Indigenous Legal Orders Conference 2025

Course Chairs
Leah Sisi-ya-ama George-Wilson — Miller Titerle + Co., Vancouver
Dr. Sarah Morales (Su-taxwiye) — Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Victoria, Victoria

About the Course Chairs
Leah George-Wilson (Sisi-ya-ama) is a member of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation (TWN) in North Vancouver. She was the first woman to hold the office of Elected Chief for the TWN, for three terms. Leah worked for the TWN for 18 years and held various positions for the Nation, the last one being Director of the Treaty, Land and Resources Department.

Leah holds a BA in Anthropology from SFU and an LLB from UBC Faculty of Law. She was called to the BC bar on January 31, 2015, and is currently an associate at Miller Titerle.

Since 2004, Leah has been elected as co-chair of the First Nations Summit. She also sits on the First Nations Lands Advisory Board.

Sarah Morales, JD (UVic), LLM (University of Arizona), PhD (UVic), PostDoc (Illinois) is Coast Salish and a member of Cowichan Tribes. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Victoria, Faculty of Law, where she teaches torts, transsystemic torts, Coast Salish law and languages, legal research and writing and field schools. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Victoria, she taught at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law where she taught Aboriginal law, Indigenous legal traditions, and international human rights with a focus on Indigenous peoples.

Sarah's research centres on Indigenous legal traditions, specifically the traditions of the Coast Salish people, Aboriginal law, and human rights. She has been active with Indigenous nations and NGOs across Canada in nation building, inherent rights recognition, and international human rights law.

Welcome
Elder Carleen Thomas — Tsleil-Waututh Nation, North Vancouver

Tsleil-Waututh Nation Elder, Carleen Thomas, is the first Indigenous person to be named as the next chancellor at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver. As an educator, former council member, and special projects manager for the TWN Treaty, Lands, and Resources Department, Carleen will serve a three-year term at ECUAD starting fall 2022 as the ceremonial head of the university, and will be sitting as a member of the board of governors and the senate, also acting as an ambassador for the university.

Speaker
Elder Xwechtaal Dennis Joseph — Squamish Nation, Squamish

Xwechtaal (kwitchtall) is an Elder Statesman from the Squamish Nation, where he worked for 40 years and served 28 consecutive years on Chiefs and Council. A founding volunteer member of Squamish Nation Peacekeepers where their mandate was to observe, record, and report. The Peacekeepers worked with local police detachments to keep their communities safe. Dennis has a deep commitment to his community, his culture, his family and he is an ambassador for Squamish Nation. Dennis is a visionary and has been taught from his youth by his parents, his aunts, uncles and his grandparents to always look ahead and work for generations that will come behind him.

After spending 28 years in his political career, he now works to educate others on who we are, what we have lived, how to make changes and work as allies in this world as indigenous people. Dennis also has five national championships in lacrosse and continues to be a contributor to the sport as a teacher.

Featured Speakers
Chief Justice Ron A. Skolrood — Supreme Court of BC, Vancouver
Chief Justice Leonard S. Marchand — Chief Justice of BC, Chief Justice of the Court of Appeal for BC, and Chief Justice of the Court of Appeal of Yukon, Vancouver
Chief Judge Melissa A. Gillespie — Provincial Court of BC, Vancouver
Grand Chief Steven L. (Xwĕ lī qwĕl tĕl) Point, OBC — Stó:lō Nation, Abbotsford

The Honourable Ron A. Skolrood was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of BC on October 15, 2024. Prior to his appointment, Chief Justice Skolrood was a justice of the Court of Appeal for BC from 2022 to 2024 and a justice of the Supreme Court of BC from 2013 to 2022.

Chief Justice Skolrood earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Lethbridge in 1983 and a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Victoria in 1986. He clerked for The Honourable Mr. Justice William McIntyre of the Supreme Court of Canada in 1986-87 then completed a Master of Laws degree at the University of Cambridge in 1989. He was admitted to the BC bar in 1988 and to the Northwest Territories bar in 2010. He was appointed King's Counsel in 2012.

Prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court, Justice Skolrood practised with the law firm of Lawson Lundell LLP in Vancouver since 1987. His main areas of practice were civil, commercial, and administrative litigation.

The Honourable Leonard S. Marchand is the Chief Justice of BC, Chief Justice of the Court of Appeal for BC, and Chief Justice of the Court of Appeal of Yukon. He was appointed Chief Justice on December 7, 2023.

Chief Justice Marchand was appointed to the Provincial Court of BC on September 5, 2013. As a Provincial Court judge, Chief Justice Marchand had the privilege of presiding in Cknucwentn Court in Kamloops, where, with input from Elders, healing plans are developed for Indigenous offenders. Chief Justice Marchand was appointed to the Supreme Court of BC on National Indigenous People's Day, June 21, 2017. He was appointed to the Courts of Appeal for BC and of Yukon on March 24, 2021.

Prior to becoming a judge, Chief Justice Marchand articled and practised at Fulton & Company LLP in Kamloops from 1994 to 2013. His practice focused on the liability of public authorities and he appeared before all levels of court in BC and before many administrative tribunals.

Chief Justice Marchand dedicated a substantial portion of his career as a lawyer to pursuing reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, including by advancing civil claims on behalf of residential school survivors. In 2005, he helped negotiate and was a signatory to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, which, at the time, was the largest class action settlement in Canadian history. He then served on the Oversight Committee for the Independent Assessment Process and the Selection Committee for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Chief Justice Marchand is Syilx and a member of the Okanagan Indian Band. He grew up in both Kamloops and Ottawa. After completing a Bachelor of Applied Science in Chemical Engineering at UBC in 1986, he worked in the oil industry for several years. He then attended law school at the University of Victoria, graduating in 1994. He was called to the BC bar in 1995 and to the bars of the Yukon and Northwest Territories in 2006.

Chief Justice Marchand divides his time between Kamloops and Vancouver with his wife, Laurie. Together, their family also includes three grown children, their children's partners, and two much-loved grandchildren.

Chief Judge Gillespie was born and grew up in Calgary, Alberta. She received her law degree from the University of Toronto and was called to the BC bar in 1991. Soon after that, she began her legal career as Crown Counsel working in New Westminster, Surrey, and Burnaby. From 2000 until 2003, she served as Administrative Crown Counsel in Surrey. She then became Deputy Regional Crown Counsel, and in 2005 Regional Crown Counsel for the Fraser Region. Appointed a Queen's Counsel in 2009, Chief Judge Gillespie was sworn in as a Provincial Court judge in February 2012.

Following her appointment she presided in the Fraser Region. In addition to sitting assignments, Chief Judge Gillespie was active in delivering education programs to judges and judicial justices, as well as to the larger legal community. She also served as a member of the executive of the BC Provincial Court Judges Association for several years.

Chief Judge Gillespie was appointed an Associate Chief Judge for a two year term in April 2016 and re-appointed for a three year term in April 2018. A member of the Board of Directors of the Justice Education Society, she has participated in a Justice Education Society project to strengthen the criminal justice system in Guyana.

She was appointed Acting Chief Judge on May 7, 2018 and appointed Chief Judge on October 19, 2018 for a seven year term.

Steven Lewis Point, OBC (Xwĕ lī qwĕl tĕl) is a former Lieutenant Governor of BC whose term of office ended on November 1, 2012. He retired from his position as a Provincial Court judge in the Fraser Valley in 2018.

From 1975 to 1999, Steven Point served as Chief of the Skowkale First Nation. From 1994 to 1999, he served as Tribal Chair of the Stó:lō Nation. He was the Grand Chief of the Stó:lô Tribal Council.

Steven Point attended UBC, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree in May 1985. From 1986 to 1989, he practiced criminal law and native law as a partner in the law firm of Point and Shirley. He worked for Citizenship and Immigration Canada as an immigration adjudicator for several years, starting in about 1989, at its refugee backlog office in Vancouver. In 1999, he became a BC Provincial Court judge. On February 28, 2005, he became Chief Commissioner of the BC Treaty Commission.

His appointment as Lieutenant-Governor was announced on September 4, 2007 by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He assumed his duties in a ceremony at the Legislative Assembly of BC on October 1, 2007. As the Queen's vice-regal representative in BC, he is styled His Honour while in office and The Honourable for life.

He received Honorary Doctorate of Laws degree from the University of the Fraser Valley in 2000, the University of Victoria in 2012, and the University of Capilano in 2017. He also received an Honorary Doctorate of Sacred Letters (honoris causa) from Saint Mark's College in 2013. He received the National Aboriginal Achievement Award in 2000. He received the Queen Elizabeth II Golden and Diamond Jubilee medals and the Order of BC. In 2016, he received the Order of Chilliwack.

Born in Chilliwack, the Lieutenant Governor and his wife, Her Honour, Mrs. Gwendolyn Point, have four children and 13 grandchildren.

Keynote Luncheon Speaker
Justice Ardith Walpetko We'dalx Walkem — Supreme Court of BC, Chilliwack

Justice Ardith (Wal-pet-ko We-dalx) Walkem of the Nlaka'pamux [Nt – La – Cup – Mux] Nation is the first First Nation woman to serve as Justice of the Supreme Court of BC. Justice Walkem's work centered the Nlaka'pamux legal teachings she was trained in, and focused on recognition of Indigenous Peoples' rights, as well as human rights and the rights of children, including implementation of Indigenous laws to care for children. She completed her Master of Laws in the area of Indigenous laws.

Faculty
Associate Chief Judge Sue Wishart — Provincial Court of BC, Victoria
Judge Raymond D. Phillips — Provincial Court of BC, Kamloops
Halie Kwanxwa'loga Bruce — Cedar and Sage Law Corporation, Chilliwack
Mary N. Childs, KC — General Counsel, Tsawwassen First Nation, Tsawwassen
Christina J. Cook, KC — Senior Policy Lawyer, BC First Nations Justice Council, Vancouver
Councillor Chemkwaat Valerie Cross — Executive Councillor/Legislator, Tsawwassen First Nation, Tsawwassen
Kalila George-Wilson — Language and Culture Consultant, Tsleil-Waututh Nation, North Vancouver
Professor Andrea Hilland, KC — Peter A. Allard School of Law, UBC, Vancouver
Steven Teed — CEO, Adams Lake Indian Band, Chase
Chief Laxele’wuts’aat Shana Thomas — Lyackson First Nation, Chemainus
Aaron Wilson — Mandell Pinder LLP, Vancouver

Click here for full faculty bios

Tsawwassen First Nation: Our Coast Salish Legal Project (3:00 – 3:35)

• • two-eyed seeing and the Treaty-making process
  • Tsawwassen cultural protocols and law-making under the Treaty
  • the vision: law as culture and culture as law
  • forming a plan: starting small and dreaming big
  • resources: funding, people, and stories
  • engaging leaders, Elders, staff, and legislators
  • sharing ideas with our relations
  • looking to the future: weaving together our living traditions and our growing aspirations