Colin J. Gillespie (born 11 May 1941) is a writer, physicist, lawyer and strategic analyst. He has written several books and traveled in more than fifty countries on all seven continents.
Gillespie was born in Adelaide, South Australia, and raised in Evenley near Brackley in England and in Melbourne, Australia. He attended Melbourne Grammar School.
He had an eclectic education, studying nuclear physics, mathematics and theory of statistics at Melbourne University and quantum mechanics at Monash University, doing post-doctoral work in biophysics with the National Research Council of Canada (1967–1969), and research in neurophysiology and radiation biology with Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (1970–1975). In 1980 he graduated with a JD from University of Manitoba. He was admitted to the Bars of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. He practiced environmental, aboriginal (and especially indigenous) and constitutional law and was managing partner of a major law firm.
He pursued a special interest in Aboriginal child protection at Weechi-it-te-win Family Services. Much of his work as a lawyer was for aboriginal clients, often pro bono. He was counsel to multi-national corporations on environmental licensing. He was a consultant to aboriginal tribes on implications of hydro-electric development, and to the Alberta Cancer Hospitals Board and the Alberta Premier's Advisory Committee on Advanced Medical Technology. At the Cross Cancer Institute he developed a program for actuarial analysis of cancer survival with Adalei Starreveld and co-wrote with Donald Chapman a text on radiation-induced events in mammalian cells. Latterly, they co-wrote an editorial on bringing cancer treatment up to date.[1]
He was strategic counsel to a company that was building the world's first commercial spaceport at the site of the former Churchill Rocket Research Range and was involved in negotiating the purchase of surplus SS-25 intercontinental ballistic missiles from STC Complex in Russia.[2]
He learned from tribal elders of the constitutions of two indigenous peoples, the Pimicikamak and the Anishinabe Nation in Treaty No. 3, and their respective governments and helped bring these up to date. He worked on several cases in the Supreme Court of Canada, including the case on whether the Government of Canada could unilaterally patriate the constitution of Canada from the United Kingdom[3] and the case concerning the validity of laws in Manitoba that were made in English and not French.[4]
He has written on the struggle of an indigenous people,[5] the origin of the universe,[6] and the discovery of the space quantum.[7]
National Research Council Post-Doctoral Fellowship (1967–1970)
William Rachman Prize for Legal Research & Writing (1979)
University of Manitoba Alumni Association Scholarship (1979)
Cathy Turner Prize in Evidence (1980)
Alf Francis Memorial Prize (1980)
Hon. Mr. Justice Hudson Prize in Jurisprudence (1981)
Law Society of Manitoba Prize (1981)
Selected publications
Gillespie, C.J. (1966). "Electron Tunneling between Superconducting Thin Films". In Tomlin, S.G. (ed.). The Physics of Thin Films. University of Adelaide Press. p.121.
Gillespie, C.J. (1970). "Ion sorption and the potential profile near a model lecithin membrane". Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Biomembranes. 203 (1): 47–61. doi:10.1016/0005-2736(70)90034-9. PMID5445679.
Chapman, J.D.; Gillespie, C.J. (1981). "Radiation-Induced Events and Their Time Scale in Mammalian Cells". In Lett, J.T. (ed.). Advances in Radiation Biology. New York: Academic Press. pp.9, 143.
Gillespie, Colin (2004). The Nature and Legal Capacity of Pimicikamak and its Government. Taylor McCaffrey.
Chapman, J. Donald; Gillespie, Colin J. (2012). "The Power of Radiation Biophysics—Let's Use It". International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics. 84 (2): 309–11. doi:10.1016/j.ijrobp.2012.04.020. PMID22935394.
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