Board of Directors
Pursuant to the bylaws of the Canadian Association for Food Law and Policy (CAFLP) and the Canada Not-for-Profit Corporations Act, C.s. 2009, c. 23, the Board of Directors serves as the governing body of the CAFLP.
Sarah Berger Richardson
Sarah is an Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law (Civil law section), where she teaches food and agricultural law, civil liability, and administrative law. Her research focuses on the regulation of food production and farming, with a particular emphasis on the meat industry. She holds a doctorate from McGill University’s Faculty of Law and her dissertation examined the ways that socio-cultural and moral perspectives about how livestock should be raised and slaughtered are considered in the design of meat inspection systems. In 2018-2019, she was a visiting fellow at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University. She holds a Master of Law (LL.M) from Tel Aviv University, where she was a research fellow at the Manna Center in Food Safety and Security. Previously, she served as a law clerk at the Supreme Court of Israel and the Canada Agricultural Review Tribunal.
Don Buckingham
Raised on a farm in Saskatchewan, Don came to appreciate the effort required to produce a vibrant rural agricultural community. As his parents greatly valued education, after high school Don completed a B.A. in French literature, and an advanced degree in international development studies, and then bachelor, master and doctorate level degrees in law with a focus on agriculture and food law.
Don’s professional life has taken him across Canada and abroad. As a lawyer, he has served as private practitioner, university professor, government advisor, administrative judge and CEO of a food and agriculture think-tank. He continues to enjoy serving at home and abroad through volunteer and professional avenues in the agriculture, food, environment and faith worlds.
His family, now with grandchildren, inspires and sustains him. And as a “foodie” family, preparing and enjoying good meals provide splendid opportunities to discuss the complexity of food, agriculture and all creation.
Katrina Coughlin
Katrina Coughlin is a partner in Gowling WLG's Ottawa office. Her practice is focused primarily on regulatory and commercial law related to foods, drugs, natural health products, medical devices, cosmetics, consumer products, animal feeds and other agricultural products.
Drawing on her prior experience working at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), Katrina assists clients interacting with Health Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), AAFC, Competition Bureau and Environment Canada, as well as provincial and territorial regulators. She has broad experience working with companies on product commercialization issues, including: product classification, regulatory licensing and approvals, formulation and ingredient reviews, packaging and labelling, advertising and regulatory enforcement matters such as recalls. Her practice also includes regulatory compliance and commercial issues that relate to multi-level marketing, direct selling and consumer protection.
In her regulatory practice, Katrina assists clients with responses to Administrative Monetary Penalties (AMPs), including notices of violation (NOV) with warnings and financial penalties issued by the CFIA. She is co-editor of the firm's Food, NHP and Cosmetics newsletter, and also operates a cow-calf farming business with her husband, providing her with unique industry insight.
Carmen Francis
Carmen is an international trade and regulatory lawyer with McCarthy Tetrault LLP. In the regulatory sphere, her expertise tracks the entirety of the food product continuum: from product inception (including legal viability of products being introduced into the Canadian market), to product composition, ingredient listings, marketing and advertising claims, packaging and labelling, to import and export quotas and customs compliance, and ultimately to product recalls and engagement with Canadian regulators. Carmen’s practice has also focused on the intersection of food law and policy and international trade flows – a perspective that has become increasingly relevant as we weigh the balance between globalized production and the demand for domestic, localized sourcing.
Within her international trade practice, Carmen has significant experience acting for clients in anti-dumping investigations and litigation, international investment disputes, import and export control matters, and customs and sanctions compliance.
Amélie Gouin
Amélie is a senior associate at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP. She specialises in commercial litigation and practices mainly in the fields of competition law, advertisement and marketing, extraordinary recourses, shareholder disputes, fraud and intellectual property. She completed her studies in civil law and common law at McGill University. Since 2011, Ms. Gouin has been involved in the activities of the Young Chamber of Commerce of Montreal. She currently serves as supervising lawyer for McGill’s Food and Agriculture Law Clinic.
Glenford Jameson
Glenford’s practice is focused on corporate-commercial and regulatory issues. His business law experience is on transactional and commercial matters, including mergers and acquisitions, private equity financing, and a broad range of business law issues, and his regulatory experience involves working with clients to manage permissive processes or enforcement actions by Health Canada or the CFIA in the food context. He has significant industry experience in the food sector, relating to domestic and international organizations that encounter a high degree of provincial/federal regulation and those that seek to challenge regulatory regimes under which food is produced and sold in Ontario and Canada. His clients include start-ups, not-for-profits, SMEs, governments, and multinationals.
Jenna Khoury-Hanna
Jenna Khoury-Hanna is an associate lawyer at Kinch Eddie Litigation Professional Corporation, a full service litigation firm located in Campbellford, Ontario. Her civil litigation practice consists primarily of planning and land use issues. She completed her J.D. at Dalhousie University and an LL.M at Pace University, where she was also the Food and Agriculture Graduate Law Fellow and assisted with the Food and Beverage Law Clinic.
Heather McLeod-Kilmurray
Heather McLeod-Kilmurray is a Professor at the Centre for Environmental Law and Global Sustainability (CELGS) at the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa. Her research deals with toxic torts, environmental justice, the relationship between science and courts, and food law including GMOs and industrial factory farming. She is co-author of The Canadian Law of Toxic Torts with Prof. Lynda Collins, and co-editor of Canadian Food Law and Policy with Profs. Nathalie Chalifour and Angela Lee. She is a former part-time member of the Ontario Environmental Review Tribunal.
Josiane Rioux Collin
Josiane est professeure en droit des affaires et en droit de l’alimentation au Département des sciences juridiques de l’UQAM et membre du Barreau du Québec. Ses intérêts de recherche portent principalement sur la mise en place de structures juridiques favorables à la saine alimentation et sur la relation entre le droit et le poids des individus dans une perspective critique. À cet effet, elle s’intéresse au rôle du droit dans cette responsabilité collective face à l’alimentation et aux biais cognitifs à l’égard de la grosseur, ainsi qu’à la régulation publique et privée des pratiques commerciales dans cette perspective.
Megan O’Neill
Megan is a practicing corporate lawyer at Farris LLP in Vancouver, BC. She practices in a wide range of areas including corporate commercial transactions, mergers and acquisitions, securities, corporate finance, and real estate. Megan has experience dealing with both private and public companies.
In particular, Megan specializes in the purchase and sale of wineries and advising clients in the BC wine industry on transactions and regulatory matters. Megan is quickly developing a reputation as the ‘go to’ lawyer for structuring and negotiating winery and distillery purchase and sale transactions, and for strategic advice on transversing the regulatory hurdles that pervade the industry. She has successfully closed about 25 winery sales in the Okanagan Valley over the last five years. She regularly helps her clients in the alcoholic beverage sector achieve their objectives through the resolution of complex regulatory issues.
Megan obtained her Juris Doctor at the University of British Columbia and was called to the British Columbia Bar in 2018. Prior to attending law school, Megan obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Hotel Administration from Cornell University.
Previous Board Members
Stéphanie Dubé-Desrosiers
(Inaugural Board, 2019)
Jean-Pierre Lévesque
(2019-2022)
Alix Génier
(2020-2022)
Kathleen Sullivan
Nadia Lambek
(Inaugural Board, 2019)