Awardee empowers lawyers and others 'to pursue access to justice in Indigenous contexts': judge
The Law Foundation of Ontario has honoured John Borrows – a scholar and educator in the field of Indigenous law – with the 2024 Guthrie Award.
Borrows is an Anishinaabe/Ojibway and member of the Chippewas of the Nawash First Nation in Ontario. He holds the Loveland Chair in Indigenous Law at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. He teaches a mandatory first-year course on Indigenous Peoples and the Law at the law school.
He developed the June Callwood Program in Aboriginal Law during his tenure as an associate professor at the University of Toronto. This initiative supports Indigenous Community Fellowships for law students and graduates.
“John has integrated Indigenous law rooted in Indigenous peoples’ natural and social environment into the very heart of legal education,” said Jutta Brunnée, dean of the law school, in a news release of the Law Foundation of Ontario.
“His extraordinary work revivifying Indigenous law has also contributed to a re-envisioning of the potential of law and participatory democracy,” added Brunnée, who was the one who nominated Borrows for the Guthrie Award.
The Law Foundation of Ontario awards this recognition to individuals who have made significant contributions to improving access to justice, said the organization’s news release. For his part, Borrows has influenced the understanding and integration of Indigenous law within Canada’s legal education, Indigenous communities, and its broader legal landscape.
“John has transformed the way that academic and legal sectors understand and intersect with Indigenous law,” said Linda Rothstein, the organization’s board chair, in the news release.
“He has profoundly shaped our recognition of Canada as multi-juridical and has revitalized Indigenous law within legal education, Indigenous communities, and Canadian society broadly,” Rothstein also said.
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Borrows served as the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Law at the University of Victoria for eight years. There, he co-founded the world’s first joint degree program in Indigenous legal orders and Canadian common law, which is the first of its kind worldwide.
As a doctoral student and assistant professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, Borrows helped launch the Intensive Program in Indigenous Lands, Resources, and Governments, which is unique in North America.
He collaborated with his daughter, Lindsay Borrows, in founding the Anishinaabe Law Camp, which began at Osgoode Hall Law School but has since spread to other Ontario law schools and other First Nations communities.
“John Borrows has demonstrated why legal problem-solving in and for Indigenous communities needs to be approached through an Indigenous lens, and has empowered lawyers, students, academics, and policymakers across the country to pursue access to justice in Indigenous contexts,” said Justice Lorne Sossin of the Ontario Court of Appeal in the news release.
“I have seen and continue to see the enduring impact of his efforts throughout the justice sector in Ontario and across Canada,” Sossin added.
