Our board of directors

While a lawyer by profession, Allan Seckel, KC, has had a career that has spanned private practice, public service and the not-for-profit sector. 

After serving as Law Clerk to the Chief Justice of British Columbia from 1983 to 1984, Allan practised as a litigation lawyer with a major Vancouver firm. He then became the Deputy Attorney General for British Columbia from 2003 to 2009; and was the Cabinet Secretary, Head of Public Service and Deputy Minister to the Premier of British Columbia from 2009 to 2011. More recently, Allan was the CEO of Doctors of BC until December of 2021. 

Allan is active in his community, currently serving as the chair of the Board of Directors of Covenant House Vancouver and the chair of the BC Housing Management Commission. Previously, he was a member of the Telus Vancouver Community Board and the board of LIFT Philanthropy Partners. 

Allan holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with joint honours in economics and commerce from Simon Fraser University; a law degree from the University of Victoria; and a Master of Law degree from Gonville & Caius College at Cambridge University, where he attended as a Commonwealth Scholar. Allan is the co-author of two legal texts. He was designated a King’s Counsel in 2003 and as an ICD.D in 2013.

Donna M. Turko, KC, graduated from Dalhousie Law School in 1991. She also earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Sociology from the University of BC. In 2017, she was appointed King’s Counsel. She is also honoured to have received the Harry Rankin, KC, Pro Bono Award in 2017. Donna is an executive member (Advisory Committee) of the Criminal Defence Advisory Committee C-DAS. She has mentored and lectured at the UBC Innocence Project. She is also a reviewer for the Association in Defence of the Wrongfully Convicted.

Donna has been invited to speak at numerous conferences for judges and lawyers, including the National Judicial Conference, and Canadian Bar Association (CBA) Continuing Legal Education and Trial Lawyers Association of BC conferences. She is a participant in the Inns of Court program whereby judges and lawyers join to mentor junior counsel.

Donna has served on numerous CBA committees including the CBA Criminal Subsection Committee for Sentencing and Release, Legal Aid Committee, the Advisory Committee to the Judicial Council, Government Relations Committee, and the BarTalk Editorial Board.

Donna has taught at the UBC Allard School of Law and has been principal to over 26 articling students.

Tracy Porteous’s commitment to survivors of gender-based violence and those who support them began when she started at the Victoria Sexual Assault Centre at the age of 19. Her experience there was so meaningful that she decided to dedicate her life to the cause. 

Now, 40 years later, Tracy is credited for numerous innovative programs and initiatives; among them, growing the Victoria Sexual Assault Centre from a staff of 2 to 22; founding and leading the 300-program strong Ending Violence Association of BC; co-creating and leading a cross-sectoral program ensuring BC’s legal, health, child protection and anti-violence response systems are working collaboratively; creating the award-winning Be More Than a Bystander: Break the Silence on Gender-Based Violence, a prevention initiative that engages youth in schools across the province and men in male-dominated workplaces with the goal of having people speak up to violence, disrespect and abuse; co-founding the Ending Violence Association of Canada, a national body working to advance policy; and co-creating the gender-based violence policy for the Canadian Football League. 

Tracy is a Registered Clinical Counsellor and holds an Honorary Doctor of Laws and the Order of British Columbia.

Brenda Knights is a capacity builder, with board experience, who serves Indigenous people in Canada. She has experience in various leadership positions advocating for social housing for Indigenous people and is currently the CEO of the Vancouver Native Housing Society. 

Previously, Brenda worked for the Kwantlen First Nation’s economic development arm, and Coast Mountain Bus Company, a subsidiary of TransLink, where she held a variety of management roles. She is also on the board of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, Metro Vancouver Zero Emissions Innovation Center, the New Relationship Trust, Elizabeth Fry Society, and Tourism Langley.

Brenda lives by her nation Kwantlen’s seven traditional laws which have been around since time immemorial: health, happiness, humbleness, generations, generosity, forgiveness, and understanding. Brenda descends from Grand Chief Wattlekanium, who met the Simon Fraser expedition in present-day New Westminster. Indigenous teachings tell us it takes seven generations for change and Brenda’s daughter represents the seventh generation since Grand Chief Wattlekanium. 

Sarf brings diverse board, senior executive and consulting experience in the BC public sector. He is currently also a member of the Board of Directors of Land Title and Survey Authority of BC (LTSA) and Knowledge Network Corporation. He also chairs the Finance and Audit Committee at LTSA. 

Additionally, he provides management consulting services to public sector organizations in strategic planning, financial and corporate management, procurement, real estate, facilities management and executive recruitment. He also volunteers for the BC Government Retired Employees Association.

Sarf is a Queen’s Golden Jubilee medal recipient with a distinguished career in the BC Public Service spanning 26 years, including five years as an Associate Deputy Minister and member of the Deputy Ministers Council of BC. A position from which he retired in 2018 with a meritorious service award from the Premier of BC. During this period, he led the real property function for the Province for eight years and co-sponsored/led the development of the current Information Management Act for the Province.

He has provided leadership in financial and corporate management for large BC Government ministries, BC Housing and briefly assisted Legal Aid BC as Interim CFO in 2022. 

Prior to joining the BC Public Service, Sarf worked in the accounting profession and private industry for 15 years. He is a chartered accountant by profession and is married with one adult son. He lives in Victoria.

Tom is a trial and appellate lawyer engaged in complex criminal matters including homicide, serious crime, cybercrime, extradition, fraud/​securities, and administrative and professional proceedings. He appears before the BC Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, the Supreme Court of Canada, and many administrative tribunals, and has been lead counsel on some of the most well-known and complex criminal proceedings in British Columbia over the past decade. 

He also represents First Nations and many First Nation persons, and has been active in addressing issues concerning Indigenous interaction with the criminal justice system. He was involved in the original Gladue case that has helped to shift attitudes in respect of reconciling Indigenous concerns in relation to sentencing.

Tom has been engaged with BC’s legal aid system since working in the Legal Aid Appeals Department while at UBC Law School in the early 1990s. He is passionate about ensuring quality access to justice amongst criminal justice participants and works actively in a mentoring capacity for the criminal bar. He teaches often at UBC Allard School of Law and for various CLE-related classes, speaks at conferences for judges and lawyers, and is a founding member of the BC Criminal Defence Advocacy Society.

Salima Samnani is a Kenyan Indo-Canadian Muslim immigrant. Her experience as a litigator and as a lecturer focuses on public law and civil law including family, child protection, and employment law. 

Salima is a lecturer and Legal Services Director at the Indigenous Community Legal Clinic, which is located in the Downtown Eastside community of Vancouver on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sə̓lílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, and is a Tribunal Member on the Civil Resolution Tribunal. 

Salima has served Indigenous groups for more than a decade, first as Associate Counsel for the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry and then as counsel for the Union of BC Indian Chiefs at the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. 

Salima earned a Juris Doctorate from the University of Victoria, and a Master of Laws from the University of Fribourg in conjunction with the University of Bern and University of Neuchâtel. Her thesis, written for and in conjunction with the World Trade Organization and the Aga Khan Agency of Micro-finance, explored the impact of micro-finance banking under-regulation on people made vulnerable by society.

Andrew has more than a decade of experience resolving disputes for corporations and individuals through negotiated settlements, tribunal hearings, arbitration and litigation. 

Before launching his own firm, Andrew practised for several years with a national law firm as well as a litigation boutique. After law school, he clerked for five justices of the British Columbia Supreme Court. Prior to law school, he spent time working at the British Columbia legislature. 

Andrew is passionate about pro bono, and has acted for Pivot Legal Society in its defence of those without adequate housing. Andrew is a board member of the BC Indigenous Housing Society and a former board member of the Vancouver Bar Association. He is a member of the Spuzzum First Nation.