Media Releases

First Nations legal advocate to lecture at OISE

April 29, 2015

TORONTO, ON – Dou­glas S. White, Direc­tor of the Cen­tre for Pre-Con­fed­er­a­tion Treaties and Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion at Van­cou­ver Island Uni­ver­si­ty will lec­ture on Social Change and Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion: Pur­su­ing Social Jus­tice in the 21st Cen­tu­ry on Thurs­day, April 30 at the Ontario Insti­tute for Stud­ies in Edu­ca­tion (OISE), Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to.

One of the great­est pub­lic pol­i­cy chal­lenges and imper­a­tives of our time is the need to rethink and rebuild the Crown Indige­nous rela­tion­ship in Cana­da to achieve mean­ing­ful and last­ing rec­on­cil­i­a­tion and jus­tice. Much of the progress over the past 50 years has been marked by dra­mat­ic legal deci­sions (Calder, Hai­da Nation, Tsilhqot’in Nation) and polit­i­cal achieve­ments (s. 35(1) of the Con­sti­tu­tion Act, 1982) and yet, while we have most­ly moved away from explic­it harm-based rela­tions (res­i­den­tial school, dis­pos­ses­sion) we have not built rela­tions of kind nec­es­sary for mean­ing­ful rec­on­cil­i­a­tion. This should deeply trou­ble all aspects of Cana­di­an soci­ety, because it is a pre­cur­sor to fur­ther suf­fer­ing of Indige­nous peo­ples and con­flict with the Crown and third-par­ties. Part of the answer lies in social under­stand­ing and knowl­edge as a nec­es­sary dri­ving force of social change toward social jus­tice. Doug White, Direc­tor of the Cen­tre for Pre-Con­fed­er­a­tion Treaties and Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion at Van­cou­ver Island Uni­ver­si­ty will dis­cuss these themes among oth­ers.

Dou­glas S. White, BA, JD, is a mem­ber and for­mer Chief of the Snuney­muxw First Nation in Nanaimo, BC. His Coast Sal­ish name is Kwul’a’sul’tun and his Nuu-chah-nulth name is Tlii’shin. As elect­ed Chief of the Snuney­muxw First Nation from Decem­ber 2009 to Feb­ru­ary 2014, he worked on the imple­men­ta­tion of the Snuney­muxw Treaty of 1854. From June of 2010 to June 2013, Chiefs of British Colum­bia asked him to lead the First Nations Sum­mit as a mem­ber of the FNS Task Group, where he advo­cat­ed for First Nations seek­ing res­o­lu­tion of out­stand­ing issues with the Crown. He served as a mem­ber of the BC First Nations Lead­er­ship Coun­cil work­ing on com­mon issues with BC First Nations, par­tic­u­lar­ly the Crown’s duty to con­sult and accom­mo­date, and advo­cat­ed on their behalf with the gov­ern­ments of British Colum­bia, Cana­da and inter­na­tion­al­ly at the Unit­ed Nations. He prac­tices as a lawyer and nego­tia­tor across the coun­try for First Nations gov­ern­ments. He was recent­ly named the 2015 recip­i­ent of the Dis­tin­guished Alum­ni Award by the Uni­ver­si­ty of Vic­to­ria Fac­ul­ty of Law.

EVENT DETAILS:

What:   Dou­glas S. White will lec­ture on Social Change and Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion: Pur­su­ing Social Jus­tice in the 21st Cen­tu­ry.

When:  Thurs­day April 30, 2015. The talk takes place from 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. and includes a ques­tion and answer peri­od.

Where: Ontario Insti­tute for Stud­ies in Edu­ca­tion, Nexus Lounge, 12th floor

 ‑30-

For more infor­ma­tion con­tact:

Steve Robin­son
Direc­tor of Strate­gic Com­mu­ni­ca­tions
Ontario Insti­tute for Stud­ies in Edu­ca­tion (OISE)
416–978-8008
steve.robinson@utoronto.ca