This National Indigenous Peoples Day, Mandell Pinder LLP pauses to honour the rich and important histories, cultures, strength, and enduring contributions of Indigenous Peoples across Canada. This year marks the 30th anniversary of National Indigenous Peoples Day which was first proclaimed in 1996. This was the result of years of advocacy from Indigenous leaders, first called for in 1982 by the National Indian Brotherhood. This call was echoed in 1995 by the Sacred Assembly, chaired by Elijah Harper, and the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.
As a firm, we understand that the legal system has played a complex and at times harmful role in the lives of Indigenous peoples, communities, and Nations in Canada. For decades Mandell Pinder LLP has been at the forefront of Aboriginal law, and our firm has been privileged to learn from and work alongside many Indigenous leaders, changemakers, organizations and Nations throughout the years. We acknowledge the grace and trust granted to us by our clients and colleagues throughout the years and are grateful for the ongoing opportunities to work with and for each of them, and to be welcomed time and again into their communities and Nations.
Louise Mandell and Bradley Bob at the Bradley Bob trial decision, August 2, 1979. UBCIC Library and Archives, LM0160.
We also recognize that meaningful reconciliation requires ongoing action – not just an acknowledgment. We note the particular importance of this work in a time where sentiments of anti-Indigenous racism and residential school denialism are ever present and on the rise. Mandell Pinder is committed to being a part of a more just future – one that upholds Indigenous rights and title, supports access to justice, and engages with the real work of truth and reconciliation in our work and in our communities.
Mandell Pinder acknowledges that our place of work is within the ancestral, traditional and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səl̓ilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh).