Cassandra Spade, a law student at Judson Howie LLP who grew up in Couchiching plans to graduate this spring, has always known she wanted to be a lawyer. But, it wasn’t until she attended a United Nations gathering in New York that she was inspired by other Indigenous leaders, both at home and internationally, that she found the passion to pursue that. Moreover, she plans to underscore the importance of Indigenous law, namely Anishinaabe law, and looks to close the gap between the present understanding of Indigenous law by Canadians at large, having some fun along the way. Furthermore,she’s happy to be in her hometown, Fort Frances, and wants to “give back” to the community. Lastly, she teaches the Anishinaabe language, Anishinaabemowin, and describes some ways she spends her free time.
“I spent a good chunk of my childhood growing up on Couchiching First Nation located close to Fort Frances,” said Spade. “I’m from the north. I want to stay in the north. I want to work with Northern people. I want to canoe northern waterways. Like this is home for me. The North is home. I chose the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law because it’s in the north. I wanted to study close to home. After graduation, I hope to come back to the town of Fort Frances and provide legal services. My hope is that I would be a lawyer in the Rainy River District, and that I would be able to support people in our community in accessing legal services, but also just kind of being part of the community.”
Moreover, Spade, the Fort Frances local, always knew she wanted to practice law.
“I’ve always kind of known I wanted to go into law,” said Spade. “It’s kind of always been one of my trajectories in life.”
While Spade does think she has a calling to practice law in general, she thinks there is a “big gap” in conventional Canadian understandings about Indigenous law.
“Essentially, I want to increase public awareness about Anishinaabe and Canadian law, and to start a conversation about how the relationship between these two distinct legal systems might look in Northern Ontario.
“There’s been a really big gap in the knowledge that we have about Indigenous law,” said Spade. “Canadians-at-large [have a gap in understanding Indigenous law,] and I don’t necessarily identify that way myself, but in this country, there’s a big gap in it.”
So, Spade felt a “pull” to raise awareness about Indigenous law.
“I felt this really strong pull to enter into the legal field, and to share about indigenous law, specifically Anishinaabe law, in a way that we could kind of come together.”
One way Spade wants to bring the community together is by dispelling misconceptions Canadians have about Indigenous law.
“I think generally when we think about the law, we immediately gravitate to the criminal code,” said Spade. “We think about criminal law and justice systems in Canada, but we often neglect, or we’re not aware of, the many justice systems that exist in Indigenous communities and their own legal system.
“There are dozens of Indigenous peoples that live here, and each indigenous community has its own legal orders, or specifically, laws. So, I really want to raise awareness of the existence of Anishinaabe law.”
Spade intends to achieve this goal through public education workshops, and plans to have some fun in the process.
“After law school, I hope to give back to the community by providing public legal education workshops about Anishinaabe and/or Canadian law. This is really an opportunity for our community to come together to share and learn about law, and hopefully have some fun in the process,” said Spade.
Spade also teaches Anishinaabemowin.
“So I teach the Anishinaabe language. I started learning in my mid twenties. So, I didn’t grow up speaking the Anishinaabe language, which is referred to as Anishinaabemowin.”
Moreover, Spade created an organization to Teach Anishinaabemowin for free to youth, and teaches Anishinaabemowin to the Nishnawbe Aski Nation.
“In my free time, you can find me reading romance novels, canoeing in northern Ontario, or just spending time walking along the riverside.”
