With support from the Environmental Law Centre, Ng Ariss Fong, and ELC Club fundraising efforts, students travelled once again in 2024 to the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference at the University of Oregon. This year, the conference honoured former ELC legal director Calvin Sandborn with a lifetime achievement award.
25 students from the UVic Environmental Law Club made their way down to Eugene, Oregon for the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference from February 29 to March 4. We had an incredible time: we learned from environmental law experts, from all around the world, who are on the cutting edge of their professional niches; we experienced the hope and eco-optimism that comes from spending time around like-minded passionate environmentalists; and we bonded as friends and as a team. We were profoundly lucky to witness Calvin Sandborn, the former [legal] director of the UVic Environmental Law Centre, receive a lifetime achievement award, and deliver a moving acceptance speech that left us with a renewed purpose in our work. There was not a dry eye in the room. Many of us also attended a panel that featured UVic Law professor John Gailus, discussing the efforts of Native American tribes in Alaska to be included in consultations on proposed mining projects across the Canadian border, which have downstream effects on their communities. Overall, it was an incredibly nourishing experience for our minds, hearts, and spirits.
UVic Environmental Law Club
