CHRLP Forum Reading Group - Engaging with Indigenous Law: Redefining our Responsibilities

Inspired by the fabled meeting place in ancient Rome, the CHRLP Forum Reading Group on Power, Mobilization, and Change is founded on the principles of inclusive citizenship and deliberative democracy. 

This forum will be led by students Simon Filiatrault, Poonam Sandhu, and Sayre Potter in conversation with Professor Aaron Mills. The discussion will be moderated by Professor Omar Farahat.

The study of Indigenous law in law schools is a relatively recent phenomenon, which has been accentuated following the release of the reports of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples and Truth and Reconciliation. Increasingly, law students, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, are being introduced to another legal order that has always been present on Canadian soil, but that has also been neglected for too long. From this engagement with Indigenous law emerges a variety of reactions, which can result in a sense of responsibility to the community.

This panel will raise and attempt to address the following questions: how do students’ experience of learning about Indigenous sharpens their sense of social justice? How does studying Indigenous law inform the duty to give Indigenous peoples their rightful place in Canada?

Suggested readings:

• The Hon. Chief Justice Lance S.G. Finch, “The Duty to Learn: Taking Account of Indigenous Legal Orders in Practice”, CLE BC.
• Aaron Mills, “The Lifeworlds of Law: On Revitalizing Indigenous Legal Orders Today” (2016) 61:4 McGill LJ 847

For any questions about this Forum, please contact: simon.filiatrault [at] mail.mcgill.ca or katrina.bland [at] mail.mcgill.ca.