Facing Resistance Speaker Series November 2021

Join us for Level's *virtual* Facing Resistance Speaker Series on Tuesday, November 23, from 12:30 - 2:00 pm EST / 9:30 - 11:00 am PST. Accredited for Law Society CPD hours in both Ontario and B.C. In this Facing Resistance Speakers Series we'll discuss how to transform the justice system and create social change. Register for free here

Join us for Level's *virtual* Facing Resistance Speaker Series on Tuesday, November 23, from 12:30 - 2:00 pm EST / 9:30 - 11:00 am PST. Accredited for Law Society CPD hours in both Ontario and B.C. In this Facing Resistance Speakers Series we'll discuss how to transform the justice system and create social change. Register for free here!

Event Agenda

12:30 – 12:35 – Welcome by Level Executive Director, Shelan Markus

12:35 – 12:50 – Opening Prayer by Anishinaabe, Acestral Knowledge Keeper, Kim Wheatley

12:50 – 1:30 – Panel discussion and question period with Patricia Barkaskas & Scott Franks

1:30 – 1:55 – Fireside chat and question period with Catherine McKenna

1:55 - 2:00 - Closing 

Speaker Profiles

Anishinaabe, Ancestral Knowledge Keeper and Traditional Grandmother Kim Wheatley is a member of Shawanaga First Nation Reserve. She has 3 decades of experience as a multi award winning speaker, event organizer, author, and ceremonialist who has presented locally, nationally and internationally on television, radio, magazines, newspaper articles and in many books. Kim is committed to walking the road of reconciliation efforts embraced by Canadians who really want to change lives.

Patricia Barkaskas is Métis from Alberta. Her research focuses on the intersection of justice and law, including access to justice, clinical legal education, and decolonizing and Indigenizing law. She is particularly interested in examining the value of Indigenous pedagogies in experiential learning, clinical legal education, and skills-based legal training, and disrupting the normative violence of colonial legal education. She is the Academic Director of the Indigenous Community Legal Clinic, which is located in the Downtown Eastside community of Vancouver on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sə̓lílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

Scott Franks is an assistant professor in the Lincoln Alexander School of Law. His doctoral research investigates the judicial construction of Métis legal identity in the Alberta Métis settlements. His LLM research investigated barriers and opportunities to the implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action in law schools. Franks clerked for the Honorable Madam Justice Andromache Karakatsanis at the Supreme Court of Canada and practised at Olthuis Kleer Townshend L.L.P., a national Indigenous rights law firm. Franks is a citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation and is from northern Saskatchewan.

Catherine McKenna PC is a Canadian politician who served as the minister of infrastructure and communities from 2019 to 2021. McKenna previously served as the minister of environment and climate change from 2015 to 2019. A member of the Liberal Party, she was the member of Parliament (MP) for Ottawa Centre from 2015 to 2021. McKenna is trained as a lawyer. In 2005, she co-founded Canadian Lawyers Abroad - Avocats canadiens à l'étranger (CLA-ACE), now called Level, a catatlyst for positive change and social justice. After leaving politics, she wants to focus her energies on her family and fighting climate change.

Thank you to our sponsors: Enbridge, Krista Hill and Linda Plumpton/Torys LLP, Babin Bessner Spry LLP, Shillers LLP, Lerners LLP, Stockwoods LLP, OKT LLP, Singleton Urquhart Reynolds Vogel LLP, Thornton Grout Finnigan LLP

For sponsorship opportunities, please contact: Shelan Markus | Executive Director, Level | Email: shelan@leveljustice.org

If you are interested in donating to this event, Level offers donation receipts for any amount over $25.00. Whether you can attend or not, you can help us in our mission to build empathy, disrupt prejudice, and advance human rights! Make a donation here!