Asper Centre Panel on Indigenous Child Welfare & Self-Government

Speakers

  • Professor John Borrows, The Loveland Chair in Indigenous Law, U of T Faculty of Law 
  • Professor Maggie Blackhawk, NYU Law
  • Sara Mainville, Partner, JFK Law LLP

Background

Over the past few years, both Canadian and American courts have decided cases that impact Indigenous Nations' ability to care for Indigenous children.

Florence Robert

SJD Candidate
Thesis title:
Revitalizing the Ilnu Legal Order and Reclaiming Jurisdiction over Child and Family Services
Office in Falconer Hall
84 Queen's Park
Toronto, M5S 2C5
Email: florence.robert@mail.utoronto.ca

Florence Robert is a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Law of the University of Toronto with research interest in Indigenous legal orders, pedagogies and methods. Florence is a 2021 graduate of the LL.L. program at the University of Ottawa where she received the University Gold Medal for Civil Law for the highest cumulative grade point average in the entire civil law program and the Dean of the Civil Law Section’s Prize in recognition significant contributions made to the law school community. In 2022, Florence completed a judicial clerkship at the Federal Court under Justice Martine St-Louis and was called to the Québec bar in 2023. Following her clerkship, Florence completed her Master of Laws (LL.M.) thesis at the University of Toronto on Indigenous legal pedagogy and the decolonization and Indigenization of Canadian legal education under the supervision of Professor John Borrows. Her SJD thesis seeks to document the values, principles, rules, and processes that govern group regulation and conflict resolution related to children, youth, and families within the Ilnu legal order.

Since 2022, Florence is a Part-Time Professor (Long Term Nomination) at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law, where she teaches transsystemic courses in constitutional law, property law, family law and Indigenous legal orders.

Education
Licentiate in Law - University of Ottawa (2021)
Master of Laws (Long Thesis) - University of Toronto (2024)
Awards and Distinctions
2023-2024 Ontario Graduate Scholarship Recipient
University Gold Medal for Civil Law (2021)
Dean of the Civil Law Section’s Prize (2021)
Prix du Barreau du Québec de la Faculté de droit de l’Université d’Ottawa (2021)
Francine Lefebvre-Landry Prize (2021)
Cain Lamarre Prize (2021)
Dean’s Honour list (2018 – 2021)
Professional Affiliations
Member of the Quebec Bar
Selected Publications

Sophie Thériault, Eva Ottawa & Florence Robert, “L’enseignement des traditions juridiques autochtones à la Section de droit civil de l’Université d’Ottawa : entre opportunités et défis pour une formation juridique décolonisée” (2024) 15 Cahiers Portalis (to be published). 

Sophie Thériault, Eva Ottawa & Florence Robert, “First Nations, COVID-19, and the Implications of Spatial Restrictions in a Settler Colonial Context” in Colleen M. Flood, Y.Y. Brandon Chen, Raywat Deonandan, Sam Halabi & Sophie Thériault, eds, Pandemics, Public Health, and the Regulation of Borders: Lessons from COVID-19 (England: Routledge, 2024) 89 (Book Chapter).

Florence Robert, “Pierre Rousseau, Une véritable justice équitable, décolonisée, par et pour les peuples autochtones. Québec : Presses de l’Université Laval, 2023, 220 pp” (2023) 38:2 Canadian Journal of Law and Society / La Revue Canadienne Droit et Société 292 (Book Review).

Aimée Craft, Florence Robert & Caitlin De Simone, “The Canada Water Agency as an Opportunity to Decolonize Water Governance” in Marie-France Fortin, Alexandre Lillo, Éric Champagne, Lauren Touchant & Thomas Burelli, eds, Canada Water Agency: Multisectorial Issues of Law and Governance (Montréal: LexisNexis, 2022) 39 (Book Chapter).

Research Interests
Aboriginal Law
Canadian Constitutional Law
Comparative Law
Family Law
Indigenous Legal Traditions
Supervisor
John Borrows
Committee Members
Angela Fernandez

Brandon Montour

SJD Candidate
Thesis title:
Duty to Council: Haudenosaunee Law as a Framework for Colonial Relations under the Covenant Chain
Office in Falconer Hall
84 Queen's Park
Toronto, M5S 2C5
Tel:
(514) 895-2726
Email: brandon.montour@mail.utoronto.ca

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. 

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)
Other information

Presentations, Lectures, and Workshops 

Conversations and Solutions Surrounding National and Global Challenges, 17th Annual Graduate Legal Studies Association Conference, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, 29 May 2024.
Presentation: LL.M Thesis, Resurging to Reconcile: Peacemaking in Kahnawà:ke through Haudenosaunee Law.

Borden Ladner Gervais LLP Student Research Conference, Paul-André Crépeau Centre for Private and Comparative Law, Montreal, Quebec, 18 March 2024.
Presentation: LL.M Thesis, Resurging to Reconcile: Peacemaking in Kahnawà:ke through Haudenosaunee Law.

United Nations, 15th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, Montreal, Quebec, 7-19 December 2022.
Delegate, Haudenosaunee Confederacy.

United Nations, 27th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, 6-18 November 2022.
Delegate and Panelist, Haudenosaunee Confederacy.

Selected Publications

“The Aboriginal Right of Self-Government in the Era of the Indigenous Child Welfare Act” (2024) 18:1 Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law 105.

Research Interests
Aboriginal Law
Canadian Constitutional Law
Critical Legal Theory
Indigenous Legal Traditions
Legal History
Supervisor
John Borrows
Committee Members
Douglas Sanderson

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Orange Shirt Day & Fall Feast

In honour of Truth and Reconciliation Day and Orange Shirt Day, ILSA and the IIO will host an event. We encourage all to bring a dish to share but will also have some catered food.

For more information, contact: julie.shepard@utoronto.ca

IIO & ILSA Indigenous Student, Staff, Faculty Welcome Meet & Greet

The IIO will start the year off in a good way by welcoming Indigenous students, sharing in a feast and meeting other Indigenous students, the Elder in Residence, staff and faculty.

For more information, contact: julie.shepard@utoronto.ca

Wanekia (Kia) Dunn

SJD Candidate
Thesis title:
Relationships with Land: Exploring applications of natural agency and rights of nature theory to facilitate innovations in Indigenous land tenure and governance
Office in Falconer Hall
84 Queen's Park
Toronto, M5S 2C5
Email: kia.dunn@mail.utoronto.ca

Wanekia (Kia) Dunn is a doctoral candidate in the Faculty of Law. His research focus is on Indigenous and Aboriginal law, and intersections therein with constitutional law, property law, and the law of equity.  Kia wrote his LLM thesis “Cutting the Knot: Founding Canada and Restoring the Honour of the Crown” as an analysis of how to overcome the intractable knot that is the sui generis legal status of Indigenous peoples, and which holds Indigenous peoples precariously in a liminal space of legal exceptionalism.

Kia’s upcoming work seeks to explore pathways forward via innovations in land tenure within the space of declared Aboriginal title, as recognized in the Xeni Gwet’in of the Tsilhqot’in. His last few years of professional work have allowed him to learn from and work with several partner First Nations, including the Tsilhqot’in. This provided the understanding that it will be necessary for Canadians to expand the scope of what it can mean in law to have a relationship with lands and territories to enable substantive reconciliation to move forward.

The conceptual frameworks for recognizing lands and territories with a form of legal personhood akin to corporation are on the rise in Canada and internationally; they present distinct potential for manifesting Indigenous worldviews and lawful relations. The issue of standing is resolved when natural agency is understood to contain an inherent guardian and steward relation as between the lands and their First Peoples: a fundamental trust.  He returns to the Faculty of Law to more fully develop these conceptual tools so that they are available to facilitate self-governance.

Education
LLM, University of Toronto; JD, University of Toronto
MA Philosophy, Carleton University
BA (Hons) Philosophy, Carleton University
Awards and Distinctions
June Callwood Programme in Aboriginal Law (2020-2024)
Bennett Scholar (2018)
Other information
  • Panelist for the event “Dialogues on 175 Years of Canadian Democracy” alongside John Ralston Saul and Omayra Issa held in 2023.
  • Presented the “Indigenous Homelands Initiative – Housing and Governance Toolkit” to dozens of Nation, government, and industry leaders at the Yanonhchia Indigenous Housing Finance Network conference in 2022.
  • Facilitated a workshop for the Tsilhqot’in National Government to bring together leaders in housing and development to find consensus on a housing strategy across all six member communities in 2021.
  • Co-organized a conference entitled “Treaties Talk” held at Massey College which brought together expert panelists to discuss cross-border international agreements pertaining to Indigenous rights, specifically the Jay Treaty, in 2020.
  • Sat as chair of the Aboriginal Sovereignty panel held at Massey College as part of the series “Sovereignty in 2017: It’s Meaning for Canada and the World” held in, as you might suspect, 2017.
Research Interests
Aboriginal Law
Indigenous Legal Traditions
International Law
Legal Theory
Property Law
Supervisor
John Borrows
Committee Members

Valley of the Birdtail: A roadmap to reconciliation gifted to law students with donor support

Thursday, March 23, 2023

Valley of the birdtail authors and U of T Law students and faculty

Attendees received a complimentary copy of Valley of the Birdtail during the author talk held on March 15 in the Michael J. Trebilcock solarium, Falconer Hall. The session was moderated by Promise Holmes Skinner (JD 2013).

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