Self Employed Lawyer, Workplace Investigator, Trauma Informed Legal Practice Advisor
Self Employed
Previously, Director of Investigations
University of BC
Myrna McCallum is an Indigenous lawyer from northern Saskatchewan. She recently founded her own law practice in North Vancouver, B.C. and she offers legal advice on administrative, human rights and criminal matters; workplace investigations into alleged misconduct; consultation on policies and procedures; and training on trauma informed practice for legal and administrative professionals.
Myrna has spent most of her legal career working in Indigenous communities and more specifically, serving survivors of sexual violence, as a Crown prosecutor, an Indian Residential School adjudicator and an Investigations Director. Throughout her career, she learned a great deal about trauma, its impacts on memory, communication and behaviour and the significant difference applying a trauma informed approach has on the survivors who entrust her to witness their pain, receive their stories and assess their evidence. Myrna is passionate about educating legal professionals on trauma informed practice and intends to contribute to shifting our justice system to one that applies a trauma informed approach when dealing with survivors of sexual violence and domestic violence; not only for the benefit of those who look to police officers, lawyers and judges for protection or justice but also for the benefit of legal professionals themselves who must safeguard their own mental health against post-traumatic stress disorder and vicarious trauma in the execution of their duties.
Myrna’s greatest achievement has been the privilege of raising her three children as a single parent, all of whom have gone on to become beautiful, compassionate and generous adults. Myrna is the proud kokom (grandmother) of Addilyn Rose and River Rhys.