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Braiding Diversity into Justice – Thunder Bay

For many young people, a career in law may feel out of their reach. Braiding Diversity into Justice and other OJEN career modelling programs help young people of all backgrounds “see themselves in law” by introducing them to legal professionals with whom they share similar experiences. The goal of these programs is to show that there is a place for everyone in the legal profession.

Braiding Diversity in Thunder Bay 2024

Register here.

Letters of Support

Keynote Speaker 2024:

Sara Mainville (She/Her/Hers)

Sara Mainville has been a member of the Ontario bar since 2005 and she is a member of the BC bar (2022) with specific matter approvals to practice in Nunavut and Quebec. Sara has a Management/Public Administration degree (Lethbridge) and a Bachelor of Laws from Queen’s University. She has a LLM from the University of Toronto and an Advanced Negotiations certificate from Harvard University, and a Certificate in Entertainment Law (Osgoode PD). 

During her early practice years with a well-known Anishinaabe law firm, Sara completed her LL.M (University of Toronto) and a thesis titled: Manidoo Mazina’igan: An Anishinaabe  perspective Treaty 3, which was one of the earliest examples of Indigenous (“Miinigoziwin”) constitutional research by a legal practitioner. 

In 2014, Sara was elected as Chief of Couchiching First Nation after the sudden death of her friend and mentor, Chief Chuck McPherson. During that term, she ensured that the First Nation has strong policy going forward, a good social media presence to engage the many off-reserve members in community affairs and she started the Wasaw group of companies. Sara uses this experience as a former Chief to help leadership work past difficult issues, within Indigenous forms of dispute resolution, and walk the community through processes to encourage discourse and grassroots solutions to long-held problems. Sara is a strong believer that self-determination requires the Indigenization of our policies, approaches, and legal frameworks. 

Sara has completed Advanced Negotiations training at Harvard University and dispute resolution, legislative drafting, and mediation training at professional institutes in order to advance her clients’ long held goals for self-determination and truer treaty partnerships in Canada. Recently, Sara has received a certificate in Entertainment Law and she has helped clients with Indigenous intellectual property, copyright, and title issues to accommodate better approaches to recognize collective Indigenous knowledge system, community protocol, and cultural ways  and values. She is very committed to mentor JFK Lawyers and facilitate legal practices that are better suited to serve the self-determination and ambitions of our clients. 

Sara is generally seen as a subject-matter expert about Crown-Indigenous relations, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaty 3, and Anishinaabe Inakonigewin. However, Sara sees herself as a life-long learner willing to meet in community, read voraciously, and listen intently to better understand Indigenous knowledge systems across Canada.

 

Media

Young women brush up with legal eagles, The Chronicle Journal, 2023

Audience

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