Indigenous lawyers make unprecedented bid for B.C. law society leadership

Kelly Russ still recalls meeting Judge Alfred Scow, B.C.'s first Indigenous judge, in Prince Rupert when he was attending elementary school with Scow's children.

Scow, who died in 2013, was the first Indigenous person to graduate from law school in B.C. and the first Indigenous lawyer to be called to the B.C. bar.

Meeting the man in person gave Russ — who was born in Haida Gwaii — a sense of what was possible.

Russ would go on to spend 13 years in foster care before getting a law degree and starting his own family law firm in West Vancouver.

The 58-year-old is now one of four Indigenous candidates campaigning for spots among the benchers who oversee the law profession in B.C. — a number the law society says is remarkable in and of itself.

In their own way, Russ says, they're hoping to provide the same kind of inspiration Judge Alfred Scow did for him decades ago.

"I think, as Indigenous people, we're finally getting our feet on the ground within the legal profession, trying to find our way within the profession, especially within the regulatory body that is the Law Society of British Columbia," Russ said.

"Yes, we're perhaps a little late coming to the game. But we're coming, and we'd like to participate."

Campaigns to lead B.C.'s legal profession rarely make headlines, but both the law society and the Aboriginal Lawyers Forum of the Canadian Bar Association's B.C. branch have pointed to the historic nature of the current contest.

Russ and fellow lawyers Katrina Harry, Brian Dybwad and Lindsay LeBlanc are vying to become benchers in a co-ordinated effort to highlight the need for greater Indigenous representation in an organization struggling to find its own path toward reconciliation.

Voting began Nov. 1 and ends on Nov. 15. A total of 34 candidates are running for 19 available spots. 

In addition to the benchers elected by lawyers around the province, the government also appoints up to six members to represent the public interest.

As such, law society communications director Jason Kuzminski says some level of Indigenous representation has been ensured by the public appointments since the 1990s.

But the bar association's Aboriginal Lawyers Forum says only two Indigenous benchers have been elected in the past 137 years — the most recent being Karen Snowshoe in 2018, the first Indigenous woman elected as a bencher.