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Pathways to Truth and Reconciliation: Creating Space for New Success with Jean Teillet

In follow-up to our Truth and Reconciliation Summit held in October 2016 at Banff Centre, Indigenous Leadership at Banff Centre hosts a monthly speaker series that invites Bow Valley residents to engage in relevant topics, local discussions, and learn more about Indigenous culture, history, and knowledge. We continue to be impressed by the interest the Bow Valley shows when we bring the classroom into community with this monthly speaker series.
We offer this series in partnership with Banff Canmore Community Foundation and each month a new guest speaker shares on the topic of truth and reconciliation. 

In our second season of the Truth and Reconciliation Speaker Series we will be exploring the “Pathways to Truth and Reconciliation”, asking speakers to share what they have learned about the Action of Reconciliation through their own journey, case studies and successes and barriers encountered along the way. We believe that the path to reconciliation must always be grounded in the truth before we advance to reconciliation and along the path, intent and implementation may differ. These are the stories we have invited our speakers to share with us this season.

Speaker Biography

Jean Teillet

Jean Teillet is called to the Bars in Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and Manitoba.  She is a partner in the firm of Pape Salter Teillet with offices in Vancouver, Toronto and Behchokö, NT.  Ms. Teillet specializes in Aboriginal rights litigation and negotiations, with a particular emphasis on Métis rights.

Since 1993, she has been a tutor and mentor to Aboriginal students at the University of Toronto, the University of Alberta and Osgoode Hall Law School.  As a founding member of the Métis Nation of Ontario, founding president of the Métis Nation Lawyers Association and former treasurer and vice-president of the Indigenous Bar Association of Canada, she has freely devoted her time and efforts to the Aboriginal Community. 

In 2002 Ms. Teillet became the first recipient of the Law Society of Upper Canada's Lincoln Alexander Award for her work "as a mentor and teacher and her commitment to advancing Aboriginal issues".

The 2005 Aboriginal Justice Award was presented to Jean Teillet by the Aboriginal Law Students' Association, Faculty of Law, University of Alberta "In Recognition of Service to the Aboriginal Community" and for her "Outstanding Contributions to the Development of Aboriginal Justice".

Ms. Teillet is the great-grandniece of Louis Riel.