Last semester I took a Data, Code and Social Innovation course that presented me with an opportunity to seek legal tech solutions for traditional legal issues rooted in common law legal tests. This course was an exciting intellectual learning journey. In addition, we were encouraged to try on a technology lens to spot pitfalls, limitations and biases that those solutions might create or have embedded in them.
As an enthusiast of labour and employment law, I came across Craig Mazerolle’s Crafting an Aboriginal Labour Law ((2016) 74 U Toronto Fac L Rev 18). I decided to look at challenges that Indigenous people face trying to organize and regulate their labour relations. In an attempt to combine legal tech and labour law, I attempted to design and test an Indigenous labour law classification model based on NIL/TU,O Child and Family Services Society v. BC Government and Service Employees’ Union [2010] 2 S.C.R. 696. Although it was an intellectually satisfying exercise, I faced a situation wherein I had been trying to develop a solution that Indigenous groups may neither need nor want. As settlers, we need to stop trying to imagine solutions on behalf of Indigenous groups. This article calls for Indigenous educators and employment and labour lawyers to share their perspectives, discuss labour and employment issues and ideas on how to achieve prosperity for their nations.
Aboriginal labour law
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