Her docket could hardly be any busier.
For
Canada’s first aboriginal federal Justice Minister, the task ahead is
replete with the immediate – marijuana legalization, promised changes to
a terrorism bill and a framework for assisted suicide – and the
longer-term, including a possible rollback of the Conservative
government’s tough criminal laws that helped cause the indigenous
population in federal jails to spike.
And if that were not enough, as
Attorney-General, Jody Wilson-Raybould, 44, is tasked with advising the
Prime Minister on legal issues across all of government. Which gives her
influence over the reshaping of Canada’s relationship with its First
Nations, one of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s stated priorities, on
everything from land claims to education to policing.
And
that could mean a shift from the federal government’s traditionally
adversarial relationship on land claims and other issues, said John
Borrows, the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Law at the University
of Victoria and a former professor of Ms. Wilson-Raybould’s.
“Right
now, the litigation files often pit First Nations against the federal
government. It’s fair to say that in most ... aboriginal title and
treaty cases, the federal government is arrayed against the First
Nations and Métis communities. She has options … it doesn’t always have
to be on the oppositional side. It’s consistent with the role of the
minister of justice to try to facilitate reconciliation and craft
litigation opinions that go toward settlement as opposed to ending up in
court.”
Josh Paterson, the executive
director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association and a
former First Nations lawyer, called the appointment “remarkable and
important. For the statement to be made that the Crown justice
representative, the leading law officer the Crown has, is going to be an
indigenous person – that matters in and of itself.”
Ms.
Wilson-Raybould is no stranger to busy dockets. As a provincial
prosecutor at Vancouver’s Main Street courthouse in Vancouver from 2000
to 2003, at a time when local police were still laying charges for
marijuana possession, she was involved when judges regularly dismissed
criminal charges because of excessive delay.
She
has been immersed in aboriginal issues since childhood, as the daughter
of outspoken native leader Bill Wilson – who once told Pierre Trudeau
that one of his daughters would be prime minister – and granddaughter of
the late aboriginal elder Ethel Pearson. “The acorn doesn’t fall far
from the tree – she’s part of a tradition of social responsibility,”
said Terry La Liberté, a Vancouver criminal lawyer. She has been
regional chief of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations since 2009, and
before that a member of the B.C. Treaty Commission, overseeing treaty
negotiations between aboriginals and the Crown.
Ms.
Wilson-Raybould has been an elected councillor of the We Wai Kai Nation
and lives in Cape Mudge Village on Quadra Island, according to a
Liberal website. Her husband, Tim Raybould, a management consultant who
has a PhD from Cambridge University in England, is Westbank First
Nation’s chief negotiator for self-government, and senior policy adviser
to the First Nations Finance Authority.
Eric
Gottardi, a Vancouver defence lawyer, said Crown attorneys and the
defence bar are pleased with the appointment. “She worked in the very
busiest front-line courthouse that we have in this province.”
He
said he expects her to be open to a greater emphasis on rehabilitation
and restorative justice, including such measures as restoring the use of
house arrest after the Conservatives banned it for more than 30
criminal offences.
Under the
Conservatives, dozens of laws setting out mandatory minimum sentences
were among those that pushed the aboriginal inmate population to 23.2
per cent in federal jails, although aboriginals make up just four per
cent of Canadians. Other laws also fell hard on aboriginals, such as a
victim surcharge that the Harper government made mandatory for all
convicted criminals, no matter how poor. Aboriginal Canadians who
committed mostly minor offences were at the heart of test cases on the
law in several provinces.
Ghislain
Picard, the Quebec chief of the Assembly of First Nations, applauded the
appointment. “The indication Mr. Trudeau has seen fit to nominate one
of our people in a very, very high-profile portfolio certainly indicates
his willingness to strengthen the relationship with our peoples.”
William
Trudell, the head of the Canadian Council of Criminal Defence Lawyers,
said he expects an open, consultative approach that will include police,
the Crown, judges and defence lawyers, and that will “enhance justice
in this country and internationally.”
Mr.
Paterson described Ms. Wilson-Raybould as “very smart. She listens. I
think she is going to be very thoughtful about a whole range of changes
made by the last government that negatively impacted people’s rights.”
