S. James Anaya: James J. Lenoir Professor of Human Rights Law and Policy, JamesE.RogersCollege of Law, The University of Arizona

B.A. (University of New Mexico), JD ( HarvardUniversityCollege of Law)

Professor Anaya has practiced as an attorney representing indigenous peoples and organizations in a number of countries, and has taught at several universities, including the University of Toronto and HarvardLawSchool.

Professor Anaya is also an accomplished author in the area of Indigenous peoples and International Law. His publications include:

  • Indigenous Peoples in International Law (Oxford University Press, 2d ed. 2004) (translated into Spanish and published by Editorial Trotta, 2005)
  • International Human Rights: Problems of Law, Policy, and Practice (Aspen Publishers, 4th ed. 2006) (co-author, with Richard B. Lillich, Hurst Hannum, and Dinah L. Shelton).
  • “The Protection of Indigenous Peoples' RightsOverLands and Natural Resources Under the Inter-American Human Rights System” 14 Harv. Hum. Rts. J. 33 (2001) (co-author with Robert A. Williams, Jr.).
  • “The Native Hawaiian People and International Human Rights Law: Toward a Remedy for Past and Continuing Wrongs” 28 Ga. L. Rev. 309 (1994), reprinted in International Law and Indigenous Peoples 309 (S. James Anaya ed., 2003).
  • “A Contemporary Definition of the International Norm of Self-Determination” 3 Transnat'l L. & Contemp. Probs. 131 (1993).

In addition, Professor Anaya has given numerous speeches and presentations worldwide at universities, academic and professional conferences, and meetings convened by non-governmental organizations, governments, and international institutions.

Professor Anaya has been, and continues to be dedicated to public service in many ways. He is currently an Associate Justice for the Court of Appeals of the Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe, President of the board of the Rainforest Foundation – US, a program affiliate for the Non-Violent Sanctions and Cultural Survival Program at the Weatherhead Center for International affairs at Harvard, a member of the Advisory Council for the Australian Indigenous Law Reporter, and a former president of the Asociacion para la Docencia y la Investigacion de los Derechos de los Pueblos Indigenas .

Professor Anaya has and continues to serve as counsel for many Indigenous groups and organizations, a lecturer and curriculum coordinator for numerous courses in human rights, and a consultant for a range of international and governmental institutions. He was lead counsel for the indigenous parties in the land mark case Awas Tingni v Nicaragua, a case decided by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights affirming indigenous land rights on the basis of traditional tenure.

Professor Anaya has been recognized for his outstanding work and activism with several awards in the area of human rights, Pro Bono and professional responsibility, and as a lawyer making a difference in the world.

Cindy Blackstock: Executive Director, First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada

B.A. (University of British Columbia), M.M. (McGillUniversity)

A member of the Gitksan Nation, Ms. Blackstock has worked in the area of child and family services for over eighteen years. She worked as a social worker for the provincial government as well as a First Nations Child and Family Service Agency before assuming her role as executive director of the Caring for First Nations Children Society in British Columbia in 1998. In her current capacity, Ms. Blackstock is honoured to be the Executive Director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada. This national organization seeks to promote and support the works and knowledge of First Nations child and family service agencies and regional organizations in Canada by providing research, professional development, and networking services.

Ms. Blackstock has participated in numerous provincial and national research projects. These projects include appointments to the Assembly of First Nations/Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development National Policy Review Committee, as well as the First Nations Summit Action Committee for First Nations Children and Families. Current professional interests include serving as a member of the Advisory Committee on the Centre of Excellence for Child Welfare and as a member of the Board of Directors for the Child Welfare League of Canada.

Gordon Christie: Professor, University of British Columbia

LL.B (University of Victoria), PhD(Philosophy,University of CaliforniaSanta Barbara)

Professor Christie has taught at several universities in Canada and the United States, in Faculties of Law, and Departments of Philosophy and Indigenous Studies. He has been an Assistant Professor at OsgoodeHallLawSchool (1998 - 2004), where he also acted as Director of the Intensive Program in AboriginalLands, Resources and Governments.

Currently, Professor Christie teaches Aboriginal legal issues, legal theory, and torts at the University of British Columbia.

Professor Christie’s research interests lie in Aboriginal legal issues, legal theory, and tort law. He has published several articles about Aboriginal legal issues, including:

  • “A Colonial Reading of Recent Jurisprudence: Sparrow, Delgamuukw and HaidaNation” (2005) 23 Windsor Y.B. Access Just. 17
  • “Developing Case Law: The Future of Consultation and Accommodation” (2006) 39 (1) U.B.C. Law Rev. 139
  • "Law, Legal Theory and Aboriginal Peoples?" (2003) 2 Indigenous Law Journal 70;
  • "Aboriginal Citizenship: Section 35, Section 15 and Section 25" (2003) 7(4) Citizenship Studies 481
  • "Judicial Justification of a Recent Development in Aboriginal Law?" (2002) 17(2) Canadian Journal of Law & Society 41
  • "Justifying Principles of Treaty Interpretation?" (2000) 26 (1) Queen's Law Journal 143
  • "Aboriginal Culture, Aboriginal Rights, and Protection?" (1998) 36 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 447

Sarah Clarke: Social Justice Fellowship at University of Windsor

B.A.(Art History & Political Science,McGillUniversity), MA (Social Work,CarletonUniversity)

Sarah Clarke attended McGillUniversity and obtained her Bachelor’s of Arts in History and Political Science. She obtained her Masters’ of Social Work at CarletonUniversity where she focused her studies on First Nations child welfare. Her first practicum was spent at First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, where she worked as a research intern and co-authored Keeping the Promise: The Convention of the Rights of the Child and the Lived Experience of First Nations Children and Youth, under the direction of Cindy Blackstock. She spent her second practicum as a family service worker at Native Child and Family Services of Toronto.

Sarah is currently in her second year of law at the University of Windsor and was recently awarded the Social Justice Fellowship, which allowed her to conduct research on child trafficking in Canada and its impact on First Nations communities.

Julaine Eberhard

LL.B (University of British Columbia), PhD(New School for Social Research)

Julaine Eberhard is currently articling at the Ontario Ministry of the
Attorney General in the Crown Law Office-Civil. She received a law
degree from the University of British Columbia in May 2006 and a Ph.D.
in political philosophy from the NewSchool for Social Research in
January 2005. Her doctoral research focused on the relationship between
recognition and restorative justice in both Aboriginal and International
contexts.

Willie Ermine: Professor, FirstNationsUniversity

B. Ed. (University of Saskatchewan), M.Ed. (University of Saskatchewan)

Professor Ermine is from the Sturgeon Lake First Nation. His Master of Education thesis is titled “A Critical Examination of the Ethics of Research Involving Indigenous Peoples.” Professor Ermine is a faculty member with the First Nations University of Canada and lectures in the areas of Humanities and Indigenous Studies. Some of his subject areas include Cree Literature in translation and Indigenous systems of Religion and Philosophy. His continued residence and participation in the community provides for him the grounding and perspective in his duties and approach to work in the mainstream.

Professor Ermine has published numerous academic articles including a widely read academic paper entitled “Aboriginal Epistemology” through UBC Press, and a paper on Indigenous knowledge in a European publication entitled “Sea Change: Orkney and Northern Europe in the later Iron Age 300 – 800.” He has presented on the topic of education and the nature of Indigenous thought at various locations, including the Orkney International Science Festival and BanffCenter for Management.

As an Ethicist / Researcher for the Indigenous Peoples’ Health Research Centre, Professor Ermine promotes the ethical practices of research involving Indigenous Peoples, with particular interest in the conceptual development of the ‘ethical space’ – a theoretical space between cultures and world views.

Alan Farrer: Managing Partner, Thomson Rogers.

LL.B (University of WesternOntario)

Alan Farrer is the Managing Partner at Thomson Rogers. Mr. Farrer is certified by The Law Society of Upper Canada as a Specialist in Civil Litigation. He graduated from the University of Western Ontario Faculty of Law in 1979. Alan is a member of The Advocates’ Society, The Canadian Bar Association and a Past Executive Director of The Arbitration and Mediation Institute of Ontario. He is also a contributing editor of the legal text Thomson, Rogers on Municipal Liability and regularly speaks at legal conferences.

Mr. Farrer is a trial lawyer whose practice includes commercial litigation, class action claims, real estate litigation, appellate litigation, contractual disputes, municipal law, product liability claims, professional negligence, libel, slander, wrongful dismissal claims and administrative law, including arbitrations and hearings before Boards and Tribunals. He has argued cases in all levels of Court in Ontario, including the Supreme Court of Canada.

Brenda Gunn

B.A. (University of Manitoba), J.D. (University of Toronto), LL.M. (University of Arizona)

Ms. Gunn is Métis, born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She is currently articling with Sierra Legal Defense Fund in Toronto, Canada. Ms. Gunn has taught in the Native Summer Law Program at the University of Saskatchewan. She has also worked in Australia at the University of New South Wales and at Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning. During law school, Ms. Gunn was actively involved with the Indigenous Law Journal and was the Editor-in-Chief in her final year. She has participated in several United Nations meetings on Indigenous issues including the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the Working Group on the Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. She is involved in several Aboriginal organizations including the Indigenous Bar Association and Rotiio' Taties Aboriginal Advisory Group, a non-profit organization comprised of Aboriginal lawyers, academics, law students and community member volunteers that advises various bodies on Aboriginal issues arising in law and the legal profession.

James (Sakej)Henderson: Professor and Research Director, Native Law Centre of Canada, University of Saskatchewan

JD (HarvardLawSchool)

Professor Henderson was born to the Bear Clan of the Chickasaw Nation and Cheyenne Tribe in Oklahoma. He is a noted international human rights lawyer and an authority on protecting Indigenous heritage, knowledge, and culture. Professor Henderson served as a constitutional advisor for the Míkmaw nation and the NIB-Assembly of First Nations during the constitutional process (1978-1993) in Canada. He was one of the drafters and expert advisors of the principles and guidelines for the protection of Indigenous Heritage in the UN Human Rights forum. Additionally, he has been a member of the Advisory Board to the Minister of Foreign Affairs; the Advisory Committee to the Canadian Secretariat for the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR), within the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Currently, Professor Henderson is a member of the Sectoral Commission on Culture, Communication and Information of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO as well as Eminent Person Implementation Committee for Traditional Knowledge in the Biodiversity Convention Office and Experts Advisory Group on International Cultural Diversity.

Professor Henderson’s publications include: Aboriginal Tenure in the Constitution of Canada (2000), Protecting Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage (2000), Míkmaw Society v. Canadain UN Human Rights Committee (ebook 2005), and First Nations Jurisprudence and Aboriginal Rights, Defining the Just Society (2006).

Justice Frank Iacobucci
B.Comm, LL.B. University of British Columbia, LL.M.CambridgeUniversity

Justice Frank Iacobucci was a Puisne Justice on the Supreme Court of Canada from 1991 to 2004 when he retired from the bench. He has written extensively on a wide variety of legal and related subjects.

From 1964 to 1967 Justice Iacobucci practiced law in New York and then served as a professor at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law from 1967 until 1985 as well as Dean of the law faculty from 1979 until 1983. He also served as Vice-President and Provost of the university from 1983 to 1985. He entered the public service as Deputy Minister of Justice in the federal government from 1985 to 1988 when he was appointed Chief Justice of the Federal Court.

Following his retirement from the Supreme Court, Justice Iacobucci was appointed Interim President of the University of Toronto in 2004. In July of 2005 he joined Torys as Counsel.

Justice Iacobucci sits on a number of boards of directors including Tim Hortons Inc. and Torstar, publisher of the Toronto Star and a series of smaller newspapers, and owns Harlequin Enterprises.

A recipient of numerous awards here and abroad, he has been awarded honorary degrees from a number of universities, is also an Honorary Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge and of the AmericanCollege of Trial Lawyers.

The Frank Iacobucci Centre for Italian Canadian Studies at the University of Toronto was named in honour of him.

Shin Imai: Professor, OsgoodeHallLawSchool

B.A. (Yale), LL.B (Toronto), LL.M (Osgoode)
Professor Imai currently teaches Aboriginal and Poverty law at OsgoodeHallLawSchool. Prior to his appointment to the faculty in 1997, Professor Imai held positions with the Ministry of the Attorney General as Counsel responsible for Alternative Dispute Resolution initiatives and as Co-ordinator of the Aboriginal Issues Group. He has also worked as a staff lawyer at Keewaytinok Native Legal Services and had a private practice in Toronto. At Osgoode Hall Professor Imai has held a variety of positions including Academic Director of the Intensive Program in Poverty Law, Director of the Intensive Program in Aboriginal Lands, Resources and Governments and Co-director of the Latin American Human Rights Research and Education Network. Professor Imai was selected by students for the Excellence in Teaching Award in 2004.

Professor Imai has research and supervisory interests in Aboriginal law, alternative dispute resolution, and clinical legal education. He has also published several articles on Aboriginal land and dispute issues, including Annotated Indian Art and Aboriginal Constitution Provisions and Aboriginal Law Handbook.

Darlene Johnston, Professor, University of Toronto Faculty of Law

B.A. (Queen’s University), LL.B (University of Toronto)

Professor Johnston joined the University of Toronto in 2002 as an Assistant Professor and Aboriginal Student Advisor. She was appointed Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law in 1989.

In 1995 she resigned her academic position in order to coordinate land claims research and litigation for her community, the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation. Her advocacy contributed to the judicial recognition of her people’s treaty right to the commercial fishery and to the recovery and protection of burial grounds and other culturally-significant sites within their traditional territory.

Her teaching areas include Aboriginal Law and Property Law. Her current research focuses on the relationship between totemic identity, territoriality and governance.

In 2006, Professor Johnston was featured in a special exhibit asone of the University of Toronto Law School's Women Trailblazers.

John Kingman Phillips: Partner, Doane Phillips Young LLP

Mr. Phillips has practiced exclusively as a litigation lawyer since his call to the bar in Alberta in 1990 and he continues in that practice in Ontario. He has a wide range of experience in class actions, corporate/commercial litigation, including bankruptcy and insolvency matters, product liability actions, professional liability and insurance litigation, and employment law. Mr. Phillips was also the lead counsel of the negotiating team for the Assembly of First Nations in the Residential Schools settlement agreement.

Mr. Phillips has appeared in all levels of courts in Ontario and Alberta, as well as the Federal Court of Canada and the Supreme Court of Canada. He has also appeared and conducted litigation in the British Columbia Supreme Court and the Court of Queen's Bench of Manitoba, and he has conducted litigation in the Court of Queen's Bench of Saskatchewan and the United States District Court (Middle District of Florida), by special certificate. He has appeared before numerous tribunals and has extensive experience in commercial arbitrations.

J. Wilton Littlechild, O.C., Q.C., I.P.C.

LL.B (University of Alberta)

Wilton Littlechild acquired his Law Degree from the University of Alberta in 1976. He was the first Treaty Indian in Alberta to graduate with a law degree and the first Treaty Indian elected to the Canadian Parliament. As an athlete, he won more then forty-five provincial, regional, national and international championships. He was a founder of the North American Indigenous Games and is currently working on the World Indigenous Nations Games.

Mr. Littlechild served on several senior committees in the House of Commons and was a parliamentary delegate to the United Nations. At the international level, he organized a coalition of Indigenous Nations that sought and gained consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC).

Mr. Littlechild was awarded the Order of Canada in 1999 and the World Fête d’Excellence Laureate for Sports 1999/2000 in Geneva, Switzerland. He received the Queen’s Counsel and Indigenous Peoples’ Counsel by the Legal Profession. Mr. Littlechild is currently the appointed Canadian Member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

Sara Mainville

LL.B (Queen’s University), LL.M student (University of Toronto)

Ms. Mainville, a member of the Couchiching First Nation, has recently completed her LL.M thesis while working with Nahwegahbow Corbiere,Barristers and Solicitors. Ms. Mainville's areas of interest include environmental law, self-government and treaty rights, employers’ rights and responsibilities on First Nations, and regulatory and administrative law. Her current area of focus is on treaty renewal and self-government.

Kent McNeil: Professor, OsgoodeHallLawSchool

B.A., LL.B (Saskatchewan), DPhil (Oxford), of the Bar of Saskatchewan
Professor McNeil, an Osgoode faculty member since 1987, teaches Property Law, First Nations and the Law, and Trusts. He is also a former Research Director of the University of Saskatchewan Native Law Centre.
Professor McNeil’s research interests include the rights of Indigenous peoples in Canada, Australia and the United States in relation to land, constitutional matters, self-government, fiduciary obligations, and treaties. He has written the book Common Law Aboriginal Title, and a number of monographs and articles on this subject, some of which are now collected in Emerging Justice? Essays on Indigenous Rights in Canada and Australia. Aspects of his work include land claims, hunting and fishing rights, water rights, constitutional issues, and self-government.
His expertise in Aboriginal law has led to several requests for Professor McNeil's services as a consultant. Among other things, he has acted as an expert on Aboriginal and treaty rights in the environmental assessment of hydroelectric development, and provided opinions on aspects of Aboriginal land claims.