About Ben

My name is Ben Robinson. I’m currently a self-employed consultant focusing on governance, strategy, and technology, with a background in law (LLB Honours, Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice, and Master’s of Laws in Legal Practice). I have lived in Madoc Township most of my life, and my family’s roots here go back generations. No matter where my travels have taken me over the years, Madoc Township has always been home.

The Long Way Home

I have spent a good chunk of my adult life between Madoc Township and elsewhere – including a decade in London, UK – before moving my home base back to the family farm here in Madoc Township permanently at the start of 2023. Throughout this time away, I spent a minimum of several months here in Madoc Township and I supported local charities operationally throughout that time. Wherever I have lived, I brought the work ethic and willingness to help that I learned right here. The pattern was the same: I got involved, rolled up my sleeves, and did the work in front of me.

In the Community

In London, I ran two of the UK’s most notable free legal clinics at the time.

Start-Ed provided pro bono legal advice to start-up companies, pairing law students with practising solicitors to deliver real commercial advice to entrepreneurs who couldn’t afford it. It also produced research lobbying the governments to provide support for small business and start-up companies who did not yet have the resources to pay lawyers, but who needed legal and compliance support. The same kind of support and skills are needed here – within our community and within our Council itself.

Roof Over London (with an alternate PDF if you hit an unfortunate paywall) was a free housing legal clinic serving tenants facing eviction and poor living conditions – legal representation and advocacy for some of London’s most vulnerable residents, at a time when legal aid protections for ordinary renters were being rolled back, and “those most vulnerable” had become “anyone who can always afford rent and usually afford groceries”. Again, in a cost-of-living crisis, the insights from such work are global and transferable.

Today, I serve as a board member on several Research Ethics Boards, providing legal and ethical review of health and human-involving research studies at the provincial level in Manitoba, Ontario, and the UK. I have been involved in research ethics oversight for more than a decade. In my consulting practice, I make a point of supporting charities, community organisations, and houses of worship with governance and strategy – often on a pro bono (free) basis.

I have been a volunteer and am also a member of the Madoc Lions, the Legion, and the Board of Madoc Wesleyan and Free Methodist Church. Like many of you, I have volunteered extensively over the years within Madoc, Belleville, and throughout Hastings County in support of food security, sustainability, agricultural stewardship, and emergency preparedness.