New law school looks to open legal world to northern First Nations

Less than one year from opening Canada’s newest law school, Lakehead Law’s founding dean is adamant that the school will bring more Aboriginal people of northern Ontario into the legal profession.
The new school will also graduate lawyers with a solid understanding of Aboriginal culture and the importance of Aboriginal law in the Canadian legal context, according to Lee Stuesser, the founding dean who sat down with Wawatay one week after settling into his office in Thunder Bay.
Stuesser cites an array of courses, special services and perks designed by the school to support Aboriginal people studying law while also training non-Aboriginal lawyers to work with First Nations. The list includes small class sizes, personal instruction, courses on Aboriginal culture and worldview, and a promise to include Aboriginal issues into every core course, where relevant.
But the main attraction may very well be the school’s unique geographic location in northern Ontario, surrounded by First Nations struggling to deal with many of the same legal issues that the students study.
“There was a real need for a law school to serve the north, and to serve the people of the north,” Stuesser said. “You can build a law school just like any other law school, but its not necessarily going to serve the people.”
Lakehead’s law school - the first new Canadian law school in 42 years - officially opens its doors to its 55-person inaugural class in September 2013.
And with an application deadline of Nov. 1, 2012, students looking to be part of that first class have little time left to get their applications together.
The law school has been in the works for nearly a decade, although the plans were put on hold when the provincial government put a moratorium on new schools in 2008. That moratorium was lifted and in July 2011 Ontario announced funding of $1.5 million to revamp an old high school in Thunder Bay, as well as $800,000 in funding per year to operate the school.
At the time of the announcement, Ontario’s minister of training, colleges and universities John Milloy said the school is intended to deal with a shortage of lawyers in rural and northern Canada.
“Students who leave the north and head south are not coming back, so we’re addressing some of the geographic challenges,” Milloy said in 2011.
Stuesser expressed similar sentiments when discussing the new school, saying that residents in small communities across northern Canada are experiencing a “real problem with access to justice.”
“People need lawyers, they need legal advice, so if we can have people who are prepared to live and work in northern communities, hopefully that will provide people with better access to the legal advice they need,” Stuesser said.
As for Aboriginal applicants, the school has a separate application stream for candidates from a First Nation or Metis community.
Stuesser said Lakehead’s law school will be the only law school in Canada to offer a first-year course on Aboriginal culture and worldview, and the only school to dedicate an entire second-year course to Aboriginal and treaty law.
He said that beside those core courses, the curriculum includes Aboriginal examples into nearly every aspect of law.
“For example, I teach criminal law, and one of the key things you need to know in criminal law is the issue of Aboriginal sentencing and restorative justice,” Stuesser said. “In other words we’re going to be incorporating these issues into all of our core courses.”
And while Stuesser said the curriculum and focuses of the school will set it apart from other law schools in Canada, the biggest reason that he believes First Nations and Metis students can succeed at Lakehead is due to the school’s small size.
“We will know you, and we will support you,” Stuesser said. “You will know your professors, there will be small classes. That is a wonderful environment to learn in, for anyone. I think that is our biggest thing – this can be a very friendly, small place.”