Monday, January 31, 2022

The Indigenous Human Rights podcast is produced by Pro Bono Students Canada's Indigenous Human Rights Program.

The student podcast sheds a light on the experiences of Indigenous people at human rights tribunals across Canada. The podcast is hosted by U of T Law student Flint Patterson, 3L and University of Ottawa Common Law student Fallon Benson, 3L. Patterson is from Coquitlam, British Columbia, the ancestral lands of the Kwikwetlam First Nation, while Benson is from Rainy River Rapids First Nation.

In the latest episode, Cree and Métis lawyers Mandy Wesley and Amanda Driscoll share their experiences representing Gary McKay, an Oji Cree man who was arrested by a Toronto Police officer who thought that Mr. McKay had a stolen bicycle. Mr. McKay knew he had been racially profiled, so he filed a complaint with the help of his legal team at Aboriginal Legal Services (ALS). He won his case in 2011. A decade later, Mandy and Amanda discuss what happed to Mr. McKay and what still needs to change. Mandy and Amanda say young folx who are “changemakers, using our voices, finding platforms, and not settling” give them hope for the future.

In the forthcoming fifth episode, an interview with Dr. Bruce Miller, Professor of Anthropology at University of British Columbia. Dr. Miller was an expert witness in Gladys Radek’s and Deborah Campbell’s Human Rights Tribunal cases. Dr. Miller discusses his experience as an expert witness in human rights tribunals, how Indigenous practices can be integrated into the current colonial legal systems, and his new book, Inside and Outside the Tribunal: An Anthropologist Encounters Human Rights, coming out later this year.

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