The Ontario Bar Association, in partnership with the Roundtable of Diversity Associations, held the third-annual diversity conference with the theme "where we are and where we are heading," in Toronto on Nov. 27.
The Ontario Bar Association, in partnership with the Roundtable of Diversity Associations, held the third-annual diversity conference with the theme "where we are and where we are heading," in Toronto on Nov. 27.
Sara Mainville, senior associate at Olthuis Kleer Townshend LLP, moderated a panel entitled "What Reconciliation Means for the Legal Community," which featured two other indigenous lawyers, Nicole Richmond, director of justice at Chiefs of Ontario, and Valarie G. Waboose, assistant professor at University of Windsor Faculty of Law.
The panel touched upon the years of colonization and colonialism in North America, especially how the Indian Act was so harmful for indigenous peoples. They panelists stressed the importance of lawyers playing a role in reconciliation because it's not just up to the legal system or government to do so.
