About The Hon. Chief Judge Melissa Gillespie
Chief Judge Gillespie was born and grew up in Calgary, Alberta. She received her law degree from the University of Toronto and was called to the BC Bar (licensed to practise law in BC) in 1991. Soon after that, she began her legal career as Crown Counsel working in New Westminster, Surrey and Burnaby. From 2000 until 2003, she served as Administrative Crown Counsel in Surrey. She then became Deputy Regional Crown Counsel, and in 2005 Regional Crown Counsel for the Fraser Region. Appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 2009, Chief Judge Gillespie was sworn in as a Provincial Court judge in February 2012.
Following her appointment she presided in the Fraser Region. In addition to sitting assignments, Chief Judge Gillespie was active in delivering education programs to judges and judicial justices, as well as to the larger legal community. She also served as a member of the executive of the BC Provincial Court Judges Association for several years.
Chief Judge Gillespie was appointed an Associate Chief Judge for a two year term in April 2016 and re-appointed for a three year term in April 2018. A member of the Board of Directors of the Justice Education Society, she has participated in a Justice Education Society project to strengthen the criminal justice system in Guyana.
She was appointed Acting Chief Judge on May 7, 2018 and appointed Chief Judge on October 19, 2018 for a seven year term.
About The Hon. Justice Jasvinder S. Basran
Justice Jasvinder S. Basran holds degrees in commerce and law from the University of Saskatchewan. He was admitted to the British Columbia bar in 1995 and joined the federal Department of Justice in Vancouver, where he practised primarily in the area of tax litigation.
In 2004, Justice Basran was appointed Director of the B.C. Tax Law Section of the Department of Justice. He became the head of the B.C. Regional Office of the Department of Justice in 2007.
Justice Basran was appointed to the Supreme Court of British Columbia in January 2018.
About The Hon. Justice Jasmin Z. Ahmad
Justice Jasmin Z. Ahmad is a first generation Canadian whose parents have two distinct cultural, racial, and religious backgrounds: her mother is from Barbados and her father is from Pakistan. Born in Winnipeg, she was raised in Flin Flon, a mining town in northern Manitoba.
Prior to her appointment to the Supreme Court of British Columbia in 2020, Justice Ahmad practised commercial litigation at Koffman Kalef LLP. She was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2019.
Justice Ahmad was elected as a Bencher of the Law Society in 2016 and served as Chair of the Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Committee, and the Discipline Committee. She was a regular presenter on professionalism and ethics in the profession and was involved with the CBABC’s Women’s Law Forum Mentoring program and was an active member of the summary advice program with Access Pro Bono.
About The Hon. Judge Delaram A. Jahani
Judge Jahani was appointed to the Provincial Court in January 2018. Prior to her appointment to the bench, she was a trial lawyer, with expertise in the area of Family, child protection and criminal litigation. As an experienced litigator, she dealt with cases at all levels of British Columbia Courts. Having conducted most of her studies in the French language, Judge also Jahani presides over French trials.
Prior to becoming a member of the British Columbia Law Society, she was practicing in Toronto, Ontario in the area of litigation, with specific focus on criminal law. She was called to the Bar of Ontario in year 2000 and became a member of the Bar of British Columbia in 2002. Judge Jahani has continuously contributed to the legal community by volunteering at various legal organizations such as the Canadian Bar Association, Access Pro-bono, and by mentoring law students and coaching them in their moot program. She was also a volunteer at other charitable organizations such as the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Cancer Society. Since her appointment to the Provincial Court Bench, she has contributed to various judicial committees and educational programs, and continues to contribute to the Allard Law Peter Burns moot program.
About The Hon. Judge J. Gary Cohen
The Honourable Judge Gary Cohen was appointed to the Provincial Court of British Columbia in 1999, and recently was reappointed to serve as a senior judge of the court starting in 2021. He graduated from the Faculty of Law at UBC in 1981. Before being appointed to the Provincial Court, Judge Cohen practised law in White Rock and Delta for 17 years and was appointed King’s Counsel in 1997. He has been an active member of the British Columbia legal community, holding numerous positions within the Canadian Bar Association’s British Columbia Branch.
Judge Cohen began advocating for gay rights during his time as a student, including founding and being the first president of the UBC Law Gay and Lesbian Students’ Association. He has continued to contribute to the LGBTQIA+ community throughout his career, including serving as president of the International Association of Lesbian and Gay Judges for three years. He was awarded the CBA Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Conference (SOGIC) Hero Award in 2012 for his work.
About Aleem Bharmal, KC
Aleem Bharmal, KC is the president of the Canadian Bar Association, BC Branch for the 2022/23 term, and has been a valued member of CBABC for 27 years.
Aleem is a human rights lawyer working in the social justice sector whose legal work has made an impact both at home and abroad. He was awarded the CBABC President’s Medal in 2016 and appointed to King’s Counsel by the British Columbia Attorney General in 2019. Aleem currently practices human rights law at the Community Legal Services Association (CLAS) Human Rights Clinic, where he has been for almost twenty years. He served as CLAS Executive Director for over twelve years from late 2007 to the end of 2019.
Aleem has made an impact not only in his high-volume day-to-day legal practice but also in ground-breaking human rights cases, such as R.R. v. Vancouver Aboriginal Family Services, Dignidad Migrante Society v. Golden Eagle Blueberry Farm, and Brar v. BCVMA and Osborne (no.22), as a few examples. He has enlisted his passion for advocacy by successfully defending individuals facing racial, sexual, and other forms of discrimination.
His early legal career has also taken him abroad to Rwanda, where he worked as a human rights officer with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in the mid-1990s.
