Shannon Aldinger

Shannon has lived and worked in Courtenay since 2012. She has two children, a daughter who is attending Mark R. Isfeld Secondary School and a son who recently started university.

Shannon graduated from McGill University in 1992 and obtained her law degree from Dalhousie University in 1995. She gained certification as a family law mediator in 2017.

Throughout her career, Shannon has been actively involved in public legal education and advocacy for law reform, particularly in relation to gender-based violence.

Since moving to the Comox Valley in 2012, Shannon has provided free consultation services to the Comox Valley Transition Society and made presentations about family law through the Comox Valley Transition Society, the Comox Valley Community Justice Centre, the Comox Valley Military Family Resource Centre, Legal Services Society of BC and the Trial Lawyers’ Association of BC (TLABC). She is also co-chair of the Comox Valley Bar Association.

Shannon has been an active and effective parent volunteer in SD71:

• Shannon has consistently been involved in her children’s schools’ Parent Advisory Councils (PAC). At Ecole Puntledge Park, she organized movie nights and other events, was PAC Treasurer (2013 to 2017), and the school’s representative to the District PAC (DPAC) (2017 to 2019). At Mark R. Isfeld Secondary, she has also been the DPAC representative (2017 to ongoing).
• She spoke out against the planned closure of Ecole Puntledge Park in 2016.
• She successfully advocated for mandatory age-appropriate consent education in sexual health classes for all SD71 students (K-12) as well as to include sexual health education as a priority in its 5 year strategic plan and a line-item in its annual budget.
• She has organized district-wide sexual health education presentations to parents.
• She established and continues to chair DPAC’s first ever Sexual Health Committee (2018 to the present).
• She represented the DPAC on a district-wide committee which revamped SD71’s Anti-Discrimination Policy (2021).
• She successfully advocated for gender-based violence to be made a district priority, including the establishment of a community-wide committee to address gender-based violence among students in our district/youth in our community.
• For more information, see:

Shannon has also advocated for education reform at the provincial level, including writing and presenting submissions to the province’s Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services (2016, 2018, 2019, 2021 & 2022) and the BC Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils (2019, 2021 & 2022). Specifically, she has advocated for:

• Increased funding for BC schools;
• Mandatory age-appropriate consent education and on-line safety to be explicitly included in the curriculum; and
• Widespread systemic change in how our schools approach peer-to-peer sexual assault and sexual harassment. In April 2022, Aldinger presented four resolutions to the provincial association of Parent Advisory Councils (BCCPAC), which passed with 94-99% approval from parent and district advisory councils across the province.
• For more information, see:

Will Cole-Hamilton

Will Cole-Hamilton is a legal researcher at Aldinger Law (and is also Shannon’s husband).  Will is also a Councillor with the City of Courtenay, a Director of the Comox Valley Regional District, and Chair of Climate Caucus (a national non-partisan network of 480+ locally elected leaders seeking solutions to climate change at the municipal level).

Will graduated from Queen’s University in 1991 (BA Hon) and from Dalhousie Law School in 1995.  He also holds a Bachelor of Education from the University of British Columbia. 

Since moving to the Comox Valley in 2012, Will has also been a dedicated volunteer in our community.  He has served as a director of the Downtown Courtenay Business Improvement Association, ran a chess club at Ecole Puntledge Park Elementary, and coached soccer through the CVUSC.