Jan. 27, 2022: University of Ottawa – The University of Ottawa is launching Canada’s first French-language Indigenous law program in an effort to “help revitalize Indigenous legal systems and provide a more respectful welcome to Indigenous learners on an academic path in law.” The program will be offered through the school’s Civil Law Section and will be available exclusively to Indigenous students.

The program will offer “an introduction to the legal systems of different Indigenous peoples in Canada, which they will be encouraged to compare with Quebec and Canadian state-derived systems in certain key areas of law,” the announcement explained, noting that students “will thus be able to get to know the sources, foundations, principles and rules of Indigenous and of state-derived law, including Quebec’s civil law regime.”

Starting in the 2000s we decided to have summer schools in the Indigenous territory, land-based teaching. We brought our students, including Indigenous students, who were happy to share that knowledge with us,” she said, noting that the summer school was about “Indigenous legal orders themselves and their rules and their norms, and their process of dealing with conflicts and other issues in their communities.” “That really changed the paradigm and from that point on, our goal has been to produce more capacity building and train more people, including Indigenous professors, Indigenous scholars, Indigenous lawyers, so we could be able to teach more Indigenous law,” she explained noting that the new program is “the outcome of that process.”

The program will begin in August 2022, the university’s announcement explained. The program has also “received the support of the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador and its Chief, Ghislain Picard, who sees it as an opportunity for Indigenous learners to study in a field that highlights their reality, opening a path to the study of Indigenous legal traditions.”