| Currently a post-doctoral fellow and visiting scholar at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle (see
CV), Gary Botting is an established writer (see
Publications) who continues to write fiction
and non-fiction works for publication (see
Works in Progress), drawing from a wealth of past
experience as a journalist, a playwright (See
Produced Plays), and a lawyer (see
Legal Scholar/Lawyer). Well known as a defender of civil liberties and constitutional rights in Canada, he has written not only books on fundamental freedoms, constitutional analysis and the history and practise of law, but also on subjects as diverse as English literature, theatre, biography, aboriginal history, contemporary theories of leadership, and religious studies. In 2005 alone, he published three major books: Extradition Between Canada and the United States (Ardsley, NY: Transnational), a history of the development and demise of extradition in North America from the seventeenth century to the present day; Canadian Extradition Law Practice (Toronto: Butterworths LexisNexis), a reference text of contemporary extradition law for judges and lawyers; and Chief Smallboy: In Pursuit of Freedom (Calgary: Fifth House), a biography of the controversial Cree leader (1898-1984).
By the time Gary
Botting began his first career as a journalist with
the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong at age 18,
he had already traveled around the world as first prize
winner in biology at both the 1960 and 1961 Ontario
and U.S. National Science Fairs. His experiments as
a teenager with the genetics and hybridization of giant
silk moths were said by judges to be worthy of a M.Sc.
degree. The American Institute of Biological Sciences
sponsored him on a U.S. tour with his exhibit, and the
U.S. National Academy of Sciences followed through with
an all-expenses-paid trip to India, the Middle East
and Europe. He traveled back to Europe, where he spent
the summer of 1961 smuggling anti-Franco literature
into Spain.
Upon his return to Canada from Hong Kong in 1964 Gary Botting worked for the Peterborough Examiner under Robertson Davies, and read English and Philosophy at Trent University, from where he graduated in 1968. Over the next three decades, he obtained additional academic credentials - including the M.A. and Ph.D. in English literature, the M.F.A. in Playwriting, and the LL.B., LL.M. and Ph.D. degrees in law. In Alberta, he established a reputation as a prizewinning playwright, then became an English and creative writing instructor at Red Deer College for 14 years, winning additional awards for his writing and directing (see Awards). He was founding president of the Alberta Publishers Association, president of TrenTan Developments Ltd., and for several years was proprietor of Arabesque Arabians, a ranch on which he raised Arabian horses, angora goats, black sheep and komondor dogs.
After
completing law school in 1990, he became senior partner
in his own law firm, Gary Botting & Associates,
in Victoria, B.C., taking dozens of serious criminal
cases to trial and appeal, from extradition to murder.
Now living in Deep Bay, Vancouver Island, Gary Botting
continues to write plays, novels, poetry and academic
works for publication.
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