The Mi’kmaq-Wolastoqey Centre at UNB Fredericton will host their annual conference virtually this year over three days from March 16 to 18.
Peace and Friendship Treaty Day Symposium
The Centre is holding a virtual conference that will have the theme of “Reinvigorating Peace and Friendship Treaties: Remedies and Responses to Systemic Racism in the Criminal Justice System”.
The conference is based on a plea for answers from the family of Rodney Levi, an Indigenous man who was shot by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the Signigtog District of New Brunswick on June 12, 2020.
The symposium provides a platform for a variety of Indigenous students, scholars, and organizations to discuss Canada’s Peace and Friendship treaties and the importance of them being upheld in today’s settler society.
More information about the theme of the conference can be found here.
Schedule of Events
On Tuesday, March 16, the Keynote Address will start at 6:30 p.m. In this session, the speaker will be Sákéj Henderson, a research fellow at the College of Law at the University of Saskatchewan.
The panel on Wednesday, March 17 will have Naiomi Metallic, Alisa Lombard, and Benson Barnarby as speakers and they will talk about criminal justice, systematic racism, and nation-to-nation relations. It will also discuss the importance of an inquiry into the shootings of Rodney Levi and Chantel Moore. It will start at 6:30 p.m.
The last event on Thursday, March 18 will be a panel with Chief Mike Sack, Dr. Fred Metallic, and Mercedes at 6:30 p.m. The panel will focus on honoring nation-to-nation treaty rights, specifically the right of the Mi’kmaq to fish.
The event will be on their Facebook page.