Blog 2025

Due to the cumulative effects of settler colonialism and the ongoing dispossession of Indigenous lands, Indigenous peoples in Canada experience significantly higher rates of housing insecurity than the general population. Existing mental health and substance use issues further exacerbate this issue, creating a cycle of insecurity.
Host Sarah Rowe is joined by Margaret Pfoh, CEO of Aboriginal Housing Management Association, and Justin Marchand, CEO of Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services, to discuss how intergenerational trauma, historical injustice, and systemic discrimination contribute to the unique barriers that Indigenous peoples face when seeking adequate housing and explain the need for culture-based housing policy.

Discover the impact of the Technical Assistance Program (TAP) through the experience of the Ecuadorian delegation at CIAJ’s 2024 Symposium on Indigenous Justice System. Hosted by Christine O’Doherty, the Honourable Milton Enrique Velasquez Diaz, Justice of the National Court of Justice of Ecuador, explores how TAP facilitates exchanges between judicial experts and justice system actors, while supporting global reform efforts. This dialogue highlights lessons learned from the Canadian system on indigenous justice issues, and their relevance in an international context.

Shayla Praud (Eagle Clan from the Nisga’a Nation), Dominga Robinson (Nakota Jamaican l Pheasant Rump Nakota First Nation) and Justin Thompson (Member of Nipissing First Nation), students at the time of recording earlier this year, share their views on Indigenous self-governance.

In this episode, Nathan Afilalo, CIAJ’s former Legal Affairs Manager at the time, welcomes two guests to discuss engaging with Indigenous legal orders in Canada from two perspectives: the academic side with Associate Professor Hadley Friedland and the institutional side with Crown Counsel Sarah Arngna’naaq. These two guests present their work and active projects.

In this episode, CIAJ Lawyer Nathan Afilalo is welcoming Aaron Mills, a member of the Anishinaabe, Couchiching First Nation and Assistant Professor and the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Constitutionalism and Philosophy at McGill University Faculty of Law. Together, they discuss, among other things, professor Mills’ theory of rooted constitutionalism.

This is an excerpt from CIAJ’s 45th Annual Conference on Indigenous Peoples and the Law. CIAJ is pleased to widely share the Land Acknowledgement address made by Debra Sparrow, on November 17, 2021.

This is an excerpt from CIAJ’s 45th Annual Conference on Indigenous Peoples and the Law. CIAJ is pleased to share the address made by the Conference Chair, The Honourable Chief Justice of British Columbia Robert J. Bauman, on November 17, 2021.

This is an excerpt from CIAJ’s 45th Annual Conference on Indigenous Peoples and the Law. CIAJ is pleased to share the address made by the Conference Honorary Chair, The Honourable Murray Sinclair, on November 17, 2021.

Megan Vis-Dunbar, a Liaison Lawyer and the Manager of Local Libraries at Courthouse Libraries BC, is interviewing Jennifer Cox, Commission Counsel for the Mass Casualty Commission. Together, they discuss concrete ways in which courts and tribunals can build authentic relationships with Indigenous communities in order to develop a better understanding of their realities, generate mutual trust and deliver better justice.

Megan Vis-Dunbar, a Liaison Lawyer and the Manager of Local Libraries at Courthouse Libraries BC, is interviewing the Honourable Justice Michelle O’Bonsawin of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on the themes of Gladue principles in a mental health context, child protection, and more.