2015 Canadian Conference on Elder Law

The Canadian Center for Elder Law together with the Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia are presenting a two day conference: The Journey of Aging – the Law and Beyond. The conference will be held on Thursday and Friday, November 12 and 13, 2015 at the Pan Pacific Hotel, 999 Canada Place, Vancouver, B.C. Here is the description from the CCEL website: 

DAY 1: Connecting Across Discipline and Geography
Join practitioners from law, social work, health care, finance, non-profit and other sectors from across the country and around the world to talk about the challenges and issues involved in working with older adults.

DAY 2: Key Practice Challenges and Hot Topics in Legal Practice
Explore issues engaged in powers of attorney and substitute decision-making, health care decision-making and end of life care, mental capacity and dementia, elder abuse and neglect, and other challenging subjects that arise in representing older adults and their families.

Keynote speakers will include:

• Isobel Mackenzie, BC’s Senior’s Advocate
• Dr. Andrew Wister, Chair, National Senior’s Council
• Barb MacLean, Chair, BC Council to Reduce Elder Abuse

Confirmed presenters:

• Catherine Romanko, BC Public Guardian and Trustee
• Andrew S. MacKay, Alexander, Holburn, Beaudin and Lang
• Geoffrey W. White, Geoffrey W. White Law Corporation
• Diedre J. Herbert, McLellan Herbert
• John-Paul Boyd, Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family
• Anna Laing, Fasken Martineau
• Kimberly A. Whaley, Whaley Estate Litigation
• Honourable Marion J. Allan, Clark Wilson LLP
• Barbara Buchanan, Law Society of BC

Panels will include:

• Advance health care planning—implications of the Bentley decision
• Debate: Would a national power of attorney registry help reduce elder financial abuse?
• Update on guardianship law in BC—what’s happening one year after legislative change
• Who do you call when you suspect elder abuse? Introducing the new BC decision tree
• Physician assisted suicide after Carter—where do we go from here?
• Late life separation and divorce
• Dementia and client competency: practice tips, communication strategies and ethical issues
• The when and how of mental capacity assessments

Registration information is available on the CLEBC site here.