SJD Candidate
Thesis title:
Haudenosaunee Law as a Framework for Colonial Relations under the Covenant Chain
Office in Falconer Hall
84 Queen's Park
Toronto, M5S 2C5
Email: brandon.montour@mail.utoronto.ca

Brandon is Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk, Wolf Clan) from Kahnawà:ke and a citizen of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. 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 doctoral research will examine the Covenant Chain relationship and the role of Haudenosaunee law in regulating colonial relations throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

At the Faculty of Law, Brandon was appointed for a limited-term as the Loveland Research Fellow, where he is developing a transsystemic Property Law course that examines property from Haudenosaunee and common law perspectives. 

In 2025, Brandon was appointed by the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke Council of Chiefs to sit as an Adjudicator on the inaugural Kahnawà:ke Administrative Tribunal. 

 

Education
LL.M (Long Thesis), University of Toronto (2024)
J.D / B.C.L, McGill University (2023)
B.A (Political Science) with Great Distinction, Concordia University (2020)
Awards and Distinctions
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Canada Graduate Scholarship - Master's (U of T, 2024)
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Indigenous Scholars Award (U of T, 2024)
June Callwood Program in Aboriginal Law (U of T, 2023-2024)
Gualtieri-Doran Award (McGill, 2023)
Bank of Canada Scholarship Award (McGill, 2022-2023)
Robert L. Katz and Christina H. Otto Entrance Scholarship (McGill, 2020)
Research Interests
Aboriginal Law
Canadian Constitutional Law
Indigenous Legal Traditions
Property Law
Supervisor
John Borrows
Committee Members
Douglas Sanderson