The HON. Keith Bracken was born and raised in Calgary and joined the RCMP out of high school before training in Ottawa. As a member of the RCMP Band, he toured several parts of Canada and the United States before transferring to Saskatchewan where he was stationed at Maple Creek, Swift Current and Foam Lake Saskatchewan. After almost 9 years, Keith left the RCMP to attend university.
After graduating with a B.A. in economics and an LL.B at the University of Saskatchewan in 1976, Keith articled at Jawl and Bundon in Victoria where he practised in the areas of commercial litigation, including banking, insurance and real property law. He was called to the BC Bar in July 1977 and the Saskatchewan Bar in 1986. After moving to Harman and Company in Victoria in 1987, Keith accepted an appointment to the British Columbia Provincial Court in 1991. After 16 years on the Provincial Court, he was appointed to the BC Supreme Court. He retired from the Court in October 2018.
Keith Bracken was a sessional lecturer at the University of Victoria Law School for 8 years and a lecturer at Thompson Rivers University for the past 3 years. He has presented programs to lawyers, judges and police officers. As a judge, he has presided over cases from all aspects of the law including family law, commercial, administrative law and criminal law. He has taken courses as a mediator and presided over numerous settlement conferences as a judge. As a lawyer, Keith has appeared before the Provincial Court, Supreme Court and the BC Court of Appeal.
Keith is a co-author of British Columbia Courtroom Procedure, now going into its third edition. He served on the Central Saanich Police Board for 6 years and is a non-practising member of the Saskatchewan Bar. As a Deputy Judge in Nunavut and the Yukon Territories, Keith loved going to remote locations to hold court in the North.
Married with two children, Keith has a son who is an engineer at Google in California, and a daughter who is an RCMP officer and instructor at the RCMP training academy in Regina.
As an active skier, canoeist, hiker, cyclist and an occasional jogger, Keith enjoys all outdoor activities. He has a private pilot’s license and although not currently active, he and his son flew a small plane across most of Canada a few years ago.
Education
- 1976 – B.A. inn economics and an LL.B, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK
credentials
- Member of the BC Law Society
- Non-practising member of the Saskatchewan Law Society
experience
- Extensive experience as counsel. Appeared as counsel or presided as judge in almost all court locations in British Columbia and Nunavut.
- Police officer, lawyer, law teacher and judge.
- Co-authored a law text, participated in many continuing education courses and appeared as a panelist in several others.
professional community
- Member of Rotary Club.
- Served 6 years (the maximum allowed) on the Board of a police force and near Victoria.
