Biographies Of Counsel
Acting for the Commission

Geoffrey D. Cowper, Q.C., Commission Counsel

Geoffrey Cowper was born in Calgary, Alberta in 1956. He graduated from the University of British Columbia Faculty of Law (LL.B., 1980). He was called to the Bar in British Columbia in 1982, and in the Yukon in 1987. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1987.

Mr. Cowper is a partner in Fasken Martineau, practising as senior general counsel in its Vancouver office. His areas of practice include corporate/commercial, civil litigation and dispute resolution, class actions and securities litigation.

Mr. Cowper’s involvement in professional and community activities includes:

• Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, and Provincial Chair for B.C. (2005-2007),

• Chair, Legal Services Society of B.C. (2005-2007),

• Director, Global Hunger Foundation,

• Director, Canadian Council of Christians and Jews,

• Chair, Civil Appeal Pro Bono, and Co-Chair, CLE Pro Bono.

Mr. Cowper has published scholarly articles on such topics as privacy and the common law, and fiduciary obligations and aboriginal peoples, and has made presentations on appellate advocacy, commercial disputes and structuring IT agreements to avoid litigation. In 2001 he received the Deputy Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs’ Award for Outstanding Achievement.

Brock Martland, Associate Commission Counsel

Brock Martland was born in Calgary, Alberta in 1972. He graduated from Queen’s University (B.A. (Honours), 1995). He studied law at Osgoode Hall in Toronto and the University of Victoria, graduating in 1999. He served as a law clerk for Mr. Justice John Major at the Supreme Court of Canada, before returning to British Columbia and completing articles with the Criminal Appeals and Regional offices of Crown Counsel in 2001.

Mr. Martland practises criminal law with the Vancouver law firm of Smart, Harris & Martland. His practice covers virtually all criminal allegations, with a particular emphasis on appeals, extradition, constitutional cases, and youth criminal justice. He has appeared at all levels of court in British Columbia, and before the Supreme Court of Canada. He has appeared as counsel in public hearings, and related litigation, under the B.C. Police Act.

Mr. Martland has presented papers or served as a panelist at legal conferences, and at the University of British Columbia Faculty of Law. He is a past co–chair of the Canadian Bar Association’s International Assistance Committee, and volunteers as a pro bono lawyer for Access Justice clinics in Vancouver.

Keith R. Hamilton, Research Counsel

Mr. Hamilton grew up in Victoria, B.C., and graduated from the University of Victoria (B.A., 1966), the University of British Columbia (LL.B., 1971) and the London School of Economics (University of London, LL.M., 1972). He was called to the Bar in British Columbia in 1973.

He has served as the director of research and planning for the Law Society of British Columbia and for the Legal Aid Society of British Columbia. For three years he was director of an experimental public defender program in the Greater Vancouver area.

Mr. Hamilton taught criminal law, advanced criminal procedure and trial advocacy courses as a faculty member at the University of British Columbia’s law school, and is the author of three legal reference texts.

He has served as commission counsel, research director or policy counsel on nine independent commissions of inquiry, examining such diverse issues as prosecutorial discretion, electoral boundaries, policing, prison transfers, child protection, workers’ compensation, licensed gaming and organized crime. He was counsel on one of the defence teams in the Air India criminal trial.