'A human request for justice:' Lawyer receives award for career dedicated to Mi'kmaq treaty rights

"Coincidentally, we're overlooking Indian Lake," lawyer Bruce Wildsmith said with a laugh, on his property in Barss Corner, N.S. 

Appropriate, one could say, because Wildsmith has been helping oversee the legal pursuits by Atlantic Canada's Indigenous peoples for access to natural resources and the affirmation of their treaty rights for most of his career. 

In Halifax on Friday, Wildsmith was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society for his significant contributions to the legal profession and specifically his work with Canada's Indigenous communities.

He was also honoured with an eagle feather and Mi'kmaq medicine bag by Chief P.J. Prosper of Paqtnkek First Nation. 

"[The feather] is representative of leadership that a person takes, the vision they hold," said Prosper.

"[Wildsmith] has developed the relationship with the Mi'kmaq people, where a trust has been built. He's a very principled person who believes in doing what's right."

Both decorations made for an "overwhelming and emotional" occasion, said Wildsmith, who is non-Indigenous. 

'A human request for justice'

Wildsmith was called to the bar in 1974 and began his career in Indigenous rights "by serendpity" when a fellow Dalhousie Law School graduate asked him to take on the case of Mi'kmaw Stephen Isaac, who had been charged with illegal hunting on Potlotek First Nation. Wildsmith took that case through the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal in 1975 and was successful. 

"The rest is history," said Wildsmith.

The Isaac case came before changes to the Constitution in 1982 enshrined Indigenous treaty rights. Wildsmith said cases had to be proven "from scratch," in that era, working out of his kitchen at times and needing to find centuries-old documentation for his cases at government archives.

After successfully proving the treaty rights case of James Simon in the Supreme Court of Canada in 1985, Wildsmith said officials from the Union of Nova Scotia Indians came to him and asked him to continue his work with the region's Indigenous communities. 

He agreed, and in the years that followed represented Mi'kmaq in such precedent-setting treaty rights cases as Donald Marshall Jr (1999), Joshua Bernard (2003) and Stephen Marshall (2005). And from 1979 to 2003, he taught law full-time at Dalhousie University. 

"I had no strategy or deep-seated decision to take on Aboriginal cases," said Wildsmith.

"It was just a human request for justice — I just thought it was a good fit for me." 

Raising eyebrows

Wildsmith said back then he raised a few eyebrows, and systemic racism and a lack of knowledge about Indigenous rights led to some uncomfortable situations. But he added he's still encountering concerning behaviours. 

While chatting about some media attention he received on his commentary regarding lobster fishing in St. Mary's Bay, a woman asked him. sharply, if he were Indigenous. 

"It was asked in a way that didn't seem benign," Wildsmith said. 

"It was assertive and aggressive, like it was a negative thing."

In his experience, Wildsmith said Indigenous peoples live a "difficult" reality in terms of the Canadian justice system. 

"They're up against a great power imbalance," he said.

"Some of the legal tests that have been laid down by the Supreme Court are impossible to meet. The costs of mounting and proving a case [regarding treaty rights] convincingly is stupendous." 

Current cases, said Wildsmith, like those of Kenneth Francis and Hubert Francis, are examples that the Canadian government still has much work to do on clarifying how treaty rights are applied. He added that 18 years after the Donald Marshall decision, there has been "no positive outcome" in having a livelihood fishery for Indigenous peoples. 

Semi-retirement

Wildsmith is now semi-retired, acting as legal counsel for the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaq Chiefs and Kwilmu'kaw Maw-klusuquan Negotiation Office. He said he's spending more time with his wife of 47 years, Ardythe. The true value of family, he said, is something that was strengthened by his connection with the Mi'kmaq. 

Ardythe said his retirement is part of a deal she and Wildsmith cut, to balance the commitment he has to his career.

"I told him he owes me the last 10 years of his life," she said, adding with a chuckle that he's only semi-retired to ensure his good health. 

The couple agreed that Wildsmith's career in Indigenous law has resonated profoundly in their personal lives. Ardythe recalled one particular event that still draws tears from both.

Not long after the Donald Marshall decision, Wildsmith was speaking about his experiences at the University of P.E.I., where a large group of Mi'kmaq, up to 75 people she says, stood quietly at the back of the room and listened to his speech. After the event concluded, the group formed a queue to meet Wildsmith.

"They all wanted to shake my hand and thank me," Wildsmith said. "It was quite amazing. Overwhelming."