Against the Odds: The Indigenous Rights Cases of Thomas R. Berger
- Publisher
- Durvile Publications
- Initial publish date
- Sep 2024
- Category
- Indigenous Peoples, Lawyers & Judges
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781990735677
- Publish Date
- Sep 2024
- List Price
- $12.99
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Description
Against the Odds documents the remarkable achievements of Thomas R. Berger in the legal field, including his pioneering work in advocating for Indigenous rights that courts in Canada and the US had previously overlooked. Mid-career, Justice Thomas Berger accepted the challenge of leading the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry in Canada’s Northwest Territories. He organized the Inquiry to give northern First Nations an equal voice in the proceedings by holding thirty community hearings in which all were invited to participate. Berger’s careful, reasoned arguments prevailed time and time again. Later in his career, Justice Berger led public hearings into the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), focusing on its impacts on Native Alaskans. Against the Odds also features an exceptional gallery of full-colour, previously unpublished photographs of the Dene and Inuvialuit, taken by Michael Jackson KC, Special Counsel for the Berger Inquiry, and portrait photographer Linda MacCannell.
About the authors
Drew Ann Wake, Writer and Director Drew Ann Wake is a film maker and new media artist who began her career with CBC North and the National Film Board in Yellowknife, NWT. She covered the Berger Inquiry from 1975-77 and then worked on the independent documentary, The Inquiry Film, which won the Canadian Film Festival award for Best Documentary. Since 1983, she has created twenty interactive new media productions which havebeen installed in museums and art galleries in Europe, the US and Canada. She won the Financial Post/Apple Canada Award for Best Interactive Production for Mine Games. Her interactive production on environmental issues, Double Wedding, was runner-up for the Princes Award from the Crown Princes of Denmark and Spain. In 2000, Drew Ann produced an interactive drama on Internet safety, Missing, which won a Smithsonian ComputerWorld award. It has been played by 25,000,000 students in ten countries around the world. For a recent project, Thunder in our Voices, Drew Ann travelled to schools along the Mackenzie River where she taught audio and video skills to high school students. The Thunder exhibition, which has toured in fifty-five galleries in Canada and the United States, includes twenty of these films. Drew Ann has also worked as a museum designer, developing exhibitions in Canada as well as the US, England, the Netherlands, Austria and China. She is currently working on the River Journeys exhibition with the Fort Simpson Historical Centre.
Hamar Foster KC is a distinguished Canadian legal scholar and barrister, renowned for his expertise in Aboriginal law and legal history. As King's Counsel, he has made significant contributions to the understanding and advancement of Indigenous rights in Canada.
Michael Jackson has committed his professional career to advancing the cause of human rights in Canada and internationally for more than thirty years. In 1999, Michael Jackson was appointed Queen's Counsel in acknowledgement of his contributions to the protection of human rights in Canada.
Michael Jackson's profile page
Thomas R. Berger QC OC was a pioneer in advocating for Indigenous rights that courts in Canada and the US had previously overlooked. Mid-career, Justice Thomas Berger accepted the challenge of leading the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry in Canada’s Northwest Territories. He organized the Inquiry to give northern First Nations an equal voice in the proceedings by holding thirty community hearings in which all were invited to participate. Berger’s careful, reasoned arguments prevailed time and time again. Later in his career, Justice Berger led public hearings into the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), focusing on its impacts on Native Alaskans.
Thomas R. Berger's profile page
Jean Teillet, IPC (B.F.A., LL.B., LL.M.), Partner, Pape Salter Teillet LLP, Barristers & Solicitors, Vancouver, BC and Toronto, ON.
Ms. Teillet is called to the Bar in Ontario, BC, NWT, Manitoba and Yukon. She specializes in aboriginal rights litigation and negotiations and is currently the chief negotiator for the Stó:lo Xwexwilmexw >who are negotiating a treaty in the lower Fraser Valley in BC. >Ms. Teillet has appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada in ten cases. She maintains an active role as a public speaker and primarily speaks on aboriginal rights, access to justice, identity and equality issues. She is published in many journals and law books and is the author of the annually updated Métis Law in Canada. In addition to her aboriginal rights work, Ms. Teillet works in the field of reproductive rights. She is an adjunct professor at the UBC Faculty of Law.
Ms. Teillet was the first recipient of the Law Society of Upper Canada’s Lincoln Alexander Award. In 2011, Ms. Teillet was awarded the title “Indigenous Peoples’ Counsel” by the Indigenous Bar Association. In 2012, she was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. She has been awarded two honorary doctorates: Guelph University (2014); Law Society of Upper Canada (2015).
Prior to becoming a lawyer, Ms. Teillet worked for twenty years as a writer, dancer, actor, choreographer, director and producer.
Jean has also been a visual artist for over thirty years. Her work is in private collections in the United States and Canada. One beaded piece, a replica of the “Two Row Wampum Belt” hangs in Flavelle Hall in the Law School of the University of Toronto as a symbol that two different peoples may embrace different legal regimes and still establish a working relationship if that relationship is built on respect and honesty. The University of Toronto Faculty of Law also holds three other replica wampum belts created by Ms. Teillet – the Covenant Chain Belt, the Micmac Vatican Belt and the Hiawatha Belt.
Ms. Teillet is the great grand niece of Louis Riel.
Editorial Reviews
“This the story of many remarkable Indigenous people: the hunters in the White and Bob case, the Nisga’a tribal leaders in the Calder case, the Dene, Métis, and Inuvialuit of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry, and the Alaskans in the report of the Alaska Native Review Commission." Hamar Foster KC, from the foreword.
“For many, the impact of the Berger Inquiry Report, Northern Frontier, Northern Homeland lent credence to the idea that Indigenous voices could and should be heard and taken into account in decisions that affect Indigenous Peoples and their lands. More than 40 years later, development on Indigenous lands continues to be a challenging issue facing Canada and Indigenous People are regularly consulted throughout the process." — Chief Justice Shannon Smallwood, Supreme Court of the NWT
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