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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - An Alberta Crown prosecutor, Moira Vane, is passionate about animals and the laws that protect them. The dedicated prosecutor for the SPCA, the Society for the Prevention for Cruelty to Animals, Vane is a leader in protecting all types of animals. Having grown up in Yellowknife, however, Vane is not opposed to hunting and fishing as some may assume.

Crown prosecutor Moira Vane stands outside the Edmonton courthouse. Vane grew up in Yellowknife and is recalled as a student and friend who has a lot of passion and focus. - photo courtesy of Moira Vane

Vane said she has a respect and understanding of the ways of life in the North. She said her father was an avid hunter and that gave her a better understanding of the fact animals give their lives for people to have food.

"I have a better understanding of the food chain," she said. She adds she doesn't disapprove of hunting and fishing, only that "it needs to be conducted in accordance with the law."

Vane's parents, Tony and Mary, still live in Yellowknife. Mary is the chair of the Yellowknife Catholic school board.

As a kid she said she was a fan of the American TV legal drama Matlock and said it had some influence on her choice to pursue law as a career. She also said she admired her childhood friend's uncle, Larry Pontis, who was a Yellowknife-based lawyer. The biggest influence was meeting Yellowknife lawyer Sheila McPherson. Vane said that meeting had "a profound effect on me" said Vane.

"I met her when I was 13 or 14 on a fishing trip," she explained. "I thought 'oh wow, you can be from the North and be a lawyer'."

McPherson is the most senior litigator for Lawson Lundell based in Yellowknife.

Moira Vane said McPherson also gave her the realization that being from the North didn't mean she couldn't grow up to do whatever she wanted.

"No one was ever from the North," said Vane. As a kid in Yellowknife she said so many people who held jobs as lawyers, doctors and school principals were from the south that it seemed like being a Northerner was a disadvantage.

Vane left Yellowknife to attend high school in Quebec where she could study full-time in French. She then pursued a degree at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia and in 1999 went to the University of Alberta for law school.

She said she has always had a great love for dogs and cases involving abuse of dogs often are the hardest. One case in particular sticks out for Vane, when a dog had been neutered by its owners, not by a trained vet. "What the people did to their dog was really horrific," she said. Another horrific case she dealt with involved 100 starving horses seized from a ranch in Alberta. Despite the often brutal circumstances of the cases, Vane remains optimistic.

"Alberta really can be a leader in this area and I'm so grateful to be a part of it," said Vane.

Cappy Elkin remembers Vane as a middle-school student at William MacDonald. "She was an incredibly bright young lady," said Elkin, who was a guidance counsellor at the school.

"If she decided something needed to be done, Moira did it," she said.

Ngan Trinh has been a friend of Vane's since childhood.

"We became friends because we were in dance together," said Trinh. She said Vane has always been a big animal lover.

"She's always been exceptionally bright. Very, very hard working," said Trinh. She describes Vane as multi-talented, adding she also has a talent for arts and crafts. She's also a Northerner at heart, said Trinh. "She has a lot of respect for people who make their living hunting and trapping."