For Liz England, the road to law school took her first through Bosnia and Herzegovina, Afghanistan and Ukraine.
Before law school, England had achieved the rank of major in the Canadian Armed Forces, followed by a brief stint in a related career, working as an Operations Centre officer with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Skills she learned in both organizations, but especially during her 18 years of military service, should prove valuable to her as a lawyer.
"The military taught me that a good leader doesn't know everything but is curious to learn what might affect their plans. I learned to keep my mind open to different ideas, opinions and approaches."
England's military career first saw her monitoring the implementation of the Dayton Accords (the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina), as a Liaison and Observation Team commander in Bosnia during 2004. She regularly spoke with both government leaders and village leaders, observing and reporting on issues of peace and security.
TANK LEADER
In Afghanistan, she worked for the Provincial Reconstruction Team as a duty officer responsible for situational awareness. In Canada, she was a liaison officer between the military and the RCMP during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, and in 2011 she led 15 soldiers and four tanks as tank troop leader with Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians) at CFB Edmonton.
Working inside a tank while commanding it and three others taught, "multitasking, prioritizing and communicating effectively under challenging conditions."
England has been passionate about justice since a Grade 11 social studies teacher screened a documentary about the 1995 Srebenicia genocide in the former Yugoslavia. "I was horrified by the atrocities and couldn't understand how neighbours and friends could turn on one another and do such unthinkable things. I wanted to understand the nature of conflict and figure out why this could happen and how to solve it."
During her military career, she occasionally encountered legal aspects that intrigued her - for instance, discussions about what would happen if a member of the military had cause to fire a weapon on a Canadian citizen during Olympics security. While studying for her master's, she worked in the G1 Branch (military human resources) at 3rd Canadian Division in Edmonton, where she also became familiar with administrative law, as she set up boards of inquiry, summary investigations and dealt with grievances and Reserve Force compensation issues.
However, after completing a master's, England was still fascinated by international affairs, so she retired from the military to go to Kyiv with the OSCE, a regional security organization that promotes stability, peace and democracy in Europe.
The OSCE had 10 teams deployed across Ukraine, including in the non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk, and it was her responsibility to know what each was trying to do, while being prepared to co-ordinate head office support if there was an emergency.
In a separate part of the job, she brought together representatives from across the head office and the OSCE's Special Monitoring Mission, to conduct operational-level planning and contingency planning. That included leading a planning session to develop the Mission's approach in response to increasing tensions in the Azov Sea, months before the 2018 Kerch Strait incident in which Russian captured three Ukrainian navy vessels.
After a year in Ukraine, England returned home to support her husband, a military veteran who lives with PTSD. At a crossroads, she realized that law school appealed to her analytical and operational tendencies, and to her desire to create order amidst chaotic situations.
"When you see the effects of a failed or failing state, and how people's frustration contributes to its failure, you come to realize how fragile our own democratic institutions really are. I hope my upcoming career in law helps give people reason to put their faith in these institutions."