Shiva Olyaei

For Ombuds

 

As per the BC Green Party’s bylaws, all members may vote for the Ombud. 

Shiva is the incumbent for Ombud (she/her/hers) and was elected during the 2020 AGM internal party elections.

My name is Shiva! I currently work as an ombudsperson in our BCgreens community.

While proudly serving my fellow green party members, I had the honour to work with my wonderful colleague Rob to identify and revisit multiple areas in the ombuds office purview that require further attention since June 2021.

These areas include but are not limited to developing job descriptions, contributing to identifying ombudsperson’s constituents and jurisdiction, ensuring the compliance of the code of ethics and representative code of conduct with the principles of justice, equity, decolonization, diversity and inclusion (JEDDI) through advocacy. We also hope to reconstruct the complaint process that will be ultimately reflected in a more accessible and transparent flow chart for our constituents in close collaboration with the provincial council, executive director and the administrative team. Your vote will give me more precious time to serve and play a part in achieving these goals.

Additionally, I have committed myself to continue to create professional and yet caring and safe opportunities for our diverse constituencies to be heard and receive support for their concerns. We are here to resolve our members’ organizational conflicts through independent and impartial facilitation with an equitable outcome.

About Shiva

As a Peter Allard School of Law alumni with a doctoral degree from UBC and as a dedicated law, political science, and public policy adjunct professor, Shiva Olyaei is honoured to serve her community through her unwavering devotion to social justice praxis. Shiva received training in diverse legal fields, including constitutional law, Canadian charter of rights and freedom, human rights, international law, feminist legal studies and immigration and refugees public policy in Canada.

This academic background prompted her to bridge the gap between academia and grassroots civil and political activism by further engaging with immigrant communities through the Farsi dar BC grassroots campaign as an incoming vice president. She also delivered educational workshops and facilitated support groups to raise awareness among women and youth and positively contribute to their political literacy. Shiva volunteered with ISS and MOSAIC, which inspired her to become a certified life and leadership coach and an accredited judicial translator and interpreter.

Shiva's critical legal lens and her extensive exposure to diversity, along with her own lived experience, allowed her to appreciate the value of equitable and just treatment without bias or discrimination. Shiva takes pride in her recent journey to actively educate herself and her community about Indigenous rights and history and the decolonization process in Canada. Such awareness inspired Shiva to register for ombudsperson training, JEDDI workshops, gender literacy, behavioural management and fairness seminars, as well as indigenous laws and public policy online courses in various online training institutions.

 

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