Litigation as Storytelling: R v Desautel and the Recognition of the Sinixt

Date: Thursday, July 29, 2021
Time: 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm (Pacific Time)
CPD Hours: 1.5 hours (approved)*
Register online by July 28 (with a CBA account or as a non-member)

Or register offline by filling out this form and submitting it via email to pd@cbabc.org.

Free registration: Lawyers and non-lawyers welcome!

Lawyers may not think of our work as storytelling, but deeply embedded in the role of the lawyer and in the litigation process is a call to tell the stories that matter to our clients. Lawyers translate their clients’ truths and experiences to make meaning through the law, and in turn, the law becomes a part of, or reshapes those stories, with a potential to transform community identity and futures. Nowhere is this more evident than in the adjudication of Indigenous rights and title.

For 65 years, since 1956, the federal and provincial governments have claimed that the Sńʕaýckstx (Sinixt), an Indigenous First Nation from BC’s West Kootenay region, are “extinct.” The Sinixt have been fighting for decades for legal recognition of their rights and identity, and in 2010, Rick Desautel began his journey through the Canadian court system after engaging in a ceremonial elk hunt. Earlier this year, on April 23, 2021, a 7:2 majority of the Supreme Court of Canada found that the Sinixt are an Aboriginal Peoples of Canada with constitutionally protected rights in their ancestral territory in BC.

Join West Coast LEAF and the Canadian Bar Association-BC Branch for a webinar discussion about R v Desautel and the role of litigation in revitalizing Sinixt identity and community. Counsel for Richard Desautel, Mark Underhill and Kate Phipps (Arvay Finlay LLP), will be joined by Shelly Boyd, a Sinixt Elder. The panel will be moderated by West Coast LEAF Executive Director Raji Mangat.

About the panelists

Register today to claim your spot and get valuable CPD credit!

*Attendance at this webinar will provide you with 1.5 hours of the ethics, professional responsibility and practice management component for your Law Society of BC reporting.

This webinar is possible because of our 2021 Breakfast for Dinner Partners: