“When the Law is Broken:” Professor Val Napoleon Talks of the University of Victoria’s Proposed Dual Indigenous Law Program

(Photo credit: http://www.uvic.ca/law/about/indigenous/indigenouslawresearchunit/)

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After over a decade of planning and discussions, the University of Victoria’s (UVic’s) proposed joint Common Law and Indigenous Law degree program (the JID) is nearing fruition. Once approved by both the federal and provincial governments, Canada will see its first ever dual Indigenous law program, starting next Fall of 2017.

LegalEase’s Emma Noradounkian sat down with one of its architects, UVic Director of the Indigenous Law Research Unit and Research Chair, Val Napoleon. We discussed the details of the proposed program, its parallels to the McGill transsystemic model, as well as issues of Indigenous essentialization and reconciliation in creating such a program.

Thank you to Professor Napoleon for her time and patience in agreeing to the interview. Thank yous are also due to Professor Napoleon, as well as Professors Friedland, Anker, and Kong, for having taught first-year students to be brave, to engage with what we didn’t know, and to question what we thought we already knew about Indigenous laws this past Integration Week.

Episode December 2015 – Rising

Welcome to LegalEase with your hosts Lillian Boctor and Alice Mirlesse for this December 2015 edition of Legalease. LegalEase is a monthly show put together by a collective of law students and recently graduated law students at McGill that explores the law and its institutions with a critical lens and at the same time makes the jargon of the law more accessible.

https://soundcloud.com/lillian-boctor/ckut-legalease-december-11-2015

 

We start the show with an interview from Paris with Daniel T’seleie, a Dene and participant in the “It Takes Roots to Weather the Storm” and “Indigenous Rising” Delegations to the COP21 in Paris, which took place from November 30 – December 12, 2015;

we hear the powerful words of Kandi Mosset, the Indigenous Environemental Network’s Native Energy and Climate Campaign Organizer and member of the “It Takes Roots” and “Indigenous Rising” Delegations at the COP21 in Paris, speaking at a press conference by Women’s Earth and Climate Caucus and Women Leading Solutions on Frontlines of Climate Change on December 8, 2015;

we hear from Alexis, a member and community leader of the WeCopwatch movement based in the Ferguson, Missouri neighborhood where police killed Mike Brown; and Tariq Ramadan, who teaches Contemporary Islamic Studies at Oxford University, was speaking at the McGill Faculty of Law last month and we hear an excerpt of his talk entitled, “Accommodation and Securitization, Dilemmas of Muslim Citizenship in Liberal Democracies.”

Episode December 2014 – Making Lives Matter

Legalease is a monthly show on Montreal’s CKUT 90.3FM put together by a collective of law students. It is a broadcast about the law, cast broadly, looking at the law with a critical lens and featuring voices of people most affected by the law and those organizing against injustice.

https://soundcloud.com/lillian-boctor/legalease-on-ckut-december-12-2014-edition

In this month’s Legalease, we interview Meena Jaganath, attorney at the Community Justice Project in Miami, about the legal support happening in Ferguson leading up to and after the non-indictment of Darren Wilson, the police officer who killed Michael Brown; the delegation of CJP, Dream Defenders, Michael Brown’s parents, We Charge Genocide and other groups to the UN Committee Against Torture; about the growing #blacklivesmatter movement; and the role of community lawyering in the movement.

We hear from Claire Abraham, community organizer at Project Genesis in Cote-des-Neiges, Montreal about the organizing that they are doing in collaboration with housing organizations around the ridiculously long 21-month waiting time for tenants to get their complaint about housing conditions heard at the Rental Board. A Mexican student at McGill University tells us about the Montreal Mexican community’s demand to take Mexico off the safe-country list in Canada, in light of the pandemic of violence and impunity in Mexico.

Finally we speak with Legalease Collective member Garrett Zehr about the extradition of Canadian citizen Hassan Diab to France, after a faulty trial and a shocking lack of evidence, and the injustices in Canada’s extradition law and processes. Legalease can be heard of the second Friday of each month on CKUT 90.3FM in Montreal and worldwide at

ckut.ca/c/

Mike BrownEric GarnerReefaMeena JaganathTortureRental BoardHassan DiabMexico43Safe ListExtraditionCanadaTenantsCommunity Justice ProjectMiamiCommunity LawyeringGarrett ZehrClaire AbrahamProject GenesisBlack Lives MatterRefugeesProtestsPolice brutalityUNImpunityIndicttheSystemFranceGrand JuryMontreal Mexican Community

Episode October 2014 – Stop!

Blast from the Past – An episode from Lillian Boctor, Alyssa Clutterbuck, and Garrett Zehr!

https://soundcloud.com/lillian-boctor/ckut-legalease-october-2014-edition

 

 

Episode – September 2016 – About LegalEase!

LegalEase is a monthly show put together by a collective of former and current law students at McGill that explores the law and its institutions with a critical lens and at the same time makes the jargon of the law more accessible.

Listen to the Episode here

In today’s show we will hear from past and current students about their involvement in social movement lawyering and how it has shaped their experiences in law school. From Radlaw (Legalease’s original affiliation) to Legalease, students’ perspective on the law and the communities whose lives are affected by it on the daily has been sharpened through engaging with these perspectives, both individually and collectively.

LegalEase présente un rapportage de cette été des travailleurs du Vieux-port qui étaient en grève depuis plus de 100 jours. Ils militent pour des bénéfices

Finally, we have put together extracts of past shows, to illustrate the breadth and diversity of topics covered in the show, and give new recruits an idea of what they are signing-up for!

https://soundcloud.com/user-895652362/september-2016-legalease

Episode 40 (Dec 2012) – Race, Gender, and Social Context

Welcome et bienvenue to LegalEase: a monthly Montreal-based and produced radio show on 90.3 FM CKUT – a broadcast about law, cast broadly. Le collectif LegalEase est un groupe d’étudiants et étudiantes en droit de la communauté montréalaise.This month the program is entitled, “Race, Gender, and Social Context.”

Listen to the Episode Here

Host Garrett Zehr chairs an array of reflections on the subject of discrimination in Canada, specifically looking at race and gender. First, contributor Alyssa Clutterbuck presents a segment on the nature of discrimination. Sonia Lawrence, Professor at Osgoode law school, discusses the subject – “Is all discrimination alike?” Lawrence is the Director at the Institute for Feminist Legal Studies at Osgoode. Twitter – @osgoodeifls. This pithy presentation is worth listening to several times over.

Second, LegalEase remembers R v. RDS at 15 years – a seminal decision on race and and the judicial system. R. v. S. (R.D.), 1997 CanLII 324 (SCC), [1997] 3 SCR 484, In the case, the Supreme Court of Canada ruminates over the decision of Nova Scotia judge Sparks to take judicial notice of the systemic racism within the justice system. A finding of reasonable apprehension of bias against Sparks was overturned at the Supreme Court. Contributor Alyssa Clutterbuck sets up the piece, explaining why the case remains a chilling representation of the manner in which the Canadian legal system discusses race. Next, Legalease contributor Lillian Boctor interviews Dr. Esmeralda Thornhill James Robinson Chair at Dalhousie University and visiting scholar at McGill.

Finally, LegalEase revisits an earlier story presenting a study by Natai Shelson on the gendered experience of law school. You can find part of Shelson’s study at p 4 of the this edition of the Quid Novi, February 2011.

LegalEase on 90.3 FM is a radio program broadcast every second Friday of the month at 11am EST from Montreal, Quebec. Originally founded by the McGill Legal Information Clinic in 1989, LegalEase is now run by a collective of progressive of law students from McGill University. Our weekly radio show deals with legal topics of interest to the community, with the intention of making the law both accessible and engaging. Tune into our show, follow us on Twitter @LegalEaseCkut, email legalease[at]ckut.ca or check our podcast library for past programming.

Episode 35 – Rethinking Legal Structures

Welcome et bienvenue to LegalEase: a monthly Montreal-based and produced radio show on 90.3 FM CKUT – a broadcast about law, cast broadly. Le collectif LegalEase est un groupe d’étudiants et étudiantes en droit de la communauté montréalaise.This month the program is entitled, “Rethinking Legal Structures.”

“C’est pas extrêmement du fun.”

Listen to the Episode Here

Law?

Host Garret Zehr guides us through three main topics, all of which force a reconsideration of the present legal structure in place. In order: 1) the Quebec Student Movement and the legal struggles of CLASSE and other activists in the courts – J-P MacKay speaks with Me Sibel Ataogul; 2) Adelle Blackett offers an evaluation of the legal framework of labour law, especially as it applies to workers from the global south and in relation to domestic workers; and 3) Me Étienne Poitras sur la sujet des mouvements sociales et les droits de manifestants.

LegalEase on 90.3 FM is a radio program broadcast every second Friday of the month at 11am EST from Montreal, Quebec. Originally founded by the McGill Legal Information Clinic in 1989, LegalEase is now run by a collective of progressive of law students from McGill University. Our weekly radio show deals with legal topics of interest to the community, with the intention of making the law both accessible and engaging. Tune into our show, follow us on Twitter @LegalEaseCkut, email legalease[at]ckut.ca or check our podcast library for past programming.

Episode 34 – Methods of Suppression

Welcome et bienvenue to LegalEase: a monthly Montreal-based and produced radio show on 90.3 FM CKUT – a broadcast about law, cast broadly. Le collectif LegalEase est un groupe d’étudiants et étudiantes en droit de la communauté montréalaise.This month the program is entitled, “Methods of Suppression.”

Methods of Suppression – from popular assembly to personal information to gender identity. What are the tools of the state? LegalEase speaks with Irena Ceric of the Movement Defence Committee, Michael Vaughn of BCCLA, Dean Spade Assistant Professor at Seattle University.

Listen to the Episode Here

RCMP Truth Verification – Fewlings.

LegalEase on 90.3 FM is a radio program broadcast every second Friday of the month at 11am EST from Montreal, Quebec. Originally founded by the McGill Legal Information Clinic in 1989, LegalEase is now run by a collective of progressive of law students from McGill University. Our weekly radio show deals with legal topics of interest to the community, with the intention of making the law both accessible and engaging. Tune into our show, follow us on Twitter @LegalEaseCkut, email legalease[at]ckut.ca or check our podcast library for past programming.

Episode 33: Courage – Legal Decisions and Social Change

Welcome et bienvenue to LegalEase: a monthly Montreal-based and produced radio show on 90.3 FM CKUT – a broadcast about law, cast broadly. Le collectif LegalEase est un groupe d’étudiants et étudiantes en droit de la communauté montréalaise. This month the program is entitled, “Legal Decisions and Social Change.”

Listen to the Episode Here

“Sometimes law precipitates social change, sometimes its the other way around.” This month Garrett Zehr hosts a fine assortment of pieces: discrimination and the law, Insite and its impact across Canada, as well as an opening segment by Stephany Laperriere on law and social movements. What are the contradictions and strengths of legal decisions and social change? LegalEase investigates.

en greve!

LegalEase on 90.3 FM is a radio program broadcast every second Friday of the month at 11am EST from Montreal, Quebec. Originally founded by the McGill Legal Information Clinic in 1989, LegalEase is now run by a collective of progressive of law students from McGill University. Our weekly radio show deals with legal topics of interest to the community, with the intention of making the law both accessible and engaging. Tune into our show, follow us on Twitter @LegalEaseCkut, email legalease[at]ckut.ca or check our podcast library for past programming.

Episode 31 (Mar 2012) – Quebec: Le Plan Nord and Student Protests

Welcome et bienvenue to LegalEase: a monthly Montreal-based and produced radio show on 90.3 FM CKUT. We broadcast law broadly. Le collectif LegalEase est un groupe d’etudiants et eudiantes en droit de la communaute montrealaise. This month the program is entitled, “Quebec: Le Plan Nord and Student Protests.”

Listen to the Episode Here

PLAN NORD

Plan Nord is an example of the new wave of Canada’s 21th century resource extraction strategy. LegalEase focuses on Plan Nord this month, looking at environmental, Aboriginal, and women’s issues. Paul Holden and Stéphany Laperriere bring us pieces on the subject. In a final segment, J-P Mackay interviews Me. Poitras at the inaugural conference of L’association des juristes progressistes taking aim at the increasing criminalization of student protest in Montreal.

Police subdue Students

LegalEase on 90.3 FM is a radio program broadcast every second Friday of the month at 11am EST from Montreal, Quebec. Originally founded by the McGill Legal Information Clinic in 1989, LegalEase is now run by a collective of progressive of law students from McGill University. Our weekly radio show deals with legal topics of interest to the community, with the intention of making the law both accessible and engaging. Tune into our show, follow us on Twitter @LegalEaseCkut, email legalease[at]ckut.ca or check our podcast library for past programming.