The Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Mining & Exploration (CESME) presents guest speakers: Dr. Rachel Ariss and John Cutfeet

Event Date: 
Friday, November 13, 2015 - 2:00pm EST
Event Location: 
ATAC 1007
Event Contact Name: 
Dr. Peter Hollings, Director, CESME
Event Contact Phone: 
(807) 343-8329
Event Contact E-mail: 


The Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Mining & Exploration (CESME)

Presents Guest Speakers:

DR. RACHEL ARISS and JOHN CUTFEET 

"Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug: The Right to Self-Determination, Mining and
Canadian Law"

click here for poster and abstract details

Friday, November 13, 2015
at 2:00 p.m.
in ATAC 1007 

Biography:
John Cutfeet was band councillor for Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI), with  responsibility for Lands and Environment from 1999 to November 2007. He is currently VP of Communications for Wataynikaneyap Power. He also works with the Wildlands League coordinating watershed work with Aboriginal communities, and as a freelance translator. John has long worked on mining issues, Indigenous rights, Development and Peace, and has been involved in solidarity work in El Salvador, Mexico (Mesoamerica) and London England. John lives in KI and continues to engage in the traditional pursuits of living off the land.

Dr. Rachel Ariss' (SJD University of Toronto) research analyzes the relationships between law, social justice and change, and how law shapes (and misshapes) community.  Her research projects include Aboriginal land rights and mining; the duty to consult and  accommodate  Aboriginal peoples and provincial policy; and how midwives understand social change work since midwifery was regulated in Ontario. She was a member of  Lakehead University's Sociology Department from 2003 to 2010 and currently teaches in the Legal Studies Program at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Oshawa, Ontario.​

Rachel and John have written together on the issues arising from KI's legal dispute with Platinex Inc., publishing an article in the Indigenous Law Journal "Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation: Mining, Consultation, Reconciliation and Law" in 2011 as well as a book, Keeping the Land: Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, Reconciliation and Canadian Law, with Fernwood Publications in 2012.