That connection back to home
I think some of the best times that I’ve had at the law school would have been when I participated in any type of activity that was put on by the First Nations Law Students Association. I enjoyed that most because they were usually focused around celebrating our First Nations culture in some way, or just hanging out with all of the other First Nations students and their families. It was just having that connection back to—I guess kind of like back to home, although it wasn’t home for me. It was just feeling like I was included in having friends and people there that kind of shared the same experience with me as a First Nations person.
I didn’t feel included in just the law school activities per se, the ones just in general—always kind of felt like an outsider and didn’t quite enjoy it as much. A lot of it focused on drinking and things like that, and it just wasn’t as fun. I did go out to them and I did participate, but I always had this feeling of like not being fully included.
And being visibly Aboriginal, I think that played a big part in that, because I mean just in general, anywhere really you go as an Aboriginal person, you often will get people who stereotype you, are discriminatory towards you, or treat you differently because they see that you’re Aboriginal and they have these misconceived ideas—pretty much they know of what mainstream society says about Aboriginal people and so they judge you based on that, if that makes any sense. Such as our colonial experience and what the Indian Act has subjected our peoples to, of living on reserves, and then having higher rates of incarceration, children taken into care—all of those types of things have become mainstream stereotypes, and so if you’re an Aboriginal person, they automatically assume that these are your experiences as well or that you’re an alcoholic, or violent, or something like that.
So then that carries forward in anything or wherever you go. But I find that with law school, it was a little bit different because I felt like the racism and the discrimination was more overt being there.
So the good parts were being able to hang out and celebrate our culture and do some things with the First Nations students, and then the bad parts of course were just the general atmosphere, the racism and discrimination you just kind of feel being an Aboriginal person in law school.
“I felt so happy, honoured, and proud”
One thing that the [First Nations Law Students] Association did while I was in law school was they held a huge gathering and dinner for a judge who was retiring. They were honouring him because he was the judge or one of the judges that stood up and made a decision and set a precedent that was very important to First Nations people. And at that time, I guess it was viewed as him being very brave and stepping outside of the norm, I suppose, or that colonial mindset that Canada and the justice system has against First Nations people.
It was amazing because that was really my first experience to see all of the other lawyers and judges and all of these people who were Indigenous and in well-respected positions and doing well. And to have all of these people come into the Longhouse and celebrate this judge, it was amazing. As a law student, I just felt so happy, honoured, and proud to be part of that and see that, “Hey, although I may be having a pretty shitty experience, I can get through this. I can get through law school.” I almost felt like quitting at a time, to be honest, and being able to see that they got through it and, many of them being First Nations, survived law school and now are doing amazing, great things, I [thought], “I’ll do that. I’ll get there. I can make it through this.”
So I think that was the highlight for me, was being a part of something like that. And there were other things where they do wine-and-cheeses. They have the big wine-and-cheeses, where you can go out to meet the different prospective law firms that may be hiring. The First Nations Law Students Association, I think it was in combination with the CBA Aboriginal Section of BC, they would put on a similar type of wine-and-cheese with Indigenous, Aboriginal, First Nation law firms, or it would be bigger firms that have an Aboriginal law section. So anyone who was very interested in hiring an Indigenous law student would be at these specific type of wine-and-cheeses that were geared towards recruiting First Nation law students. So those were pretty cool, too, because then you’d go out and you’d get to meet other First Nation lawyers or people working in the area of Aboriginal law [or on] First Nation issues or working within First Nation issues under the realm of law.
At the time when I was there, I think all of the First Nations students were automatically a part of the First Nations Law Students Association or the Indigenous Law Students Association. So I stayed involved with them. I worked on different little projects or things that they may have been doing. Then across Canada as well, by being part of the Indigenous Bar Association, you meet many of the other Indigenous law students across Canada from different law schools, because if you go out to the conference, then it’s heavy on student involvement. You get to go there. And so our student council or students association would try their best to send as many students as they can out to the Indigenous Bar Association conference every year. Again, it’s very encouraging to go to that conference and to be with the other Indigenous legal scholars and lawyers, and know that they may have gone through similar types of experience of law school.
“There needs to be mandatory content on Indigenous issues”
But I think what would make [the law school] experience better, now that I’m away from law school and now I’m understanding the issues more, and I also know that this is an experience of students straight across Canada, is that—and I know by making things mandatory there are going to be people who would be disgruntled about it or rolling their eyes, but there does need to be mandatory content on Indigenous issues. There should be a class maybe, even the First Nations law class, legal issues class—either that needs to be made mandatory for first-year students or in every law class, where the content of whatever you’re teaching—property law for instance—the Aboriginal part of that class needs to be mandatory. It shouldn’t be glazed over. And even if the professor isn’t comfortable teaching it, then bring in a guest professor. Bring in someone, an Indigenous lawyer, someone who can teach that part of the class. Make that part mandatory. Have the students understand it.
Because no matter where you go in Canada, what you’re doing, you’re going to be dealing with Indigenous people. If you’re in criminal law, if you’re in family law, definitely if you’re in property law, corporate law. All of this, you’re going to come across First Nations issues and people, and you need to understand how to properly deal with that. It’s of benefit to everyone if they’re understanding that fully, because we’re in the day of reconciliation, where people are trying to learn and understand and appreciate these types of things. So I would say that society is being less ignorant of these issues. Maybe there’s a law student who is non-Indigenous and going into corporate law and is thinking, “Oh, I’ll never have to deal with Indigenous issues or people,” they’re probably wrong because a lot of the joint ventures or contracts for their mining companies or what have you are going to directly impact Indigenous people and there will be issues surrounding that, including claims to stop construction or halt a project because Aboriginal title has not been dealt with or there has not been an Impact Benefit Agreement signed with the First Nation in that area. Which comes right back to UNDRIP where you have free, prior, and informed consent.
So if you’re not knowing or understanding that in the big picture of things there’s always going to be an Indigenous issue, then you’re sending law students out there to be hit with these issues and not know how to properly address them. So this vicious cycle continues where Indigenous nations are continuing to fight resource companies and the government in any realm, right from criminal up to corporate type of issues. So I think that by making that mandatory in law schools and having students understand that and having them understand it in the first year, knowing that wherever you go in Canada something like this is going to come across your desk, that it shouldn’t be looked over and that they should understand that these are important issues.
[Take] Aboriginal title for instance—there’s an inherent right. It’s constitutionally protected. Yet two percent or less than one percent—I think it’s 0.2%—of the land in Canada is owned by First Nations people. And there’s so many unresolved claims across Canada that no matter what you’re doing, if you’re working for a resource company specifically, you are going to have to deal with Aboriginal issues. The law schools will be better off sending lawyers who understand these things, and so then when these things happen, they can face them head-on and understand how to respond to them properly. Not look like an idiot, because I can tell you there have been many times where other young lawyers, non-Indigenous lawyers have said things at meetings or at the table where you’re negotiating things with government or what have you, and you look at them and [think] “What? How do you not understand this? Really? You went to law school but yet you don’t understand the inherent right to Aboriginal title and you’re saying like these types of things? What about like Sparrow and Delgamuukw and Calder and all of these decisions?” Then when it comes to consultation and accommodation, same thing. They need to understand that they have to do this. Resource companies need to consult with First Nations.
And I think also by professors not glazing over this content but actually giving it some weight and then also emphasizing the importance of these issues, it would make the experience better for Indigenous people, too, because if a professor stood there and said, “This is what happened to First Nations people. This doctrine of discovery, terra nullius, all of which have been discredited now, this is how the government was able to take over and then start colonizing Indigenous people. This is why First Nations people feel the way they do. This is why there’s anger. This is why there’s protest. This is what’s happening now. These are the legal issues attached to that. This is something that you’re going to face. I mean, if students understood that a bit more, then they’d be like, “Oh. Okay. I kind of get it. Now I understand why there’s so much alcoholism and violence and different things like that on some reserves, because of their colonial experience, because of residential schools, because of all of that.” Then there might be a bit more of a better experience.
Because they don’t teach you that in high school. They don’t teach you that in school. I didn’t even learn it until my undergrad, and I’m a First Nations person. I didn’t even learn of these experiences because my family didn’t talk about it. They didn’t talk about res school. Why would they talk about all these horrible things that happened to them? I had no frickin’ idea. So they have to start teaching it.
Indigenous course content
I think that’s one of the reasons why I chose UBC, is when you look at the calendars for the different law schools, you can see that UBC had a number of Aboriginal law classes that were specifically dealing on First Nations legal issues. So there were quite a few that I did take. I don’t think I took all of them. But I tried to take quite a bit of them, and only one of them was—oh wait—no, I don’t think it was mandatory. It wasn’t mandatory. It was a general—“First Nations Legal Issues” I think it was called—class that kind of covered Aboriginal or Indigenous issues in the law generally right across the whole spectrum, from criminal, family law issues, right up to the inherent right to Aboriginal title and rights that are constitutionally protected and everything that comes with that.
So there was that class, and First Nations economic development, and just other types of classes like that. And I did take a few of them, and they were all taught by a First Nations instructor, law instructor as well.
And in the classes themselves, if there was Aboriginal content, from the textbook or what have you, it was either optional—“Go ahead and read it”—they skip over it, or they might spend one day on it and just blast through it quickly like it’s of minimum importance. So the professors didn’t really spend a lot of time on that unless they were an Indigenous professor, because I noticed in the classes where we did have an Indigenous professor, they would actually spend as much time on those sections of the class as they would on all the others and treat it the same way, and not just dismiss it and say, “Well, this is just for fun. Read it. You’re not going to get marked on it.”
I think they were pretty much the same as all other classes. The only difference would be that sometimes in say explaining something that’s very Indigenous or is specific to Indigenous people, they might take a little bit of time to explain, “This is why.” And so they might go into a little bit detail and just give a little bit of a backgrounder, knowing that there’s people in the class who haven’t lived these experiences who don’t understand it or don’t quite get why things are the way they are. So that’s what I noticed. And I thought that was very helpful. And not all Indigenous people have the same experience. Some grow up on reserve. Some grow up off reserve. So it’s different as well. So just sharing those types of things is pretty interesting as well.
I participated in the Aboriginal law Kawaskimhon moot. I liked it because at the time—I don’t know if they still do it, but they had actual lawyers teaching and part of [the moot]. So the moot team for UBC worked closely with Aboriginal lawyers who taught you practical knowledge—you’re drafting actual legal documents and pleadings to be part of this moot, and then you’re getting advice on how to properly present and argue a position as if you were going to court. So I really liked it. And they were often people who were working in that area of law, had a specialty for Aboriginal law or just generally understood the issues. So it was very good. Then we would often have even a guest lawyer who is an expert in this type of civil litigation and would give really good insight on this. We had a couple of them who would just come in one day and give us some pointers on things. It was a lot of fun. Then the travel for the moot was fun as well, going out and meeting mostly Aboriginal students from across Canada who were participating in this moot.
The “getting into law school easy” thing
Then also the whole “getting into law school easy” thing was not a big issue, but I know some students have said that: “Oh. Well, you checked the box and you got into law school easy because you’re Indigenous.” And I thought about that and I’m like, “Well, that’s bullcrap because it was harder for us to get in law school than you, because number one, we need the grades and we need the LSAT score, but on top of that we needed to have letters of recommendation and whatever else that they required of us.” I think it was letters or recommendation from the community. So it wasn’t as easy for us to get in law school because we had to take an extra step as well, and although we weren’t selected in the same way, we still had to meet the minimum requirement. And I think students should be more aware of the fact that there were a lot of students who did have the grades and GPA but didn’t make it in, Aboriginal students. But that was something else that I think students looked at us and they’re like, “Oh. Well, it was easy for you to get here because you didn’t have to compete with the rest of us.”
The Guerillaw Newsletter
It was pretty horrible. So I’m not sure if I want to talk about that. Or maybe—I don’t know. It was a big deal. It was really bad. Aboriginal students were crying in front of the whole student body of all the law students at a town hall meeting, saying, “You made me feel like this. Do you have any idea what you said and how that still hurts us and hurts me, and how I’m so ashamed of you as a law school?” And it came down to that, where we had to have a town hall meeting because of the things that they were saying about us as law students and then just Indigenous people in general.
So there was racist content, pretty much, coming out, making light of or making fun of [the] residential school experience, and then just about Indigenous people and the stereotypes around them. And they say they don’t know who it was. I think that’s a bunch of crap. You could find out who that was pretty easily. And they [said], “Oh, our IT techs can’t figure it out.” And then apparently the law students’ body actually knew who was the one who authored this, and it wasn’t just one but it was a few. And they sent it to all of the law students through a listserv and to the professors.
And every one of the First Nations students, almost all of us—I’m pretty sure it was every single First Nations student, first, second, third year—was standing up in front of all of the law school, and then each of us saying something about this.
Then the amazing part of that is half of the First Nations students did not look First Nations, and so there are students coming up to that podium saying, “You made me feel like this,” and then they’re just astounded. “What? You’re First Nations? You don’t even look it.” “Well, hello. Not all of us look First Nations.” And at that point, it was for some students to actually step up and they started to identify as First Nations, and [say], “Yeah, I’m First Nations. I may not have said that. I don’t look like I am, but I am. And I know these are my experiences in my family.”
That was a pretty crazy time. And nothing was really done other than this town hall meeting where—this is sort of the government’s response to things, too—“Oh, let’s just hold hands and talk about stuff, but let’s not really do anything to stop it.” You know what I mean? “Oh, let’s just apologize and then we’ll move on.” No, you need to actually do something to prevent these things from happening in the future. Like maybe educating the students on why they’re so wrong about these issues and how much this stuff is a trigger or it’s traumatic for Aboriginal people in general. You don’t talk about these things or make light of the fact that this is their experience. It’s a horrible experience.
So the law school totally failed on that. They did not respond properly. They should have took action to prevent things like that from happening in the future. Because who knows? Over the years, maybe other things like that continued to happen. That was a really dark time for the law school, definitely. Because it just cast this big shadow over all the Aboriginal students, and all of a sudden everyone was looking at us even more. And there were a lot of students who [said], “Oh, free speech. It was totally fine.” “What’s wrong with you guys? Like take it is easy. It’s satirical.” “No, it’s not when you make fun of those types of issues.”
The Indigenous Bar Association, they all knew because as this was happening, I think we shared it between the law schools and said, “Hey, listen up. This is what’s happening with us.” So then the Aboriginal students from other law schools came forward and said things that might have been similar. They didn’t have the same type of newsletter, but they [said], “Yeah, we experience the same racism and stereotypical views at our law school towards Aboriginal students as well in this way or that way.” And so it brought students together, the Indigenous students across Canada who were a part of the IBA, in a way where they could support each other as well.
And so it wasn’t isolated to UBC. Then I think other law schools called on UBC and then wrote to the dean and said, “Something needs to be done,” which is why they ended up doing this town hall meeting.