Children of the Street

Kristal Low is an associate with the law firm Guild Yule LLP, Barristers and Solicitors in which she practices in the area of commercial litigation, insurance defence, employment and human rights law.  She has a degree and an undergraduate degree majoring in Criminology.

Over the past several years, Kristal has worked or volunteered in the area of social justice and human rights. In 2003, Kristal worked as a Research Officer in the (then) Community Programs Division at the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General of B.C. Part of her role was to assist in evaluating funding proposals for the Aboriginal Assistant Deputy Ministers' Fund on Prostitution and the Sexual Exploitation of Youth and the Assistant Deputy Ministers' Community Projects Fund.

From 2003 to 2004, Kristal worked as a Workshop Facilitator with Children of the Street Society. During her time there, she co-facilitated interactive workshops to de-glamorize street prostitution lifestyles and to raise awareness in preventing the sexual exploitation of children and youth. Further, she was member on the Executive Planning Committee and helped execute the 2004 B.C. Provincial Forum on Sexual Exploitation: "Media and Community: Reframing the Issue."

From 2005 to 2006, Kristal was on the Executive Committee of the Canadian Lawyers Assocation for International Human Rights ("CLAIHR"), University of Ottawa chapter, during which she co-chaired the second annual CLAIHR Global Generations: International Human Rights Conference.

Further, in 2006, Kristal worked at the West Coast Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), a non-profit organization that advances the equality for women by changing historic patterns of systemic discrimination against women through litigation, law reform and public legal education. During her time there, among other things, she researched and assisted in the curriculum development for youth peer-facilitated legal education programs regarding sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace, co-faciliated the "No means No" workshop, which addresses sexual assault and consent, assisted in organizing the B.C. Non-Governmental Organization Steering Committee on Human Rights in Human Trafficking, and conducted legal analysis on a vairety of topics affecting women.

After graduating law school, Kristal worked as a judicial law clerk at the B.C. Supreme Court in which she was the legal research clerk to six Supreme Court Judges. During her time there, she conducted legal research, assisted in drating, proofreading and editing reasons for judgments, and wrote legal research papers for the Supreme Court Judges' Conference.

Kristal is passionate and committeed to the advancement and empowerment of women and youth issues and has been researching in the area of sexual exploitation, including trafficking of women and children, child pornography and prostitution of youth since the beginning of her post-secondary education.