Media Releases

Faculty of Law launches development of Canada’s first commercial code and tribunal for Indigenous peoples and their businesses

November 1, 2010

TORONTO, ON — Com­mer­cial law is a vital and cen­tral com­po­nent of gov­er­nance in any com­mu­ni­ty and Indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties are no excep­tion. But the role of com­mer­cial law in gov­er­nance and eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment is often over­looked as a means of assert­ing juris­dic­tion and devel­op­ing com­mer­cial enter­pris­es.  The Fac­ul­ty of Law is excit­ed to announce its work­shop and pub­lic lec­ture event, “Com­mer­cial Law and its Role in Indige­nous Sov­er­eign­ty,” on Fri­day, Novem­ber 5, 2010 to launch the devel­op­ment of Canada’s first and only provin­cial com­mer­cial code and tri­bunal for Indige­nous peo­ples, a code that will gov­ern com­mer­cial deal­ings, labour and envi­ron­men­tal stan­dards in First Nation com­mu­ni­ties, and a tri­bunal to adju­di­cate dis­putes that may arise under this code.

First Nation lead­ers and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers, togeth­er with US experts in trib­al com­mer­cial codes, local busi­ness, indus­try and  resource sec­tor exec­u­tives will gath­er at the UofT law school to dis­cuss the ben­e­fits and chal­lenges of devel­op­ing and imple­ment­ing an Indige­nous com­mer­cial code and tri­bunal in Ontario.

The pub­lic lec­ture fea­tures Pro­fes­sor John Bor­rows and Michael Bryant.

Pro­fes­sor John Bor­rows holds the Law Foun­da­tion Pro­fes­sor­ship of Abo­rig­i­nal Jus­tice and Gov­er­nance at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Vic­to­ria Fac­ul­ty of Law. Pro­fes­sor Bor­rows is a recip­i­ent of an Abo­rig­i­nal Achieve­ment Award in Law and Jus­tice, a Fel­low of the Trudeau Foun­da­tion, and a Fel­low of the Acad­e­my of Arts, Human­i­ties and Sci­ences of Cana­da (RSC) — Canada’s high­est aca­d­e­m­ic award. He is Anishinabe/Ojibway and a mem­ber of the Chippe­wa of the Nawash First Nation in Ontario, Cana­da, and is wide­ly rec­og­nized as Canada’s lead­ing schol­ar in Abo­rig­i­nal law and Indige­nous legal orders.

Michael J. Bryant is the for­mer Attor­ney Gen­er­al, Min­is­ter of Abo­rig­i­nal Affairs, Min­is­ter of Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment, and Gov­ern­ment House Leader of Ontario.  Dur­ing his term as Ontar­i­o’s Abo­rig­i­nal Affairs Min­is­ter, he nego­ti­at­ed a mul­ti-bil­lion dol­lar rev­enue-shar­ing agree­ment with Ontario First Nations, returned Ipper­wash Provin­cial Park to its First Nation and estab­lished the $25 mil­lion New Rela­tion­ship Fund.  Bryant has spo­ken and pub­lished in the area of abo­rig­i­nal law and pol­i­cy for more than 20 years.  He is cur­rent­ly senior advis­er at Ogilvy Renault LLP prac­tic­ing Abo­rig­i­nal law, and teach­es inter­na­tion­al law at UofT in the polit­i­cal sci­ence depart­ment.

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WHAT: “Com­mer­cial Law and its Role in Indige­nous Sov­er­eign­ty”
Fea­tur­ing speak­ers: Pro­fes­sor John Bor­rows And Michael Bryant

WHEN:    Fri­day, Novem­ber 05, 2010 , 6:30pm

WHERE:    Fac­ul­ty of Law, Flavelle House, Ben­nett Lec­ture Hall
78 Queen’s Park Cres. [Muse­um sub­way; park­ing is lim­it­ed]

INFO:    lucianna.ciccocioppo@utoronto.ca / Office: 416–946-0334
Please con­tact me to pre-book inter­views for either the work­shop [not open to the pub­lic] or the pub­lic lec­ture.

For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:

Lucian­na Cic­co­ciop­po
lucianna.ciccocioppo@utoronto.ca
416–946-0334