Akitsiraq comments were demeaning and false

As acting dean of the University of Victoria Faculty of Law, I am writing in response to the letter from Janson Biggs published in your March 5 issue.

The students in the Akitsiraq Law School Program are referred to in that letter in a way that is demeaning and false. Let me reiterate what I said in an interview for Canadian Lawyer magazine in May 2002, when I was teaching in Iqaluit:

“It’s a pleasure being in class because these [students] are intelligent, lively people who want to talk about things. They are also knowledgeable about their own culture. If one is ready to sit back and listen as often as you talk, it’s very educational for the instructor.”

Having taught for close to 40 years at four different Canadian law schools, I believe I know of which I speak.

Later in the interview I added:

“These people will be equally well-trained as any student coming out of any law school in Canada… there is a thirst for knowledge and understanding in the class that is not uniformly true for an ordinary law class.”

I stand firmly by those statements and would add that the Akitsiraq students’ achievements since early 2002 bear out and strengthen my conviction that they are an outstanding and talented group of people.

While many of the students may not have the pre-law academic qualifications of many students in southern law schools, they have proven to the satisfaction of myself and my colleagues that they are eminently capable of mastering the study of law and will in turn make fine lawyers.

John McLaren
Acting Dean of Law
University of Victoria
Victoria