Dionne Schulze is proud to have organized a week-long workshop on Indigenous class actions, which took place at McGill University’s Faculty of Law from February 26 to March 1, 2024, as part of Focus Week.
Marie-Alice D’Aoust, Sarah-Maude Belleville-Chénard, and Léa Lemay Langlois worked with the 16 students enrolled in the workshop to explore the potential of class actions in the Indigenous context to redress the historical wrongs of colonialism in Canada, particularly in the areas of health, education, and child services.
They explored from a critical perspective the legal, political, and ethical issues raised by the use of class actions as a procedural tool in the context of systemic harms in an institutional context. The workshop emphasized skill building for a trauma-informed approach to the legal profession.
The week concluded with a simulated negotiation exercise in which students were given an opportunity to apply ethical and legal principles as well as specific negotiation techniques learned in class to develop a draft settlement agreement for a fictional class action lawsuit concerning Indigenous health policy.