Reconciliation: Community Building and Connection

This year marked the 48th Annual Women in Law Dinner hosted by the Allard Law Women’s Caucus. The dinner took place on Wednesday, March 12th, 2025, at the Fairmont Pacific Rim.

The event brings students, faculty and legal professionals together to celebrate the various ways in which diverse women in law have driven the legal profession forward. It commemorates the varied experiences, backgrounds and unique strengths of women in law, and it recognizes the multitude of barriers that have existed and continue to exist which hinder gender equity in the legal profession.

I was both honoured and intimidated to be a keynote speaker alongside a living legend, none other than the Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin, P.C., C.C., CStJ. The theme of this year’s dinner was “fostering community building and connection.” I spoke about Reconciliation and how practicing Reconciliation has prepared us for a time like this, especially amidst rhetoric sounding about a 51^st state. I reminded attendees that the Canada-U.S. border was hard won in the Battle of 1812, when Indigenous war chiefs such as Tecumseh allied with the British. I talked about my dad, who was a proud WWII veteran, and how he lost his status because of his service. He was raised on the trapline by his grandmother. He spoke the language fluently even though he was a residential school survivor, and he carried an ancestral Gitxsan name. Yet he taught us to vote, to observe Remembrance Day—and he commended the federal public service. He figured he received a grade 4 level of education at residential school. Yet he went to vocational school when I was a kid and earned his 350 tonne masters ticket, which got him a job running fisheries boats. Captain Fred Jackson eventually retired from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Canada is facing a huge challenge— a powerful influence that is largely contrary to what this country stands for. Valuing equity, diversity and inclusion is just one example. But we can take heart. This is an opportunity for Canadians to unite, to regroup and galvanize. Luckily, we have some experience doing just that. We have been practicing Reconciliation for a few years now. Learning how to renew and strengthen relationships. If Indigenous people like War Chief Tecumseh and my dad can stand up for Canada, it should inspire all of us.

I also reminded attendees that the name of our country comes from the Huron-Iroquois word "kanata" meaning "village" or "settlement." A village is a community. Today, we need to be a united community. You know what they say—it takes a village to raise a child. It also takes a village to teach that child that temper tantrums and bullying will get you nowhere.

'Toyaxsii niisim - all the best (Gitxsan)