Northern Ontario’s Indigenous leaders call on Lakehead University to appoint another Indigenous dean

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY—Northern Ontario’s Indigenous leaders are calling on Lakehead University to appoint another Indigenous dean of the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law after Dean Angelique EagleWoman resigned over alleged concerns of discrimination and systemic racism.

“The issue of the dean’s treatment and its outcome cannot be tolerated in an already racially charged community,” says Fort William Chief Peter Collins during the April 24 press conference at the Fort William Council Chambers. “How do we address that systematic racism and how do we make sure that we are all equal in this organization and in this territory?”

Collins says Lakehead University needs to implement the recommendations presented by the Aboriginal Advisory Committee for the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law. The recommendations include, but not limited to: the commitment to the appointment of an Indigenous dean at the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law; Fort William First Nation to have a designated seat within Lakehead University’s Ogimaawin Aboriginal Governance Council; that only Indigenous law scholars should teach the mandatory Indigenous courses; and to hold future and current staff hires, including interim and acting provosts, vice-presidents and president, until there is an opportunity for input from Fort William First Nation and other Indigenous partners.

“I speak strongly for and I am very disheartened that we have lost a very strong First Nations woman,” Collins says. “We will be very vocal to the Board of Governors on addressing this issue coming forward.”

Nishnawbe Aski Nation Deputy Grand Chief Derek Fox, who is also a lawyer, says the law school he went to in Manitoba had a very supportive system with Dean Lorna Turnbull and Justice Murray Sinclair.

“At that time, I flourished and I succeeded in law school due to her support and due to her need to educate students about residential school, about First Nations, about the history and legacy of our people,” Fox says. “And within my class of about 100 students, there was a real willingness to learn and it rubbed off on me. So I found it important that we had that same kind of teaching within this [Bora Laskin] law school.”

Fox adds that former Deputy Grand Chief Goyce Kakegamic helped plant the seed to bring both the Northern Ontario School of Medicine and the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law to Thunder Bay.

“They used that mandate to create these two schools on the basis of First Nations beliefs,” Fox says. “I’m not sure what happened, but I have hope for this school. I have hope for our students who are still attending this school. We have many students who are attending right now and we have many dreamers and many students who want to attend law school. We just want to improve the law school to ensure it is done right from this point forward.”

EagleWoman says she has been teaching all of the mandatory courses on Indigenous law over the past year in addition to her duties as dean. She was appointed as dean in 2016 and announced her resignation to students in early April.

“It’s been a tremendous strain as I was doing that, teaching four days a week,” EagleWoman says. “I was also experiencing resistance that I came to understand was systemic racism within the law school and the university. I pleaded for cultural competency training on all levels. I also asked for mediation within the law school with the provost, but it was denied. Things continued to deteriorate this past year to the point of acrimonious meetings where I was yelled at and constantly criticized. It has taken a toll on my health and my family, and I knew I had to exit.”

EagleWoman says the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law is “very important” for people who dream of a legal education.

“For truth and reconciliation to be realized in Canada, there must be Indigenous law-trained people leading the way,” EagleWoman says. “And universities and educational institutions must be those places where we are welcomed, embraced and supported. And unfortunately, that is not the case currently at Lakehead University.”

Collins emphasizes that yelling at people in a work environment is “just wrong.”

“That is bullying,” Collins says. “We can’t scream at our employees. No matter what ethnic background you come from, if you start screaming at an employee, you are going to pay for that. And that’s things that need to be addressed.”

Grand Council Treaty #3 Ogichidaa Francis Kavanaugh is disappointed about how EagleWoman was treated.

“She is a scholar and an academic and she is one of our experts,” Kavanaugh says. “She comes from a traditional background and that is the type of person we need at the head of [this] faculty at the university. That is why I am disappointed. Years ago, there was talk of us lacking the sophistication and the professionalism in all different areas — today we have that, yet we are still being treated as second-class citizens—nobodies—in our own country. This is our land and we should be treated as equals.”

Moira McPherson, interim president and vice-chancellor of Lakehead University, says she could not comment on personnel issues related to EagleWoman, but she did comment on April 25 about some of the Aboriginal Advisory Committee recommendations raised by the Indigenous leaders.

“We will be announcing shortly an interim dean, but then we will be moving into the search process for a new dean,” McPherson says. “We will be consulting extensively with our internal and external communities, of course including with our Indigenous leadership. We will rely on their feedback to develop the candidate profile for our next dean of law.”

McPherson says the Ogimaawin Aboriginal Governance Council will consider the recommendation for Fort William First Nation to have a designated seat within the council.

McPherson adds that she could not comment on the recommendation that only Indigenous law scholars should teach the mandatory Indigenous courses.

“But what I can tell you is that we are currently interviewing for Indigenous scholars positions,” McPherson says. “We are actually interviewing as we speak Indigenous candidates for those positions.”

McPherson says she could not comment on the recommendation to hold future and current staff hires until there is an opportunity for input from Indigenous partners.

“But if you are referring to the position of president, that is under the jurisdiction of the Board of Governors,” McPherson says.

McPherson says the university is committed to the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law and its three mandates, including the Aboriginal and Indigenous law mandate and access to social justice.

“Our support for that part of the law school is unwavering,” McPherson says. “I think we have actually evolved positively in a number of areas related to that mandate, and some examples would be the increase in the proportion of Indigenous students and the growth of the legal clinic.”

McPherson says the university provides access through the offices of Human Rights and Equity and Human Resources to address allegations of discrimination and related issues.