Allison Kooijman

Allison Kooijman was born and raised in the small town of Lumby, British Columbia. She became a licensed practical nurse and is presently completing a Bachelor of Arts in General Studies at the University of British Columbia (Okanagan) .  Thereafter she intends to pursue clinical psychology and focus on patients that suffer from chronic pain.

 Like many Canadians, Ms Kooijman had no experience dealing with the justice system until she was injured by what the court has describe as medical negligence due to  an incorrect pathology diagnosis. She discovered that the current "justice" model does very little to protect the patient or to provide compensation. Currently Ms. Kooijman focuses her energy on raising public awareness of the problem by advocating for patient’s rights and safety. She says that may hospital patients come from a vulnerable demographic and have limited economic means.  In contrast,  Canadian physicians are protected by a robustly endowed medical defense association largely funded by (you guessed it) Canadian tax dollars.

Ms. Kooijman now has a physical disability herself, and easily identifies with other chronic pain sufferers.  She is an advocate for the Patient Voices Network and is a member of the steering committee for Patient and Family Centred Care.  She is also an executive assistant of a grassroots non-profit group – TLC Pain Management that works with Pain BC https://www.painbc.ca/ to provide health care services to people who live with chronic pain. 

Ms. Kooijman was elected to the board of directors of the Canadian Justice Review Board at its annual general meeting in October 2017.  She brings to the Board the wealth of knowledge and determination needed to effect improvements to these aspects of the  Canadian legal system.