Blythe Eagles Volunteer Leadership Award

Mr. Justice Grant D. Burnyeat, LLB’73

Grant Burnyeat’s appetite for volunteering was evident during his undergraduate years when he became involved in student government. He started out as AMS representative for Law, but when a crisis occurred with the AMS executive after half a term he decided to run against the incumbents and was elected president in one of the largest voter turnouts in the society’s history. He graduated the following year, but Mr. Burnyeat’s involvement with the university had only just begun.

He joined the law firm Davis and Company in 1973 and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1992. He was founding chair of the insolvency section of the BC branch of the Canadian Bar Association and in 1987 was elected as a bencher of the Law Society of British Columbia, which is responsible for upholding and protecting the public interest in the administration of justice; establishing professional and educational standards; and regulating the practice of law. He went on to become treasurer (now called president). Despite career demands on his time, he had plenty of advice to spare for articling UBC law students and recent grads, whose formative professional years are guided by the Law Society.

Mr. Burnyeat’s volunteer efforts are not limited to his profession. He continued his volunteering bent acting as president of the Vancouver and BC Safety councils and as chair of the Vancouver Planning Commission. He was the founding president of Bard on the Beach Theatre Society, a non-profit dedicated to making Shakespeare affordable and accessible to a broad audience. He was a long-time member of the Board of Variance for the City of Vancouver. He presently volunteers with The Arts Club Theatre Company and Focus Foundation, and is a director of the international board of his fraternity, Delta  Kappa Epsilon. He has also served as president of the BC Liberal Party and of the Vancouver Civic Non-Partisan Association.

But one of the main beneficiaries of Mr. Burnyeat’s time and effort has been UBC. From 1973 to 1980 he was a member of the fundraising and management committees for the university’s Aquatic Centre, built in 1978. In the mid ’80s, he served a term as president of the Alumni Association and chaired a fundraising committee for alumni programs. He was a member of the UBC Senate from 1983 to 1989 and more recently has been heavily involved in a fundraising project to replace the Law faculty building He was a founding director of the Law Alumni Association and co-founder and the first and current president of AMSnet, an organization that links past student leaders with the current AMS executive. It has recently provided guidance for students during deliberations with the UBC administration for a new Student Union Building.

Mr. Burnyeat was honoured during the university’s 75th anniversary celebrations as one of its top 75 graduates. In 2002, he received The Queen’s Jubilee Medal. He was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court of British Columbia in 1996.

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