I want to do it well and I take my obligations seriously," he said. "Working for democracy is a full-time calling."
Q&A: DONALD GALLOWAY
Top three issues:
1) Reclaim democracy for Canadians generally and Victorians in particular.
The election of a Green MP will ensure direct representation of Victoria citizens in Ottawa without mediation by party structure.
2) Recognition of the need to oppose vehemently development of all pipelines in B.C. including expansion of the Kinder Morgan pipeline that will increase the transportation of bitumen past our coastline in Victoria.
3) The need to divert federal funding to important social services dealing in particular with the homeless and those in need of long term social care such as the elderly.
Proposed $783-million secondary sewage plant, which has received tripartite funding commitments from the federal, provincial and regional governments:
Nature is on our side in dealing with the issue of human waste.
I like the idea there be a full environmental assessment that looks into not just how things are now but how things will be and which identifies the technologies that will be available.
The secondary processing plans I've seen are very vague on the actual recovery of resources from the sewage and the idea of pumping sewage up to the Hartland dump. ... You don't want to create a land-based problem, so that's something you have to deal with.
Fiscally, this is irresponsible to actually have a single infrastructure issue that will cost $780 million. I'm really worried. What's going to happen when we really need to generate revenue locally?
Not only is the property tax a regressive tax system, it's not a way to deal with future problems. I've been looking through the regulations both provincial and federal and my understanding is exemptions can be made.
Once we get the federal departments at the table in order to determine how flexible they are, at that stage we'll be able to tell what the time limits for making a decision will be. Currently, they are aiming to start building in 2014. If that is a tight deadline then we will work with that deadline and manoeuvre elsewhere to make this a better plan.
We are looking for the best available system. If we have a system we can afford which deals with 100 per cent reduction of contaminants, then of course we will go there.
E&N: I was so disappointed when the Supreme Court decided the E&N was not constitutionally guaranteed to us. I thought that was the biggest mistake. It is such a benefit to have good train service.
It's clearly the cleanest form of energy.
Let's see what the options are - whether it's an LRT system or the trains system. We need to have much more information. ... In terms of intuition, my heart is with trains, that's where I start, but any local problem needs to be tailored to the particular circumstances - let's actually do a proper comparison.
Enbridge's proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline from the Alberta oilsands to Kitimat: I think the clearest possible message in the upcoming byelection - if you are against all pipelines - is to vote for the Green party. I will carry that message to Ottawa.
Homelessness: We need a national housing strategy. We are the only G8 country that doesn't have a housing strategy and I would be right behind that.
We need this badly because we need to bring funding to the issue of homelessness. I think we have a unique problem here. The funding should be generated federally and distributed locally and we should be addressing what our needs are - the aged homeless, the young homeless. We have to be able to identify what the solutions should be.
Canada-China Investment Treaty:
We have taken away the constitutional role of our courts in determining legal issues. I see that as the biggest problem and I think we will see a constitutional challenge to that [determination process].
I have been talking to other constitutional lawyers about how you can attack an international treaty, particularly one that has been ratified in this almost automatic sight-unseen way. Let's try and identify what the constitutional weaknesses are. I think we are coming to an agreement it's the determination process that is the weakest part.
There is nothing that the Greens have ever been concerned about with international contracts. The difficulties arise when they are unbalanced, when we are gaining very little from our side of this contract and a lot is being gained by Chinese investors in Canada.
- Answers are based on interviews with the Times Colonist and have been edited for clarity
