Human rights, constitutional law scholar to lead law faculty

As she was completing her business degree at the University of Saskatchewan, Donna Greschner pondered what most graduates would consider a dream offer—a position with a prominent corporation in New York.

Instead, she chose to go to law school.

“I never regretted it,” says Greschner, whose term as UVic’s new law dean began July 1. “It has been, and continues to be, a wonderful career for me.”

It’s a career that has taken her from growing up on a remote farm in Saskatchewan to sharing a dinner table with Nelson Mandela and negotiation tables with federal and provincial politicians.

Throughout her career, she has always maintained a connection to academic life, most recently as a faculty member at the University of La Verne’s law school in southern California. She is unequivocal in describing why she applied to be UVic Law’s next dean.

“I’ve always considered UVic to be one of Canada’s great educational institutions,” she says. “Its law school is an exceptional place, one of the best in the common law world. It attracts remarkable faculty and students.”

Greschner brings to UVic a rich and varied background of research, teaching, practice and public service in constitutional law, human rights and health care law. After graduating in 1980 as Saskatchewan’s gold medalist in law, she earned her graduate law degree from Oxford University as a Commonwealth Scholar.

Returning to the UofS, she taught the university’s first course in feminist legal theory. In the mid 80s, she represented the prairies on the federal Women’s Studies Advisory Committee, which chose five inaugural chairs in women’s studies at Canadian universities. In 1987, Greschner was chosen by then justice minister Ray Hnatyshyn to serve on Canada’s Human Rights Commission. A frequent advisor on constitutional matters, she served as Elijah Harper’s advisor during the Aboriginal campaign against the Meech Lake Accord.

In 1992 she was a member of Saskatchewan’s negotiating team for the Charlotte-town Accord.

“That was one of the most intense projects I’ve ever done,” remembers Greschner. “There were many sleepless nights since we had to conclude the accord before Quebec’s vote on sovereignty that fall.” Later that year, she became head of the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission, where she was heavily involved in the successful campaign to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

But perhaps the most memorable event in her career was a meeting with Mandela shortly after his release from prison. The African National Congress was holding its first lawful meeting to draft a post-apartheid constitution, and Greschner, who had been invited to address equality rights, was selected to join a small group dining with the magnetic leader.

“His questions were mostly related to Aboriginal issues,” she remembers. “It really was a unique event.” She has returned to South Africa several times, including a 1994 visit for discussions with South Africa’s Constitutional Assembly.

Prior to her 2003 move to California, where her spouse, Alan McHughen, is a professor at the University of California in Riverside, Greschner was also a consultant to the Royal Commission on the Future of Health Care, and continued an active research program. Upon her move, she joined the California bar. “I always had one foot in practice. It made me a more effective teacher.” Her colleagues must agree, as she received the University of Saskatchewan’s Master Teacher Award in 2002.

Now at UVic, she plans to spend “considerable time listening to those who know UVic Law best—the law faculty, the legal community and the wider university community, since UVic Law doesn’t operate in isolation.”

In the longer term, Greschner says she wants to determine “the best response to the tough challenges faced by the faculty and the profession” such as globalization of legal services, technological change and reduced resources from senior governments, while remaining true to “UVic Law’s values and its tradition of innovation and inclusion.”