Jumping the Turnstile: Dickson v Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation

We're pleased to welcome Professor Margot Young from the University of British Columbia's Peter A. Allard School of Law to discuss the 2024 SCC Dickson v Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation decision.

This hybrid event will be held at 12:00PM in room 231 of the Law Centre and online via zoom.

To register to attend in person, click the link on the right side of the page or click HERE.

To register to attend online, click HERE.

Lecture Abstract:

There are several important narratives to be pulled from the Supreme Court of Canada's decision in Dickson v Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation. The decision is long and complex, spanning three separate judgments. This lecture looks at a few particular aspects: the assessment across each judgment of the applicability of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to the Vuntut Gwitchin government and the elaborations of the import of section 25 of the Charter that follow findings that the Charter applies. The lecture's argument teases out the centrality assigned to liberal understandings of constitutional relations, of government, and of the rights the Charter protects. Caution issues about judicial resort to the notion of "Indigenous difference" as reference point for the scope of section 25. The lecture concludes that a majority of the judges sidestep engagement with the critical recasting of constitutional relations and justice that decolonization demands.