CLE Online

Welcome and Land Acknowledgement (9:00 – 9:10)

Halie Kwanxwa'loga Bruce — Cedar and Sage Law Corporation, Chilliwack
Rosalie C.N. Yazzie — Nesika Law Corporation, Vice-Chair BC First Nations Justice Council, Westbank

OPENING PRAYER

Elder Maria Reed – Waabigekek Ikwe

Keynote: "Why Indigenous Women, Girls and Gender-diverse People Matter" (9:10 – 9:40)

The Honourable Marion R. Buller — Former Chief Commissioner, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry, Anmore

Where We Have Been: Background and Context (9:40 – 10:25)

•  overrepresentation: child apprehension and the criminal justice system
• barriers faced by Indigenous women and girls
• "Indigenizing" and perpetuating distinctions
• political landscapes
• women, marginalization, and activism

Jean Teillet — Pape Salter Teillet LLP, Vancouver
Bernie Williams (Gul-Giit-Jaad) — National Family and Survivors Circle; Advocate for MMIWG2S, Vancouver
Jessica D. Wood Si Sityaawks — Associate Deputy Minister, Declaration Act Secretariat, Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, Province of BC, Victoria

BREAK (10:25 – 10:40)

Where We Are Now: Indigenous Women Living in the Intersections (10:40 – 11:25)

• interacting with the legal system
• exploring the intersection of gender, race, and the law, and how this impacts the lives of Indigenous women and girls
• legal categories: family, child welfare, human rights, criminal, employment, poverty, housing
• how intergenerational trauma, poverty, lack of resources and marginalization impact legal issues for Indigenous women and girls
• trauma-informed practice
• violence-informed practice
• gendered lenses

Patricia M. Barkaskas — Associate Professor of Teaching; Academic Director, Indigenous Legal Studies, Peter A. Allard School of Law, UBC, Vancouver
Karley Scott — Parole Board of Canada; Indigenous Women's Justice Plan, BC First Nations Justice Council; Governance Consultant, West Kelowna

BREAK (11:25 – 11:40)

Justice (11:40 – 12:40)

• what lawyers for Indigenous women and girls need to know in order to represent their clients competently
• punishment and reparation; the individual and the collective
• women, girls, and Gladue
• false confessions, wrongful convictions
• the system has failed—how to challenge what exists and bring change

Amanda Carling — Senior Policy Lawyer, Law Society of Ontario; BC First Nations Justice Council, Westbank
Lorna M. Fadden, PhD — Fadden Law, BC First Nations Justice Council, Penticton
Anisa Jennifer White, BCom, LLB, LLM Candidate — Gladue Report Writer and Lake Babine Nation Technical Justice Lead, Nitotemak Justice Advisory, Nanaimo

LUNCH BREAK (12:40 – 1:25)

Children, Youth, and Families (1:25 – 2:25)

• understanding of the context of Indigenous women's lives, including how to adopt a trauma-informed practice in order to advocate effectively for Indigenous women and girls
• why practitioners need a holistic practice approach: impacts on women children and family
• conflict resolution: when and why to access the available processes
• perspectives from parent's counsel and child/family mediator
• impact of ACES (Adverse Childhood Experiences)
• resistance, resiliency, and survival
• working from a place of compassion, surrounding the family
• intersecting with the child protection system
• how society fails Indigenous children, where the system can be different

Dawn Johnson — First Nations Women's Justice Strategy, BC First Nations Justice Council, Westbank
Laura A. Matthews — Matthews Mediation, Mission
Debbie Scarborough — Provincial Manager, Women & Child Protection, BC First Nations Justice Council, Westbank
Cheyenne Stonechild — Indigenous Youth Advocate, Burnaby

BREAK (2:25 – 2:40)

Moving Forward: Matriarchy and the Law (2:40 – 3:40)

• through Indigenous laws, legal orders, and institutions
• treaty and nation-building enables matrilineal resurgence
• the role of women in Indigenous law
• moving Indigenous laws forward: an academic perspective
• DRIPA and the future of UNDRIP in BC

Celeste A. Haldane, KC — Chief Commissioner, BC Treaty Commission, Vancouver
Andrea Hilland, KC — Policy Counsel, Law Society of BC, Vancouver
Annita McPhee, BSW, LLB — Director for the BC First Nations Justice Council, BCFNJC Lead on Child and Family Justice, and Health and Justice, Westbank

BREAK (3:40 – 3:55)

Action Roundtable (3:55 – 4:50)

• creating momentum for immediate change
• what lawyers for Indigenous women and girls need to know in order to represent their clients competently

Halie Kwanxwa'loga Bruce — Cedar and Sage Law Corporation, Chilliwack
Rosalie C.N. Yazzie — Nesika Law Corporation, Vice-Chair BC First Nations Justice Council, Westbank

Closing Prayer (4:50 – 5:00)

Elder Maria Reed – Waabigekek Ikwe