Brandon Montour

Brandon is Kanien’kehá:ka and a citizen of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy from the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawà:ke. Before joining the S.J.D program in 2024, he completed his Master of Laws (LL.M) at the University of Toronto, for which he was awarded a SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship. His thesis, supervised by John Borrows, argued for the resurgence and contemporary application of Haudenosaunee legal principles within existing governing structures in Kahnawà:ke. Building upon his LL.M research, Brandon's doctoral research will focus on the role that the resurgence of Haudenosaunee law can play in advancing reconciliation with the State. 

Brandon has experience as a consultant and advisor in both the private and public sectors. As a summer student at McCarthy Tétrault LLP in Toronto, he assisted the litigation team with a historic class proceeding that resulted in an $8 billion settlement to address water infrastructure issues and long-term drinking water advisories on First Nations reserves. Brandon has also worked in the Office of the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations as a Legal Affairs Advisor to the Honorable Gary Anandasangaree. In his community of Kahnawà:ke, Brandon was unanimously appointed by the elected Chiefs of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke to serve as Chairperson of the Kahnawà:ke Cannabis Control Board, a regulatory board for the purpose of regulating, enforcing, and administering Kahnawà:ke's sovereign and independently-enacted Cannabis Control Law.