February 1 – 2, View the detailed schedule HERE

Fred Kelly

Fred Kelly – Bio

Fred Kelly is a citizen of the Ojibways of Onigaming, a community of the Anishinaabe Nation in Treaty #3. Kizhebowse Mukwaa (Kind Walking Bear) of the Lynx Clan is an Elder in Midewin, the Sacred Law and Medicine Society of the Anishinaabe. As such he is a Keeper and Practitioner of Sacred Law. He is also a Drum Keeper and a Pipe Carrier and has been called upon to administer healing therapies among many indigenous people on Turtle Island and to conduct sacred ceremonies across Canada, in the United States, Mexico, Japan, Argentina, and Israel.

Elder Kelly heads the Nimishomis-Nokomis Healing Group, a consortium of traditional healers that provides therapy to victims of the trauma and legacy of the residential school system. He is a survivor of Indian Residential School in Kenora, Ontario and Lebret, Saskatchewan. He was a member of the Assembly of First Nations team that negotiated the historic Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement and continues to advise individual victims on their healing journeys.

Fred Kelly has been operating a successful consultancy in strategic planning and management, negotiations and policy development, corporate governance for over forty years. He is also a practitioner of traditional methods in conflict resolution including mediation and other customary intervention approaches.

Darryl Leroux

Darryl Leroux

Darryl Leroux is an associate professor in the Department of Social Justice and Community Studies at Saint Mary’s University in Kjipuktuk (Halifax). His book, Distorted Descent: White Claims to Indigenous Identity, was published by the University of Manitoba Press in September 2019. He has since worked for the Manitoba Métis Federation, the Métis National Council, the Nunatsiavut Government, and the Algonquins of Pikwàkanagàn First Nation, among other Indigenous governments, examining the impacts of self-indigenization in their respective territories. Darryl is French Canadian, originally from Sudbury.ry.

John Borrows

John Borrows – Bio

John Borrows is a former CIGI senior fellow. In this role, John provided guidance and helped shape the program’s international Indigenous law research. He is also the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Law at the University of Victoria Law School.

At CIGI, John primarily researched the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in Canada and internationally. His work compared religious protection for Indigenous peoples in UNDRIP with religious protection in Canada’s constitution, Australian law and American law; assessed Indigenous dispute settlement systems in the aforementioned countries; explored the protection of Indigenous land rights within an UNDRIP context; and looked at developments in international law for the protection of intangible cultural heritage of Indigenous peoples.

Prior to joining CIGI and the University of Victoria, John was professor and Robina Chair in Law and Society at the University of Minnesota Law School; professor in the faculty of law at the University of Toronto; associate professor and First Nations legal studies director, faculty of law at the University of British Columbia; and associate professor and director of the intensive program in Lands, Resources and First Nations Governments at Osgoode Hall Law School. John has also guest lectured at law schools around the world, teaching in the areas of constitutional law, Indigenous law and environmental law.

John received the 2017 Killam Prize in Social Sciences, which recognizes career achievements of eminent Canadian researchers. John is also a recipient of an Aboriginal Achievement Award in Law and Justice and a 2012 recipient of the Indigenous Peoples Counsel (IPC) from the Indigenous Bar Association, for honour and integrity in service to Indigenous communities. He is a fellow of the Trudeau Foundation, and a fellow of the Academy of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (RSC), Canada’s highest academic honour. John is Anishinabe/Ojibway and a member of the Chippewas of the Nawash First Nation in Ontario, Canada.

Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly

Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly – Bio

Professor at the School of Public Administration, Jean Monnet Chair, University of Victoria, BC, Canada. Principal Investigator for the SSHRC funded Partnership Grant program ‘Borders In Globalizations’ (2012-2020 and renewed 2021-28) Co-Director of Research for the UVic European Studies Program, Jean Monnet Center of Excellence.

Develop better social science knowledge on boundary lines, borders, borderlands, frontiers and border regions, including urban borderlands, and large cross-border urban regions (Canada US / European Schengen border regions, Hong Kong/China); looking at history, culture, security, mobility and trade, ecology and governance crossing boundary lines.

Applied focus on governance and policy; Training and advisory work and research work about and with local, provincial, regional, federal levels of government officials (in Europe, North America and Hong Kong/China).

Specialties: Governance of urban regions, intergovernmental relations, governance of borderland / border regions, border security.