Bridge Builder: Karen Drake addresses controversial question

The focus of Karen Drake's research is a hot topic in Canada right now.

The assistant professor at the Lakehead University Faculty of Law investigates whether Aboriginal rights violate the Canadian principle of equality.

"What I'm focusing on is the question that a lot of people have about Aboriginal rights, which is why do Aboriginal peoples have special rights that other Canadians are not entitled to," said the 39-year-old Metis woman.

"I think that a lot of Canadians struggle with this question, especially if you read comments to online news articles and sometimes letters to the editor in the paper," she said. "People are concerned that Aboriginal peoples have what they perceive to be extra rights or some extra entitlements that others don't have."

'More people are talking about Aboriginal rights'

Drake said she tries to make her research accessible to non-academics, but until recently there was a lot of apathy.

"That has definitely been changing lately," she said. "There is more interest, more people are talking about Aboriginal rights. And I think now the main challenge is a lack of education and a lack of knowledge of the actual history of our country."

Understanding the true history of Canada would help people turn the question of Aboriginal rights on its head, Drake said.

"We have to think about who has the onus here in the debate," she said. "Aboriginal peoples were here first, so the onus is not on the people who were here to begin with to justify how they can have special rights within the legal system of the newcomers.

"The onus is on the newcomers to justify how they can assert sovereignty over this territory and over Aboriginal peoples."

'There is a way to go forward'

Drake said her students at the law school are really receptive to learning Aboriginal perspectives, but she acknowledges not everyone is.

"It can be difficult for people to accept that there might be a really fundamentally unjust aspect to our country," she said. "But we don't need to be threatened by it. There is a way to go forward...without worrying that the whole basis of our country is going to fall apart."

You can meet Karen Drake and other cross-cultural bridge builders at CBC's Community Forum, Building Bridges, Oct. 1 at Confederation College, starting at 7 p.m.