Colin J. Gillespie

Colin J. Gillespie
Born (1941-05-11) 11 May 1941
Adelaide, South Australia
Nationality Australian; Canadian
Education

BSc 1961, Melbourne University
PhD 1967, Monash University

LL.B. 1980, University of Manitoba
Occupation Physicist, lawyer, and writer.

Colin J. Gillespie (born 11 May 1941) is a writer, physicist, lawyer and strategic analyst. He is the author of some 30 scientific research publications in quantum physics, biophysics, neurophysiology and radiation biology. He has also written on social planning, class actions, aboriginal law, environmental management and indigenous constitutions. He has 40 years of experience as a strategic analyst for business and aboriginal clients. He is an avid traveller, having spent time in more than 50 countries in all six continents.

Life and career

Gillespie was born in Adelaide, South Australia, and raised in Evenley near Brackley in England and in Melbourne, Australia. He graduated from Melbourne Grammar School in 1958. In the next decade Australian artist Leon Schwengler was a strong influence on Gillespie's personal philosophy as well as his interest in science and subsequent scientific career. In 1961 he graduated from Melbourne University with a BSc, majoring in nuclear physics and minoring in mathematics and theory of statistics. He then attended Monash University, graduating in 1967 with a PhD in quantum mechanics.

He went on to do post-doctoral work in biophysics with the National Research Council of Canada (1967–1969), and research in neurophysiology and radiation biology with Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (1970–1975). In 1971 with Gordon Gislason, Gillespie developed a program for sensitively measuring radiation-induced strand breaks in mammalian DNA. He became a consultant to aboriginal tribes on implications of hydro-electric development (1975–1977). He was a consultant in 1978 to the Alberta Cancer Hospitals Board and the Alberta Government Committee on Advanced Medical Technology. While working at the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton, Alberta he developed a program for actuarial analysis of cancer survival with Adalei Starreveld and co-wrote with Donald Chapman a text on radiation physics, chemistry and biology in mammalian cells. Most recently he co-authored an editorial on "The Power of Biophysics" in the Red Journal.[1]

Gillespie has been a visiting and invited lecturer at the Physics Department, Adelaide University, Australia; Biochemistry Department, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada; Physics Department, Calgary University, Calgary, Canada; Animal Health Division, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Melbourne, Australia; Physics Department, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; Canadian Biochemical & Biophysical Society inaugural lecture, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada; Neurobiology Division, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States; L.H. Gray Laboratories, London, United Kingdom; Institute for Atomic Energy in Agriculture, Wageningen, Netherlands.

In 1978 Gillespie went to law school at the University of Manitoba and graduated in 1980 with a LL.B. He was admitted to the Manitoba Bar Association in 1981 and the Saskatchewan Bar in 1987. He specialised in environmental, aboriginal (and especially indigenous) as well as constitutional law. He also pursued a special interest in Aboriginal child protection at Weechi-it-te-win Family Services. Much of his work as a lawyer was for aboriginal clients, often pro bono.[2] He negotiated or litigated settlement of claims[3] against a hydro-electric utility and the governments of Manitoba and Canada. He was involved in settling a class action against paper companies and governments for mercury poisoning of tribes in Ontario.[4] He was counsel to multi-national corporations on environmental licensing.

He was strategic counsel to a company that was building the world's first commercial spaceport at Fort Churchill and was involved in negotiating the purchase of surplus SS-25 intercontinental ballistic missiles from STC Complex in Russia.[5]

He learned from tribal elders of the constitutions of two indigenous peoples, Pimicikamak and the Anishinabe Nation in Treaty No. 3, and their respective governments and helped them bring these up to date. He worked on cases in the Supreme Court of Canada, most notably the case on whether the Government of Canada could unilaterally patriate the constitution of Canada from the United Kingdom[6] and the case concerning the validity of laws in Manitoba that were made in English and not French.[7]

Scientific career

Legal career

Leading cases

Past & present memberships

Past offices

Awards

Publications

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

References

  1. 1 2 Chapman & Gillespie 2012.
  2. "Aboriginal Justice Implementation Commission Report". November 2009.
  3. 1 2 "Northern Flood Agreement". Manitoba Hydro.
  4. Ontario Region – Information Sheets – English-Wabigoon River Mercury Compensation – Indian and Northern Affairs Canada
  5. "Canadians And Russians Sign Deal To Provide Joint Launch Service Package; A Major Step Forward for the Commercial Satellite Launch Industry" (Press release). Akjuit Aerospace. 10 October 1996. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  6. Resolution to amend the Constitution, [1981] 1 S.C.R. 753, http://scc.lexum.org/en/1981/1981scr1-753/1981scr1-753.html.
  7. Manitoba Language Rights, [1985] 1 S.C.R. 721, http://scc.lexum.org/en/1985/1985scr1-721/1985scr1-721.html
  8. Manitoba Language Rights, [1985] 1 S.C.R. 721. http://scc.lexum.org/en/1985/1985scr1-721/1985scr1-721.html.

External links

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