{"id":98058,"date":"2023-09-27T11:33:10","date_gmt":"2023-09-27T15:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jurivision.ca\/?p=98058"},"modified":"2023-10-31T15:59:58","modified_gmt":"2023-10-31T19:59:58","slug":"decolonizing-legal-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jurivision.ca\/en\/decolonizing-legal-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Decolonizing Legal Learning:\u00a0 Moving forward on Call to Action 28 at the Common Law Section\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 2007, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission<\/a> (TRC) was established to document the experiences of those affected by the terrible legacy of Canada\u2019s residential schools system. In an effort to engage and educate the Canadian public the TRC released its final report in 2015 with 94 \u201ccalls to action\u201d \u2013 recommendations designed to facilitate reconciliation between Canadians and Indigenous Peoples. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the calls to action is a specific recommendation for law schools \u2013 Call to Action 28<\/a> \u2013 which urges Canada\u2019s faculties of law to provide students with a course on Indigenous people and the law. Law schools are asked to cover the history and impact of the residential schools system, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples<\/em><\/a>, and the history of Indigenous rights and treaties, Indigenous law and legal traditions, and Indigenous-Crown relations. Call to Action 28 also calls for skills-based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights and anti-racism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professors Aim\u00e9e Craft<\/a>, Signa Daum Shanks<\/a> and Angela Cameron<\/a> \u2013 who are engaging with students in the English Common Law Program \u2013 explain how the Common Law Section<\/a> at the University of Ottawa\u2019s Faculty of Law has chosen to respond to Call to Action 28, recognizing the unique role that lawyers have to play in meaningful reconciliation. They explore how the Common Law Section is choosing to be part of the problem-solving in a variety of ways. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Common Law Section\u2019s efforts to implement this new part of the curriculum brought mandatory course modules to all first-year students in 2023. Choosing to connect students directly with the unceded Anishinaabe-Algonquin territory on which the University of Ottawa is built, the instructors chose to base their modules around the Seven Sacred Teachings<\/a>, common to many Anishinaabe nations. Using this framework, the instructors approached their lessons through understandings of truth, courage, and love, encouraging students to show humility and respect \u2013 attitudes that can lead to what is known in Anishinaabe language as minobimaadiziwin<\/em>, or a good life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Program in French<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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