Please join the Deveau Centre for Indigenous Governance and Social Justice and the Brian Mulroney Institute of Government on September 16–17, 2024, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in R. v. Marshall [1999].
Monday, September 16:
Opening Reception / Iapjiw Mikmwite'lmulten - We will always remember
StFX Art Gallery (Mulroney Hall 2002, 2333 Notre Dame Ave.)
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
A StFX Art Gallery exhibition featuring art works, photographs, documents, and videos related to Donald Marshall Junior’s life, advocacy, and achievements.
Tuesday, September 17:
Opening Ceremony / Learning Lodges
McKenna Centre for Leadership (Schwartz School of Business)
10:00 AM – 4:30 PM
The 25th anniversary commemoration begins with an opening ceremony and continues with Learning Lodges during which Indigenous leaders, lawyers, fishers, scientists, and allies will share their recollections on and reflections of the Marshall case. Elder Kerry Prosper and special guests will discuss their visions for engaging with Indigenous Knowledges to honour the future implementation and sustainability of the Peace and Friendship Treaties. An evening keynote panel of experts share their thoughts and perspectives to round out the day’s commemorative events.
Daytime Events
Schwartz School of Business Room 414
- 10:00 AM – 10:30 AM: Opening ceremony (smudging will take place)
- 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM: Reflections and Recollections Learning Lodges I & II
- 12:30 AM - 1:30 PM: Lunch break
- 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM: Honouring the Future of Peace and Friendship Treaties Learning Lodges III & IV
Evening Event
Schwartz School of Business Room 110
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
- The Deveau Centre for Indigenous Governance and Social Justice and the Brian Mulroney Institute of Government Distinguished Speakers Series Present The Marshall Decision @ 25: Honouring the Future of Peace and Friendship Treaties
- Distinguished Keynote Panel: Senator Dan Christmas; Chief Terry Paul, OC; and Bruce Wildsmith, KC
Join us in-person or on Zoom for the Learning Lodges and Distinguished Keynote Panel.
Everyone is welcome.
Contact ljmcmill@stfx.ca for information.
The Honourable Dan Christmas
The Honourable Dan Christmas has served in various leadership positions in the Mi’kmaw Nation of Nova Scotia. After serving five years as the Band Manager for the Community of Membertou, Mr. Christmas worked for the Union of Nova Scotia Indians for 15 years, the last ten as its director. He was actively involved in the recognition and implementation of Mi’kmaw aboriginal and treaty rights in Nova Scotia.
From 1997 to 2016, Mr. Christmas held the position as Senior Advisor with Membertou and assisted the Chief, Council, and its Management Team with the day-to-day operations of the Community of Membertou. Mr. Christmas also served as elected councillor for Membertou for 18 years.
Mr. Christmas has been active in a number of international, national, provincial, and local agencies across a wide range of fields including aboriginal and treaty rights, justice, policing, education, health care, human rights, adult training, business development, and the environment.
Mr. Christmas has been awarded honorary degrees from Dalhousie University (2005), St. Mary’s University (2019), Cape Breton University (2022), Queen’s University (2022), and he received an honorary diploma from the Nova Scotia Community College (2016). In 2008, he was the recipient of the National Excellence in Aboriginal Leadership Award from the Aboriginal Financial Officers Association of Canada.
In December 2016, Mr. Christmas was sworn in as an Independent Senator for Nova Scotia. Senator Christmas is the first Mi’kmaw senator to be appointed to the Senate of Canada. He Christmas retired from the Upper Chamber in 2023.
Chief Terrance Paul, OC, Chief and CEO of Membertou
Chief Terry Paul, OC, is the Chief of Membertou, a position he has held for the past 39 years. During that time, Chief Paul has guided his community and administration into one of the most efficient and economically flourishing Indigenous communities in the country.
Chief Paul started his career with the Boston Indian Council where he received his background training in finance and management. Returning home to Membertou, Chief Paul joined the Membertou Band Council in the role of Economic Development Officer and progressed to the position of Band Manager before he was elected Chief in 1984.
Chief Paul has achieved many notable accomplishments in his current role, as Chief and CEO of Membertou, including being named to one of Canada’s highest honours. In 2017, Chief Paul was appointed to the Order of Canada. He is also an inductee of the Nova Scotia Business Hall of Fame and is a recipient of the Frank McKenna Leadership Award. Chief Paul holds honorary doctorates from Cape Breton University, Dalhousie University, and Mount Allison University. In 2019, he led his organization to being named as a Canada’s Best Managed Company. In January 2020, Chief Paul received the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business Lifetime Achievement Award.
Chief Paul is credited with tripling the land base for the Membertou Reserve and increasing the employment rate within Membertou to 80 percent in the community. In January 2021, Chief Paul led the single largest investment made by an Indigenous group in Canada, with the 50 percent acquisition of Clearwater Seafoods.
The Membertou motto of “Welcoming the World” is undoubtedly the most accurate representation of the open and progressive Indigenous community that Membertou has become under the leadership of Chief Terry Paul.
Bruce H. Wildsmith, KC
Bruce H. Wildsmith was called to the Nova Scotia Bar in 1974. He taught law at Dalhousie University for 24 years. His legal career was dedicated to advancing Indigenous rights and social justice. Bruce represented the interests of the Mi’kmaq people/nation(s) in cases before Nova Scotia and New Brunswick Provincial and Supreme Courts, before the Courts of Appeal in both provinces, and in the Federal Court and the Supreme Courts of Canada.
His pursuit of Mi’kmaq access to natural resources and the vindication of their treaty claims helped anchor Aboriginal rights and produced a clearer understanding of their place in Canada. As early as 1975, in R. v. Isaac, he successfully advanced Mi’kmaw rights under s. 91(24) of the British North America Act and The Royal Proclamation before the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal. In the critical 1985 case of Simon v. The Queen, he persuaded the Supreme Court of Canada to recognize the Treaty of 1752 as establishing an enforceable obligation between the Mi’kmaw and the Crown. And from 1993 until the Supreme Court of Canada’s ruling in 1999, Bruce represented Donald Marshall Junior, affirming the signatories’ rights to harvest and sell the products of their harvests under The Peace and Friendship Treaties 1760-1761 – a case that transformed the land and seascapes of Indigenous rights in Atlantic Canada. Bruce also represented the Union of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq in the Royal Commission into the Wrongful Prosecution of Donald Marshall, Jr. and helped establish the Mi’kmaw Rights Process. He was the first lead Mi’kmaw Negotiator for the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs and the Kwilmu’kw Maw-klusuaqn (KMK) Negotiation Office.
In 2017, Bruce received the Distinguished Service Award from the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society and was presented with a White Eagle Feather by Assembly of First Nations Regional Chief PJ Prosper (now Senator Prosper).