Iain Tyrrell Benson

Iain Tyrrell Benson (born in Edinburgh, Scotland, December, 1955) is a lawyer, poet and philosopher who became a French resident upon moving to France with his family in the summer of 2002. His career to date has been built around developing an intellectual framework for discussing, analyzing and resolving issues involving secularism and pluralism and the resolution of competing beliefs and rights has been a key part of that work. Over the years Benson has created a substantial body of practical and academic work focusing on the constitutional and legal issues involved in his area of expertise. His writings are frequently quoted in articles and text books and have been cited by leading courts in various jurisdictions.

Early Years and Education

Iain Tyrrell Benson was the first of three children born to Dr. Kenneth Benson and Margaret (nee Scott) Benson in Edinburgh, Scotland. As a small child, Benson moved with his family to Quesnel, British Columbia, and then later to Prince George, B.C., where Benson’s father worked as a Medical Health Officer. Dr. Benson was eventually appointed Chief Medical Health Officer for the province and later served as Assistant Deputy Minister of Health. As a result, Benson junior was primarily educated in Victoria, B.C., where he attended Oak Bay Senior Secondary School (1974),

Benson went on to obtain degrees from Queen’s University (Hons. B.A., 1980), Cambridge University (B.A., 1982, M.A., 1987) and the University of Windsor (LL.B, 1984) while also studying along the way at the University of Victoria and the University of St. Andrews (Scotland). While pursuing his academics, he made notable contributions to various rugby teams, at all levels: he played at the national level in Canada and, at Cambridge, he played for his college in squash, athletics and rugby. At St. Andrews he was selected for the Scottish Universities Rep side and played rugby (usually on the wing) in Scotland, England and France as well as in Canada and the United States.

Early Employment

Benson held numerous interesting and unrelated jobs prior to qualifying as a lawyer: he cut cedar pieces for model birdhouses, worked in a meat distribution company, sold women’s shoes, fought forest-fires, graded timber, inspected ambulances, measured and graded trees for the taxation and inventory divisions of the B.C. government, worked in a dairy, worked as a janitor on an oil platform in the North Sea and finally busked as a musician in Scotland, England, and across Europe with his then newly-married bride, Eleanor Morag (nee Maxwell) Benson. Life after law school, as least as far as employment was concerned, took on more measured tones.

Early Career

Benson articled with the firm Russell & DuMoulin in Vancouver, B.C. (now Fasken Martineau DuMoulin) and was called to the Bar of British Columbia in 1985. He practiced from 1985 to 1987 with Alexander Holburn Beaudin & Lang and became a solicitor with the British Columbia Industrial Relations Council (BCIRC) in 1987. He was appointed Senior Solicitor for the BCIRC in 1989. The BCIRC later became the Labour Relations Board of British Columbia and he thereafter continued for a time as Senior Solicitor. At this point he was involved extensively in judicial reviews of the Board and he produced numerous lectures and articles during his years of practice there as well. Benson became associated with the Centre for Cultural Renewal in 1994 as Senior Research Fellow and in 2000 he became the Centre’s Executive Director, a position he retained until leaving to pursue other interests in May, 2009.

Current Career

Benson maintains an active speaking, writing, consulting and legal practice and divides his time between projects in Europe, Canada and Africa. His family’s move to France was originally intended as a sabbatical leave focused on the writing of a book on G.K.Chesterton (see below) and the arrangement was made permanent after the purchase of an 18th Century farmhouse on the edge of the Pyrénée Mountains near the Spanish border in southwestern France.

His legal practice focuses on administrative, constitutional and medical law, as well as the labor and human rights dimensions of judicial review. He also specializes in the area of rights and freedoms with a particular interest in constitutional law, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Constitutional law of South Africa.

Benson has appeared before all levels of Court in Canada -- including the Supreme Court of Canada -- in cases involving human rights and constitutional law. He has consulted to the Attorney-General of Ireland and the Policy Research Initiative of the Federal Government of Canada; he was a Research Fellow at the University of the Free State (Bloemfontein) until invited to become an Extraordinary Professor of Law there (November 1, 2009, see below). He is a Research Associate for the South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Public, Human Rights and International Law (Johannesburg) and a Research Fellow of the Chester Ronning Centre for Religion and Public Life at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (December 2009). He is also Senior Associate Counsel at Miller Thomson LLP, Canada (2009 ongoing), working between his residence in France and a variety of international destinations.

Requests for lectures have given Benson opportunities to speak across Canada, the United States, Europe, Saudi Arabia and South Africa and he has given papers on topics ranging from literature, law and religion, the nature of the “secular” and “secularism” and on many issues related to medical ethics and the accommodation of differing beliefs. His work on “secular” and “secularism” has been cited with approval by the Supreme Court of Canada and the Constitutional Court of South Africa. In recent years Benson has been part of an inter-faith working group drafting a South African Charter of Religious Rights and Freedoms under Section 234 of that country’s Constitution and he is one of only two non-nationals to be involved in the project.

Benson has been interviewed widely in the media in various countries, and on most major Canadian Broadcasting Corporation programs including “Ideas”, “Tapestry”, “Cross-country Check-up” and “Commentary.” He has also been interviewed on Radio Free Europe, Reuters and various radio stations in England and South Africa.

A prolific writer on legal and constitutional issues, Benson’s work has extended the envelope surrounding public debate on many issues but his ground-breaking work on the nature and meaning of the term “secular” and the movement known as “secularism” has been particularly important. A “think-piece” paper for the Canadian Federal Government’s Policy Research Initiative group on “Religion and Public Policy” (January 2008) was an elaboration of some of his thinking on the issue and highlighted the need for a paradigm shift in the way we approach religion and public policy; it also outlined some of the implications this should have for government actions in relation to multiculturalism in the public sphere, and legal decisions in relation to religious freedom and the principles of accommodation.

Other Professional Responsibilities

Benson holds positions as: • Extraordinary Professor, Faculty of Law, Department of Constitutional Law and Philosophy of Law at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa (2009 -ongoing); prior to that he was a Research Fellow in the same Department (2007-2009). • Research Associate, South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional Human Rights, Public and International law (SAIFAC), Johannesburg, South Africa (2008-ongoing) • Research Fellow, Chester Ronning Centre for the Study of Religion and Public Life, Augustana Campus, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta (2009 – ongoing) • Candidate for a doctoral degree in Law, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. (2009 – ongoing); • Senior Associate Counsel, Miller Thomson LLP, Canada (2009-ongoing)

Memberships:

• Canadian Bar Association; • Law Society of Upper Canada (call 2010); • Law Society of British Columbia (call 1985, ongoing) • American Political Science Association • Continuity Committee, drafting South African Charter of Religious Rights and Freedoms under Section 234 of the South African Constitution • Advisory Council, Institute for Medical Ethics and Bioethics, Bratislava, Slovak Republic (ongoing).

Papers, Lectures and Presentations

Benson has published more than 40 academic papers, book chapters and encyclopedia entries and given hundreds of lectures across a host of topics -- legal, medical, literary and philosophical -- to an extensive range of groups and conferences. He has also appeared before a wide variety of Parliamentary Committees (Senate and House) as well as national and provincial bodies on issues relating to education, law, medical ethics, rights and freedoms and the nature of pluralism in a free and democratic society.

Some of the organizations and groups to whom he has presented papers include:

• The Canadian Bar Association, National Conference; • King Faisal Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; • Ethics and Public Policy Centre, Washington, DC. • The Institute for Religion and Public Life, New York City. • Earth Council, Costa Rica; • The C.S. Lewis Society, Oxford University, England; • British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association; • Mater Dei College, Dublin, Ireland; • Doctors for Life International, Cape Town, South Africa. • Faculty of Law, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa • The Canadian Association of the Order of Malta; • Faculty of Theology, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa; • Becket Institute, Oxford University, England; • Faculty of Education, University of Calgary, Calgary Alberta • The Ronning Centre for the Study of Religion and Public Life, Edmonton, Alberta; • Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario. • Canadian Association for the Administration of Justice; • Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia; • Canadian Council of Churches, National Conference • Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, Ottawa Ontario; • McGill Institute for Study of Canada, McGill University, Montreal; • Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute, University of Toronto; • The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada National Conference; • Advocates International, Midrand, South Africa. • South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Human Rights, Public and International Law, Johannesburg, South Africa; • Christian Legal Fellowship, National Conference. • School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa • Institute for Medical Ethics and Bioethics, Bratislava, Slovakia • Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa; • Law Department, University of Tulsa, Oklahoma; • Workshops on Science and Religion, John Templeton Foundation, University of Toronto, Ontario; • Canadian Council of Christian Charities, National Conference • Graduate Christian Student Society, Oxford University; • Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Alberta • Centre for Health Care Ethics, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario; • Faculty of Religious Studies, Wilfred Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario; • Faith and the Media National Conference, Ottawa, Ontario; • Canadian Church Press, National Conference; • American Political Science Association National Conference, Toronto, Ontario; • Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities of Canada, National Conference, UBC, Vancouver; • Canadian Constitutional Foundation, National Conference, Toronto, Ontario • Centre for Culture and Languages in Africa (CCLA), University of Johannesburg; • Founder’s College, York University, Toronto, Ontario; • The Institute for American Values, New York City; • Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER),University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa • Institute for Marriage, Law and Culture, Montreal, PQ. • Faculty of Law, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

Other Involvements and Interests

Iain’s marriage to Eleanor Morag Maxwell (1982, Cambridge, England) has produced seven children, several of whom now study at universities in the United Kingdom. He is a keen devotee of a wide variety of music, plays penny whistle, harmonica and highland bagpipes and is an avid book collector. The library of the Benson family’s former home on Bowen Island, British Columbia, was the subject of an essay: “The Library at Benisons ” 7 Parenthesis (November 2002), [The Journal of the Fine Press Book Association, England and North America]. Benson and his wife are both involved in the Order of Malta and work with various Associations of the Order in relation to its annual pilgrimage of the sick to Lourdes, France.

1. http://www.saifac.org.za/
2. http://www.millerthomson.com/home.cfm?CFID=2557985&CFTOKEN=88382904&jsessionid=f030884fab0d1e0f29144055b417fc58251c
3. http://www.uovs.ac.za/faculties/staff.php?FCode=03&DCode=084&staff_id=5E5E%206%201%202%20157
4. http://www.augustana.ualberta.ca/centres/ronningcentre/staff_and_associates/