Judges for Western Canadian 3MT announced

Thompson Rivers University is pleased to reveal the judging panel for the Western Canadian Three Minute Thesis competition, scheduled for April 30 at 2 p.m. in the Black Box Theatre, Old Main.

Wally Oppal, Chancellor, Thompson Rivers University

Wally Oppal has dedicated his working life to improving social justice and community safety. He was Crown Counsel and Defence Council on numerous high-profile criminal cases, and in December 2012 delivered Forsaken, a report concluding his duties as the Commissioner of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry. Born in the Vancouver-Fraserview neighbourhood and raised on Vancouver Island, he attended law school at UBC, after which he operated his own Vancouver-based private practice for 14 years. In 2003 he was appointed to the British Columbia Court of Appeal where he served until 2005 when he resigned to sit in the provincial legislature as Attorney General. That May, he was elected for Vancouver-Fraserview. He served as Attorney General and Minister Responsible for Multiculturalism from 2005-2009. In 2010 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of the Fraser Valley.

Susan Edgell, host of Midday on CFJC-TV, Kamloops

Susan Edgell is an award-winning journalist who hosts and produces CFJC-TV’s Midday Show, as well as presenting weather on the evening news and anchoring the 6:30 p.m. newscast. Before joining the team at CFJC, Edgell was the primary anchor at a television station in Victoria, B.C. She graduated with honours from the British Columbia Institute of Technology, and holds a degree in Sociology from the University of Victoria. She volunteers for many local charities and is a busy mother of two children.

Lesra Martin, L.L.B, Partner, Martin & Martin Lawyers

At 15, Lesra Martin was living in New York and was functionally illiterate. When presented with the opportunity to obtain an education in Canada, however, he embraced it. Inspired by The Sixteenth Round, Rubin (Hurricane) Carter’s account of his wrongful imprisonment, Martin began writing to Carter in jail, which set into motion a friendship and a five-year legal battle that helped win Carter’s release from prison in 1985. From this friendship came the book Lazarus and The Hurricane, and the subsequent award-winning film, The Hurricane. Martin completed his Honours B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Toronto in 1988, his law degree from Dalhousie Law School in 1997 and went on to serve as a Crown Prosecutor in Kamloops, where he is now a partner in his law firm alongside his wife, Cheryl. Martin, who has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and Larry King Live, also works as a motivational speaker, and has appeared before the United Nations. He is the author of The Power of a Promise: Life Lessons Encountered on My Journey from Illiteracy to a Lawyer.

You are invited!

The community is encouraged to attend what promises to be a fun, informative glimpse into some of the most interesting research taking place at universities in Western Canada. Each participant has three minutes to explain his or her body of work before a live audience. The only tool they have at their disposal is a single static slide.

For those who can’t attend in person, the Western Canadian 3MT will be live streamed via: http://original.livestream.com/livetru.

Western Canadian 3MT Comes to TRU

For more information:
Danna Bach
Communications Officer, Research and Graduate Studies
Thompson Rivers University
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 250-371-5676