Course Chairs
Halie Kwanxwa'logwa Bruce — Barrister & Solicitor, Mediator, Cedar & Sage Law, Chilliwack
Pamela Shields — Pamela Shields Law, Chilliwack
About the Course Chairs
Halie (Kwanxwa'logwa) Bruce is a Kwakwaka'wakw, Tlingit, and Scottish/Canadian mother, wife, lawyer, mediator, sometimes soccer coach, and Sixties Scoop Survivor. She was called to the BC bar in 2008. Her practice areas include Aboriginal law, family law, child welfare, and Indigenous laws and governance. Halie also devoted part of her practice to Indigenous restorative justice initiatives, including writing s. 718.2(e) Reports for Indigenous people at bail, sentencing, and appeal courts in BC.
Before entering the legal profession, Halie served as the Executive Director of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs. As the Joint Policy Council Coordinator, she advocated for Aboriginal Title and Rights and Treaty Rights, including the Rights of Indigenous peoples generally and Indigenous children specifically. She has extensive experience in administration, management, staff, and employment issues, and has worked with Indigenous communities from across BC, Canada and internationally, to explore traditional mechanisms for resolving various land, resource, social policy, and internal community disputes.
In 2014, Halie co-founded the law firm Cedar & Sage Law, with a focus on Indigenous laws, Alternative and Traditional Indigenous Dispute Resolution mechanisms, and peacemaking protocols. She has extensive training in mediation and alternative dispute resolution through CLEBC, Justice Institute of BC, and the Social Justice Mediation Institute.
She has taught, coached, and facilitated courses on Gladue Principles and Reports, Indigenous Child Welfare, and Indigenous and Trauma-Informed practices. She has been a frequent speaker, panelist, and co-chair on various Indigenous issues at CLEBC, including on s. 718.2(e) reports, Access to Justice for Children, Indigenous Child Welfare, and Anti-racism and Diversity issues in the legal profession.
She is a former Board member of the Sixties Scoop Healing Foundation, and the BC First Nations Justice Council, and served two terms as a part-time member of the Parole Board of Canada.
Halie currently devotes part of her practice to facilitating workshops on Intercultural competency, Safety and Indigenous-Informed interviewing, processes, and best practices for Administrative Tribunals in Canada.
Pamela Shields works on the traditional territories of the S'ólh Téméxw (Stó:lō) Peoples. Pamela is Kainai from the Blackfoot Nation in southern Alberta.
She was of the last generation of women in her family to be forced to attend St. Paul's Indian Residential School in Alberta. She was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and has dual citizenship. She grew up in Calgary and has spent most of her adult life in San Francisco, California, where she attended San Francisco State University and then Mills College for her graduate degree in Fine Art. She attended law school at UBC. She lives in Seattle, practises law as parents' counsel in the Fraser Valley, and dreams of making art one day. She is a co-author of chapter 7 (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder) of Child and Family Services Law and Practice.