Canadian Lawyer

28 M A R C H 2 0 1 6 w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m improve their economies, and realizing the promise of the recognition of treaty rights in s. 35 of the 1982 Constitution Act. She also served as a director of the First Nations' Land Advisory Board and chaired the First Nations Finance Authority, which provides financing, investment, and advisory ser- vices for First Nations governments. Wilson-Raybould says her time as a regional chief contributed to the decision to run for the Liberal party. "I look to my over 10 years of elected experience . . . as being, probably, the biggest catalyst that led me down the path to put my name forward in federal politics." She got a taste of the uglier side of politics during a special chiefs assembly in Ottawa in 2014 — in an incident that makes the heckling she will now have to face in the House of Commons during Question Period pale by com- parison. Her older sister was there when some of the delegates tried to shout Wilson-Raybould down as she spoke to a motion. "I wanted to just get in there and start screaming and protect- ing her," Kory Wilson recalls, getting emotional about it even today. "It was horrible. I was bursting into tears and so were other people standing around her . . . standing behind her while these other people are just treating her like crap. She kept her voice relatively calm. She didn't have tears come to her eyes and she just waited until they stopped and she just politely said, 'May I speak now. May I speak now.' Eventually, they stopped and allowed her to speak. "She would just stand there. It was just so brilliant; it was amazing. It happened on the floor of the assembly and as it went on more and more people came and stood behind her." Her father points out First Nations poli- tics is not for the faint of heart. "The thing that I think gave her some qualifications is that she got to travel and then she got to see internal Indian politics and there is nothing tougher, nothing uglier, nothing harder than native Indian politics and I can tell you that from 60 years of experi- ence," he says. "That's really a great training ground for white politics . . . which I find to be very simple." It was at the First Nations crown gath- ering with Stephen Harper in 2012 that Wilson-Raybould took another step down the path to federal politics after she realized that Harper had little interest in the work that she and others had put into proposing solutions. "That's where, I guess I would say, things crystallized for me in the sense of what I was going to do in terms of my political positions or putting my name forward to be an MP . . . . We worked really hard at the time and I know the leadership is still working hard to ensure that they present thoughtful solutions and then the frustration came when those thoughtful solutions weren't heard." A year later, Wilson-Raybould found someone interested in listening when Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau attended an Assembly of First Nations meeting in Whitehorse and sat in on a session on land claims that she chaired. He arranged to meet privately with her afterwards and encouraged her to run for the Liberal Party. In July 2014, despite grumbling that the party had used moral suasion to convince prospective challengers to step aside, Wilson-Raybould was acclaimed as the Liberal candidate in the newly cre- ated riding of Vancouver Granville and in 2015 went on to win the riding. While Wilson-Raybould was on every observer's short list for a cabinet post, it took many by surprise when Trudeau named the rookie MP justice minis- ter. Few people were happier than her father. "I was just glad that she didn't get the asshole of cabinet, which would be Indian Affairs, because it always has been a completely incompetent and inept department," he says bluntly, pointing out that the justice department and the prime minister's office are where real progress can be made. Since she was sworn in, her schedule has been a whirlwind with people vying for even small blocks of her time. She is inher- iting a Department of Justice that has been hard hit over the past several years. The Harper government was in open warfare with the Supreme Court of Canada, con- vinced that the will of Parliament should take precedence over the Charter of Rights. The Supreme Court struck down a number of laws, ruling they contravened the Char- ter. Challenges of other laws adopted by the Conservatives are still making their way through the courts. Staff in the justice department has dropped to 4,399 in 2014 from 4,812 in 2006. Roughly 100 of the 413 full-time jobs lost were lawyers. At one point, morale was so low that one lawyer in the aboriginal law section who had pre- existing mental health problems com- mitted suicide. Len MacKay, president of the Association of Justice Counsel, says morale has picked up a bit since the election and the union, which represents justice department lawyers, is pleased with Wilson-Raybould's appointment. However, he also recognizes that her mandate letter spells out a long list of things she is expected to accomplish. "It's quite ambitious so that is what she has to look towards — dealing with a lot of stuff that the Harper government left behind and probably other things that have evolved over the last couple of years in the courts," he says. "I think it's going to be a difficult sort of task for her to do things like assisted suicide and legalizing marijuana. But those are things that any minister would have to face." Wilson-Raybould says the part of her mandate letter that resonates with her the most is not necessarily the daunting to-do list but the opening paragraphs that are contained in every minister's letter, describing how the Liberals intend to be a government of cabinet and work together as a team. "As the minister and the attorney general, we have thousands upon thousands of cases that we have before the courts, but as the minister of justice recognize that we can and must do better as a government to ensure that in every decision that we make — wheth- er we are talking about climate change or looking to renegotiate a health accord, that we're doing it in a collaborative way." Wilson-Raybould also sees Canada's legal system as one of its selling points on the world stage. "People can come here and ensure that their differences will be respected and that their contributions to the country will be respected." The fact that some of the things she has been asked to accomplish were already underway before she became minister will help, says Wilson-Ray- bould. "In terms of what my priority is, some of the mandate bullets were already deeply rooted in terms of discussions and actions — whether we're talking about physician-assisted dying or murdered and missing women, we're looking at

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