Accompanying survivors of violence to legal appointments and to family and criminal court as a rural outreach worker for a women’s shelter and bearing witness to routine and rampant injustice women experienced ignited a life-long passion in Leighann Burns to work for change. When social upheaval in the 1990s revealed how quickly regressive social policy could roll back any gains made, Leighann went to law school and went on to practice family law with survivors of violence.
Leighann has seen first-hand the impact responsive, informed, tenacious feminist legal advocacy can have on the safety and freedom of women and children fleeing violence. She is committed to increasing access to this type of advocacy for survivors and has been recognized for her work as a recipient of the Justice Canada Excellence in Legal Practice and Victim Support Award and the King Charles III Coronation Medal.