Student government surplus funds will support TRC calls to action, enhance law school’s diversity

On March 24, Queen’s Law students voted to use the Law Students’ Society’s $25,000 budget surplus to create the school’s first entrance scholarship for Aboriginal law students. The Law Faculty will match the LSS’s contribution in order to establish an endowed fund that will support an annual scholarship of $2,000 to $3,000 for one student each year. Dean Bill Flanagan has committed to seeking additional donations to maximize the impact of this award.

“The LSS is thrilled to support the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action through the creation of a permanent scholarship specifically designed to help more Aboriginal students access legal education,” says Ian Moore, MPA’14/Law’16, an LSS executive member. “The LSS sees this scholarship not only as a small contribution to addressing the underrepresentation of indigenous peoples in the legal profession, but also as a way for Queen’s Law to say to prospective Aboriginal law students: ‘We want you here and we want to learn from you.’”

“The Faculty is delighted to work in partnership with the LSS to create this new entrance scholarship for Aboriginal law students,” says Dean Flanagan. “This generous gift by the LSS will greatly enhance the Faculty’s ability to support more Aboriginal law students at Queen’s, and it reflects the commitment on the part of both the LSS and the Faculty to respond proactively to the TRC call to action.”

The entrance scholarship is the first student-funded Aboriginal law student scholarship offered in Canada. Students voted for the creation of the scholarship through an online ballot setting out options for spending a current funding surplus, including the establishment of a general needs-based bursary. More than 65 per cent of the law student body participated in the vote.

“The scholarship represents an important step in the process of reconciliation and relationship-building,” says Jason Mercredi, Law’18, LSS Aboriginal Student Representative. “Enhanced financial support will enable more Aboriginal students to attend law school at Queen’s, and in turn contribute to the broader legal community and justice system.”

Mercredi was elected in the fall of 2015 as the LSS’s first Aboriginal Student Representative, a new position created to give a voice to First Nation, Métis, and Inuit perspectives within the law school.

The LSS also recently endorsed the Canadian Council of Law Deans’ response to the TRC calls to action, which was endorsed by Law’s Faculty Board two weeks earlier, and voted to work with the Faculty on implementing it at Queen’s Law.