College of Law appoints academic director for the Native Law Centre

“Professor Chartrand is one of the leading Indigenous law academics in Canada and brings an outstanding record of scholarship and teaching to the NLC. In addition, as a former graduate of the Program of Legal Studies for Native People, professor Chartrand’s appointment renews a significant personal connection with the Native Law Centre and the College of Law,” said Martin Phillipson, dean of the College of Law. “I am delighted to welcome Larry back to the NLC and look forward to working with him to help shape the next evolution of the NLC and the College of Law’s efforts to respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action.”

Professor Chartrand has been an active faculty member in the University of Ottawa Common Law Section since 1994, assuming the role of full professor in 2014. He has also served as an adjunct professor with the Department of Native Studies at the University of Manitoba, director of the Aboriginal Self-Government Program at the University of Winnipeg, Métis advisor to the Senate Standing Committee on Aboriginal Peoples and director of the Indigenous Law Program at the Faculty of Law, University of Alberta.

Professor Chartrand holds a Bachelor of Education from the University of Alberta, a Bachelor of Laws from Osgoode Hall Law School and a Master of Laws from Queen’s University. He has published numerous articles and book chapters on issues of Aboriginal rights, law and governance with a particular focus on Métis identity and citizenship.

“The Native Law Centre has a record of excellence and has contributed in countless ways since 1974 to facilitate access to legal education for Indigenous peoples and to play a leading role in the development and understanding of Aboriginal law. I hope to build on this success by promoting the NLC as a place for building on our understanding of law as inclusive of Indigenous peoples own legal traditions and to promote reconciliation through a critical analysis of Aboriginal rights law so that it can further evolve in step with the fundamental principles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” said Chartrand. “I look forward to active engagement and kinship with Indigenous nations across Turtle Island and in particular the Prairie region. In this way, I hope to see the NLC grow to become as much a community centre as it is a resource centre."     

The Native Law Centre was founded in 1975 by Roger C. Carter whose commitment to Aboriginal and social justice issues convinced the university of the need for a centre to facilitate access to legal education for Aboriginal peoples, to promote the development of the law and the legal system in Canada in ways which better accommodate the advancement of Aboriginal peoples and communities, and to disseminate information concerning Aboriginal peoples and the law. Structured initially as an independent special project within the University of Saskatchewan, the NLC became a department of the College of Law in 1984.