THE ADVOCATE 541
VOL. 80 PART 4 JULY 2022
NEWS FROM
BC LAW INSTITUTE
By Karen Campbell and Simon Owen*
As every schoolchild (and hopefully every lawyer) in British Columbia now
knows, doing the work of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples now must
be woven into our daily lives. This is the work of kitchen tables as well as
courtrooms, of grandmothers as well as government ministries. It is the
work of every sector and citizen, but perhaps most profoundly, reconciliation
depends on and demands the reworking of law, legal practice and some
of the fundamental frameworks on which our profession rests.
The BC Law Institute (“BCLI”) is launching the Reconciling Crown Legal
Frameworks (“RCLF”) program to help understand and inform these important
steps. This program is led by our new staff lawyer, Simon Owen, who
joins BCLI after several years as senior researcher at UVic’s Indigenous Law
Research Unit. It will be supported by an advisory committee of practitioners,
scholars, and provincial and Indigenous leaders who will help identify
and define research directions. We hope to build a body of focused and farreaching
research, recommendations and practice tools. The aim, at every
stage of the journey, is to identify ways to decolonize Indigenous–Crown
relations, ingrain practices of legal pluralism and hold open the substantive
spaces for Indigenous law and governance that lie at the heart of British
Columbia’s commitments in the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Act (the “Declaration Act”).
The Declaration Act applies to all legislation in British Columbia, across
all sectors. Supporting Indigenous human rights on Indigenous peoples’
terms engages all of us and the frameworks under which we operate—individuals,
communities, land and resources. It will encourage us, as legal professionals,
citizens, governments and businesses, to be more relational in
our thinking and decision making.
* Karen Campbell is BCLI’s executive director. Simon Owen is a staff lawyer at BCLI.