Northern students visit southern campus

Page 12

After four years of attending classes in Iqaluit, Nunavut, law students in the Akitsiraq law program of the University of Victoria, travelled to the campus on Vancouver Island for the first time to attend classes and conduct research in the law library there.

The law program is the first of its kind in Canada. The program is unique in that it offers a professional education in law by taking the education to the place where people live rather than have them come to the university.

Law professors from across the country have travelled to Iqaluit to teach in the program, which is provided in partnership between UVic, the Akitsiraq Law School and Nunavut Arctic College.

The program is a one-time only offering to Inuit students, though the university would be keen to offer it again once funding can be established. For the time being, new applications are not being accepted.

"The importance of a learning institution in the area of law in Nunavut cannot be underestimated," said Nunavut Premier Paul Okalik of the program. "Nunavummiut need to prepare for the challenges ahead if we are to reach our full potential."

Akitsiraq law student Madeleine Redfern described her experience with the program.

"It has meant a once in a lifetime opportunity to get my legal education in my home community in a small group setting, and a mixture of southern Canadian law education mixed with traditional law education, and it has been phenomenal. I've loved it."

Redfern has already distinguished herself by being chosen to clerk with newly-appointed Supreme Court of Canada Justice Louise Charron following graduation in June.

Kim Hart-Wensley, the southern co-ordinator for the Akitsiraq law program, spoke of its importance.

"It is important not only to Inuit people, but all First Nations people. It is important in terms of the north because there are virtually no Inuit lawyers in the territory.

"The premier is an Inuk lawyer, but outside of that you have a territory which is subject to a huge land claim agreement being implemented under the guidance of a number of lawyers who are working in government and so on, who are simply not Inuit," she said.

"It is hugely important that there are some people who are Inuit, who are trained in law who can then have their say in the way in which the law is developed and interpreted in the north," she said.

"It is ground-breaking in the sense that we are delivering it not by distance, this isn't a course on a computer. This is very much about taking the faculty to the north to teach in a classroom on a relatively long-term basis so that the program is delivered face to face.

"It is a very different model to what typically happens in programs in smaller communities that are done by video conference or some kind of e-mail arrangement," she said.

Redfern talked further about the unique blend of Canadian law and Inuit law she has been studying.

"It's not only traditional law. It is considered in a northern Nunavut context. Many of our professors have been teaching in their field for many years and they bring up their southern curriculum and review our northern and Nunavut legislation and regulations so that we are able to have a good grounding as to what the laws are here."

Redfern said Elders had visited the program to provide Inuktitut language instruction.

"We had an in-residence Elder for the last couple of years of the program, so we have had teachings in all aspects of life, whether it be community, wild life, family law and criminal law. That has been valuable to us to put into context and ground us in our own culture and our own laws and customs," said Redfern.

Redfern also talked about what it was like to travel to the University of Victoria.

"It's beautiful here. It's February and the flowers are already starting to blossom. Temperatures are in the plus-five to plus-10 ranges. It's a gorgeous city," she said.

She also gained an appreciation for th size of her classes in the Akitsiraq law program.

"With our southern counterparts we have been sitting in on much larger classes, up to 50 people. We really appreciate the smaller classroom setting that we have been in for the last three-and-a-half years. It is much more active and engaging when you are in a small group rather than a larger group of people," she said.

After graduation in June, Redfern plans to take some time off to visit family and friends.