University of Victoria to house national Indigenous law centre

The University of Victoria has announced plans to expand its law school building to include Canada's first National Centre for Indigenous Laws.

The $27-million project, jointly funded by the province, the federal government, and the Law Foundation of B.C., will bring a 26,000-square-foot addition to the Anne and Murray Fraser law building.

Federal Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Carolyn Bennett said Thursdaythatthe centre will "serve as a foundation for public education, learning, debate and partnership on the revitalization of Indigenous laws."

Val Napoleon, director of the school's current joint degree in Canadian and Indigenous law program, and the centre's co-founder, said the new building will house and expand upon the program, the Indigenous law research unit, and the environmental law centre, in "a way that reaches out to people across Canada."

B.C.'s Minister of Advanced Education Melanie Mark added that the centre is a major step toward reconciliation on a national level.

She said it will specifically address the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's 50th call to action, which is to "fund the establishment of Indigenous law institutes for the development, use, and understanding of Indigenous laws."

"This new space is being designed to allow for the unique ways in which Indigenous laws have been and are being practised incorporating ceremony and oral traditions," she said.

The centre will house new digital infrastructure enabling students to connect with their home communities and share legal traditions, and will offer space for conferences, public workshops, lecture theatres, and an elders' room for ceremonies.

University president Jamie Cassels said the project will meet LEED gold standards, and that the school is working with the Songhees, Esquimalt, and WSNE peoples of the area to ensure"the best practices in stewardship."