James is a mediator possessing a B.A. from Laurentian University, a B.Ed. from Nipissing University, and a Masters in Political Science from Windsor University. He is also a Chartered Mediator with the Alternative Dispute Resolution Institute of Ontario and Canada. He has held a variety of senior positions in unionized environments where he gained experience working for the federal and provincial governments in the Ministry of Correctional Services, and most recently in the Ministry of Education. During his tenure with Correctional Services, he spent seven (7) years presenting professional conduct workshops specializing in harassment and discrimination across Ontario. While with the Rainbow District School Board, he was the president of the secondary school teachers’ federation for Sudbury, Espanola and Manitoulin Island. This employment opportunity allowed James to serve on a mediation resource bank where he completed mediations involving labour relations and workplace conflict over a ten year period.
During his time in corrections and later in education, James has been involved with contract negotiations, arbitrations, member representation, union-management liaison initiatives, and has received his alternative dispute resolution training from Stitt Feld Handy (Windsor Law School), the Industrial Relations Institute (Queen’s University), and Conrad Grebel (University of Waterloo).