Building the Aboriginal Conference Settlement Suite : Hope and Realism in Law as a Tool for Social Change ...

• Published in: Performance Matters
• Main Author: Goldbach, Toby S.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: The University of British Columbia 2023
• Subjects: anishina*
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0432761; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0432761

In 2014, the provincial government unveiled a new courthouse in Thunder Bay, Ontario, featuring a conference area designed to emulate an Anishinaabe roundhouse. The “Aboriginal Conference Settlement Suite” epitomizes efforts to support Indigenous justice within the criminal justice system. However, despite similar efforts in the past, the circumstances of Indigenous peoples in Canada have not improved. This ongoing commitment to legal solutions is emblematic of mainstream views of law as a problem-solving instrument. Notwithstanding awareness of its failings, law reformers remain dedicated to using law as a tool for social change. Employing a case study method focusing on the new courthouse, I challenge a prevailing wisdom that law reform outputs are manageable and in our control. I argue that similar to a courthouse, which is a concrete, physical structure as well as a symbol of justice, so too is the legal instrument both material and metaphorical, with concrete outcomes and symbolic forms. While treating ...