Meet the Board
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Harry Critchley (he/him) is Co-Chair of ECPJS and a JD student at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University. He has extensive experience working as an educator with currently and formerly incarcerated Nova Scotians, having previously worked to develop the Nova Scotia Community College’s Limitless program, a transition-to-college initiative for persons in provincial custody.
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Sheila Wildeman (she/her) is Co-Chair of ECPJS and an Associate Professor of Law at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University. Her research engages disability law and prison law. Sheila is also on the board of Inclusion NS, and from 2009 to 2016 was on the board of the Canadian Mental Health Association - Nova Scotia Division.
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Tari Ajadi (he/him) is a PhD candidate in Political Science at Dalhousie University. His dissertation research compares how Black activists in municipalities in Nova Scotia and Ontario strategize to prompt change in policing and in health policy. A British-Nigerian immigrant to Canada, Tari aims to produce research that supports and engages with Black communities across the country. He has published articles in The Globe and Mail, The Chronicle-Herald, University Affairs, Canadian Government Executive, Canadian Diversity and The Tyee. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Health Association of African Canadians. He is a Junior Fellow at the MacEachen Institute for Public Policy and Governance. He holds a MA in Political Science from Dalhousie University.
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Debbie Garson is the Secretary and Treasurer of the ECPJS. She practised corporate-commercial law for over 30 years with a focus on large transactions. From 2014 – 2019 she was a lecturer on Succession Law at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University. She is a Director and Secretary of the Canadian Mental Health Association, Halifax- Dartmouth Branch.
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Hanna Garson is board member of ECPJS and a staff lawyer with Nova Scotia Legal Aid. She maintains active practice areas in criminal law, prison law, and family law. She is a member of the Canadian Association of Prison Lawyers and was previously a member of the Board of Directors for the EFMNS. In 2017, she wrote Habeas Corpus in Nova Scotia: An Accessible Guide, a legal information resource for prisoners in the province.
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Shawnee Gregory is a staff lawyer at Nova Scotia Legal Aid. Her practice areas include criminal law, prison law and family law. She is a member of the Nova Scotia Criminal Lawyers Association, the South Shore Community Justice Society Board and the NSBS Provincial Court Liaison Committee. She was proud to be involved with ECPJS’s first monitoring group as her prisoner advocacy has been shaped by those with lived experience.
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El Jones is a poet, professor and activist. She is a two time National Spoken Word champion and was Halifax's Poet Laureate from 2013 to 2015. Her work focuses on social justice issues including feminism, prison abolition, anti-racism, and decolonization. She is an Assistant Professor at Mount Saint Vincent University and has also taught at Dalhousie University, Acadia University, Nova Scotia Community College, and Saint Mary's University. In 2017, she was named the 15th Nancy's Chair in Women's Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University.
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Keiisha Pillai (she/her) is a staff criminal lawyer with Nova Scotia Legal Aid. She maintains active practice areas in criminal law and prison law. She has been shaped by her time in Texas spent working with death penalty defence lawyers who specialized in post-conviction work. She’s also interned at the Yukon Human Rights Commission where her work focused on solitary confinement and discrimination at correctional centres. In the past, Keiisha has worked with civil society organizations that strive to advance the rights of the Indigenous populations in her home country of Malaysia, and also with the Iraqi refugee population in Texas
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Asaf Rashid practices criminal, immigration and prison law under Asaf Rashid Law in Halifax / k’jipuktuk. He is a member of the Canadian Prison Lawyers Association and Nova Scotia Criminal Lawyers Association. He is also a former union organizer and author of Solidarity Beyond Bars: unionizing prison labour, published in 2022 by Fernwood publishing.
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Jennifer Taylor (she / her) is a lawyer at a Halifax law firm. Jennifer is also involved with the Canadian Bar Association, and with advocacy on abortion access and other reproductive justice issues. Her ECPJS role has focused on board governance, policing issues, and supervision of student research projects.
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Jamie A. Vacon is a bilingual Mi'kmaq lawyer, and grew up in Quinan, NS. He has a Bachelor of Laws and graduated from the Indigenous Black and Mi'kmaq Initiative in 2006. He was called to the Bar in 2011. Jamie is currently a Senior Lawyer with the Legal Aid office in Yarmouth. Jamie's practice is mostly in Criminal Law with a passion for Indigenous/Customary Law. Jamie is the chair of the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society Truth and Reconciliation sub-committee, he is on the NSBS Racial Equity committee, the NSBS Provincial Judicial Appointments sub-committee, the NSBS Ruck Implementation Task Force, the NSBS Nomination committee and is a council member for the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society. He has worked on many mentorship programs for both the Judiciary, students and lawyers.
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