Instructor Biographies
Iain Macdonald began his association with administrative law in March 1986 when he was appointed to the Workers’ Compensation Review Board where, in addition to deciding thousands of appeals, he served as training and education coordinator (1987 – 1993), and quality assurance coordinator (2000 – 2003). He was appointed in March 2003 as a vice-chair of the newly formed Workers’ Compensation Appeal Tribunal. In December 2010, after completing nearly 25 years as an administrative law decision maker, during which he chaired well over a thousand hearings and wrote thousands of decisions, he retired from government service and joined the advocacy group at the British Columbia Government Employees Union.
Iain is an interprovincially certified journeyman electrician and former president of Local 213 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. He majored in English and minored in Kinesiology at Simon Fraser University.
In 1999, Iain was elected Treasurer of the British Columbia Council of Administrative Tribunals (BCCAT) and served in that capacity for six years. He continued to sit on the BCCAT Board and completed a term as President (2008 – 2010). He served for five years on the BCCAT Publication and Communications Committee, and is currently a long-standing member of both the Education, and Annual Conference Committees. He is a qualified instructor for BCCAT Decision Writing, Administrative Justice, and Hearing Skills courses and coordinates the Post-Secondary Decision Makers and Hearing Skills workshops.
Tonie Beharrell is a lawyer, investigator, trainer and mediator. She has extensive experience practicing in administrative, human rights, labour and employment law.
Tonie received her law degree from the University of British Columbia in 1997. She first articled and practiced at a national employer-side labour firm. From December 2002 to December 2011, Tonie was a full time member of the BC Human Rights Tribunal, where she was involved in adjudicating and mediating a broad spectrum of human rights disputes. Tonie then practiced in-house for a major health care union, heading its legal department for nine years, before moving to Southern Butler Price, LLP, where she currently practices.
Tonie is an experienced instructor and has provided training to administrative adjudicators for over a decade as a course coordinator and instructor for the BC Council of Administrative Tribunals. Tonie has taught BCCAT’s Administrative Justice for Decision Makers, Decision Writing, Hearing Skills and Inclusive Adjudication courses, in both public and tailored offerings.
In 2021, Tonie was awarded the BC Council of Administrative Tribunals Recognition Award for Exceptional Service to the Administrative Justice Community in BC.
Christine is the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of the College of Veterinarians of British Columbia, the province’s regulator of veterinarians and veterinary medicine. She was previously the inaugural director and managing lawyer of Access Pro Bono’s Everyone Legal Clinic, a first-of-its-kind fully virtual legal services provider and teaching incubator aimed at sustainably improving access to justice in British Columbia. Christine serves as a member of the Property Assessment Appeal Board. In addition to being an instructor and course author with BCCAT, Christine designs and teaches courses in law, ethics, and professional licensing and regulation at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business.
Zahra H. Jimale is a lawyer, senior policy & legal advisor, educator and is passionate about administrative law. She has held diverse roles in public, private and non-profit sectors. Most recently, she was a Vice Chair at the BC Property Assessment Appeal Board and prior to that she was a senior policy and legal advisor at WorkSafeBC in the role of Quality Manager in the Policy, Regulation, and Research Division. She holds a Master of Laws from Osgoode Hall Law School, a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Victoria and a Restorative Justice Certificate from Simon Fraser University.
Mark Mancini is an Assistant Professor at Thompson Rivers University, Faculty of Law. He holds a J.D. from the University of New Brunswick, an LL.M. from the University of Chicago Law School, and is currently a PhD candidate at the Peter A. Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia. His research interests include administrative law & the law of judicial review, and legislative interpretation. His work has been published in academic journals across Canada, and has been cited several times in courts across the country, including the Supreme Court of Canada. Mark is a Senior Fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and a Research Fellow with the University of British Columbia-Okanagan Centre for Constitutional Studies.
David Bird joined the Environmental Appeal Board, Forest Appeal Commission and the Oil and Gas Appeal Tribunal as a Vice Chair—Service Delivery in June 2020. His career began with the Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board in 1994, working the last several years as a case manager. In 2003, David moved to British Columbia to join the Workers’ Advisers Branch (Ministry of Labour) as a Workers’ Adviser representing injured workers with their workers compensation claims. In 2006, he became an Arbitrator / Dispute Resolution Officer with the Residential Tenancy Branch, resolving disputes between landlords and tenants. In 2011, David joined the Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation as an Implementation Manager where he developed and negotiated solutions to implement tripartite treaties with First Nations communities. In 2014, David was appointed as a Vice Chair of the Workers’ Compensation Appeal Tribunal (WCAT). In 2016, he took over the role as Vice Chair and Deputy Registrar of WCAT.
Sherelle Goodwin became a lawyer in B.C. in 2000. She initially practiced civil litigation, with a focus on personal injury matters, then practiced primarily criminal law, with a focus on federal offences. In 2007, Ms. Goodwin joined the custodianship department of the Law Society of B.C., where she took control of and wound up law practices in a variety of legal areas.
In 2014, Ms. Goodwin was appointed as a full-time vice chair of the Workers Compensation Appeal Tribunal (WCAT), where she adjudicated workers compensation and prohibited action appeals. From 2019 to 2020, Ms. Goodwin was a WCAT Deputy Registrar, where she addressed procedural and preliminary matters in WCAT appeals. She continues to act as a part-time vice chair.
Ms. Goodwin was appointed as a part-time member of the Civil Resolution Tribunal (CRT) in 2017, and a full-time member in 2020. At the CRT, Ms. Goodwin adjudicates civil law disputes about small claims, strata, societies and co-op matters. She also decides preliminary and summary matters within CRT disputes.
Shelina Shivji graduated from Simon Fraser University in 1989 after obtaining a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics/Business. She initially worked in the health care sector and then in the private sector in the communications field. In 1993, she began to work as an Industrial Relations Officer with the Ministry of Labour at which time she also provided consultative services to the Labour Relations Board and the Human Rights Tribunal. In 2001, she was appointed as a Vice Chair of the Workers’ Compensation Appeal Tribunal.
Ben was born at a young age, close to his mother. Since then, they’ve grown apart, but still regularly call each other to talk about administrative law. Well, at least Ben talks about administrative law. His mother, being his mother, continues to humour him. Ben found more people to talk to about administrative law after he was called to the Bar in British Columbia in 2012. He did this after clerking for the BC Supreme Court and articling with the Attorney General of BC. After being called to the Bar, Ben practiced law as both barrister and solicitor for a wide variety of governmental clients, all of whom faintly regret asking him about administrative law. In 2022, Ben joined the Environmental Appeal Board, the Forest Appeals Commission, and the Energy Resource Appeal Tribunal as General Counsel, where he continues, unabashedly, to talk at people about administrative law. And the Oxford Comma. Which you should all use.
Julie Mantini holds a law degree and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of British Columbia. She was called to the Bar in British Columbia in 1994. Julie began her legal career in civil litigation, focusing on personal injury and insurance defence. In the early 2000s, Julie switched her focus to workers’ compensation issues and administrative law.. In 2004, Julie was appointed as a vice chair at the Workers’ Compensation Appeal Tribunal (WCAT). With WCAT, Julie has written hundreds of decisions and chaired just as many oral hearings. She also spent four years as Deputy Registrar at WCAT to assist in processing thousands of appeals. From 2019 to 2024, Julie was a Team Leader with WCAT, and she oversaw the work of a group of vice chairs. Julie continues to write decisions for WCAT, and she has been appointed to the Law Society Tribunal in 2024.
Simmi Sandhu is Chair & CEO of the Property Assessment Appeal Board (the 2nd level of property assessment appeals throughout the province).
In late 2018, she was also appointed by the United Nations General Assembly as a Judge on the United Nations Appeal Tribunal, the second level of appeal of the United Nations Internal Justice System.
Since July 2012, she has also served as the part-time Vice-Chair of the Surface Rights Board.
She has a bachelor of arts in political science (U.B.C.) and a bachelor of laws (U.B.C.), and was called to the bar of B.C. in 1990. She has training in mediation and alternative dispute resolution, including online dispute resolution.
As a lawyer, she has worked in house for I.C.B.C., the Public Guardian & Trustee, and in private practice. Her areas of practice included administrative law, civil litigation, corporate/commercial law and real estate transactions, appearing before the Provincial Court of BC, BC Supreme Court, Federal Court of Appeal, IRB, HRT, and others.
In 1995, she was appointed as a chairperson of the E.I. Board of Referees (currently the Social Services Tribunal), hearing employment insurance appeals.
Simmi is past president, secretary, and director of the BC Council of Administrative Tribunals (B.C.C.A.T.). She teaches their various courses including i) Administrative Justice for Decision Makers, ii) Foundations of Administrative Justice (Post Secondary Educational Institutions), iii) Decision-writing, and iv) Hearing Skills.
Recently, Simmi assisted in developing a workshop for decision makers on Intercultural Competency and Implicit Bias.
In 2014, B.C.C.A.T. awarded Simmi with its Award for Exceptional Service to the Administrative Justice Community.
Deirdre Rice holds a law degree and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Victoria. She has been a member of the Law Society of British Columbia since 1993, and began practicing as a lawyer in Ontario in 1990. She has extensive experience as a lawyer, adjudicator, and educator in a range of administrative law areas, and has been a full-time vice chair with the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Tribunal since 2003. Her prior experience includes work with the British Columbia Human Rights Commission and its predecessor, the British Columbia Council of Human Rights, the federal Department of Justice, and the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
Shannon Beckett is an adjudicator with the BC Human Rights Tribunal. Prior to this role, she was the Executive Director of a cluster of four tribunals based in Victoria. Shannon has extensive experience advising administrative tribunals on matters of law and policy, and has practised law in the areas of labour and employment law, human rights law, and professional regulatory law. In 2011, she served as a Judicial Law Clerk with the BC Supreme Court. Shannon has also worked for an Independent Officer of the Legislature where she investigated the critical injuries and deaths of children and youth receiving government services. In addition to her role as co-president of BCCAT, she teaches BCCAT courses on Decision Writing, Administrative Procedure and Hearing Skills.