l-r  Stephanie Leong,  Christopher Gall and Dustin Gagnon- images courtesy TRU

Prince George, B.C. – Three law students at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops  have been awarded a share in  the Ben Meisner Memorial Law Bursary Award.

The $3,400 award was established  through donations from  staff and  Benchers  at the Law Society of B.C. in the wake of Ben Meisner’s death on April 2nd, 2015.  The criteria for the award  was that the deserving students  have a passion for  Northern or rural B.C. and hopefully to set up practice  in Northern or rural B.C.

Past  Law Society President, Ken Walker attended the award ceremony at Thompson  Rivers University  and  spoke of Ben Meisner’s  love  for the land,  the  region, its people  and  his courage to go against the grain  when he felt it was necessary to achieve results.

The  recipients of the award are:

Stephanie Leong:   From Prince George,  she  has a Bachelor of Arts Degree  in History from UNBC.  She plans to  article at Heather Sadler Jenkins Law firm in Prince George.

Christopher Gall:  From Langley,  he has a  Bachelor of Arts in History  and Master of Arts in First Nations Studies from  UNBC.  He  has worked with  the Tl’az t’en First Nation and  the Metis Nation  of BC spending considerable time  in  Northern B.C.

Dustin Gagnon:  Has lived in Houston, Telkwa and Morricetown before attending  Thompson Rivers University in  Kamloops to study Law.  He  has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from UNBC  and a Diploma in Accounting from the College of New Caledonia

Ben  Meisner, founder of 250News,  was first appointed  a  Law Society Bencher ( the governing body  for  all lawyers in B.C.) in 2010.   He was re-appointed in 2012 and 2014. Throughout his time with the Law Society, he presented a rural and northern perspective on many of the issues  which the Law Society of B.C. faced.

Being a Bencher was an honour Ben  Meisner cherished,  and on the eve of his death,  the Law Society  appointed him a  “Life Bencher”.