Pathfinders and trailblazers – A fireside chat with leading Indigenous legal minds

Many of the struggles to recognize Indigenous rights and title have played out in the Canadian courts and helped to re-route the course of justice. Join us for a public dialogue with three leading and influential legal minds that are re-storying Canada’s legal landscapes and justice systems.

The Honourable Michelle O’Bonsawin was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada on September 1, 2022. She served as a justice of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Ottawa from 2017 to 2022. Prior to her appointment, Justice O’Bonsawin was General Counsel for the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group where she developed a thorough understanding of legal issues related to mental health and performed significant research regarding the use of Gladue principles in the forensic mental health system. She began her legal career with the legal services at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and was then Counsel with Canada Post, specializing in labour and employment law, human rights, and privacy law. Justice O’Bonsawin has taught Indigenous law at the University of Ottawa’s Common Law Program and was previously responsible for the Indigenous Relations Program at the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group. Justice O’Bonsawin grew up in Hanmer, Ontario, a small Francophone town near Sudbury. She is a fluently bilingual Franco-Ontarian and an Abenaki member of the Odanak First Nation.

Dave Joe, O.C., is the Yukon’s first Indigenous lawyer, called to the Yukon Bar in 1977. He was involved in the land claim movement in Yukon prior to and after his call to the Bar. In 1973, he was involved when Yukon First Nations convinced then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and then Indian Affairs Minister Jean Chretien to negotiate a modern day treaty with Yukon First Nations. Joe was still involved 22 years later when the first four Yukon First Nations’ Final Agreements became part of the Canadian Constitution on February 14, 1995. Today, the recognition and implementation of aboriginal rights, titles and interests are still the main focus of his law practice in Yukon and British Columbia. Joe was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2008 “for his leadership in building stronger communities … and in negotiating final land claim agreements for several Yukon First Nations.” He was born in Klukshu, Yukon, and is of Southern Tutchone descent and is a Citizen of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations.

Victoria Fred is an Independent Associate Counsel based in Whitehorse, Yukon. She is currently the assistant negotiator and legal counsel for the Teslin Tlingit Council: the signatory to Canada’s first agreement for the Administration of Justice (2011). Since 2012, she has been serving as the chief negotiator for Kwänlin Dün’s administration of justice negotiations. She served as the protector for the Lanalxh (Prosperity) Trust from 2007 to 2017 and has served as the protector to the Little Salmon/Carmacks Trust since 2017. She is the political and legal advisor to the Assembly of First Nations Yukon Regional Chief. Victoria is Tlingit and a member of the Gaanaxteidi Clan; a mother and grandmother; a drum carrier for the Dakhká Khwáan Dancers; and a beneficiary and citizen of the Kwänlin Dün First Nation.

The discussion is facilitated by Nadia Joe, Yukon University Associate Vice-President, Reconciliation.