Remembering Black and Indigenous Women in Retention of

Women Criminal Law Practice

Co-authored by Samantha Peters, a law student, human rights advocate whose passion for criminal
justice, law reform, legal innovation and education, and sexual assault law has landed her jobs in
Paris, New York, and Grenda.
In light of March being Women's History Month, many articles and reports have been circulating
about the issues that Canadian women currently face. One report that is important to highlight is the
Criminal Law Association's "Retention of Women in Criminal Defence Practice Study." The report
created plenty of discussion. And, as people tweeted out the report, agreeing with the report's
findings, we remained uncomfortable and cautious. Where did our story, our realities, our
experiences and our voices fit in the report?

Samantha Peters
(Photo credit: Sergei Yahchybekov)
We are Black and Indigenous women who are currently in law school at a Canadian university. Our
school says that it is already committed to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to
Action. One call to action encourages all law schools to require students to take a course in
Aboriginal People and the Law, where discussions and content will include the history and legacy of
residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples...and the list
goes on.
Buzzwords are used, much like how "reconciliation" is the new cool thing to do. Much like social
justice or anti-racism.
Still, in both of our experiences, while the school says one thing - like that they are committed to
indigenizing the curriculum - we see and experience another thing. We know we are not alone and
after reading the Criminal Lawyers' Association report, we see that the situation does not get any
better in the practice of law.
In fact, when we first read the report, we knew and more importantly, we know that women
experience systemic discrimination, like sexism. Yet, the report itself and the discussion surrounding

the report remained silent on systemic issues like racism: anti-Indigenous racism and anti-Black
racism.
Yes, women are treated in the courtroom differently than men, but what about the differences
among women? Specifically, how are Indigenous and Black women treated in the courtroom by
judges and court staff? And what issues do Indigenous women, Black women and other women of
colour in the criminal profession highlight as important issues we experience? The essentialism of
women is highly problematic and dangerous. The homogenization of women is even scarier. This
report and the discussions surrounding it should have included the diversity of experiences among
women in the analysis. When we talk about women, we must be specific on what kind of women we
are talking about.
This erasure or more appropriately, our erasure of our experiences from statistics, data, and
discussions as a whole is a sentiment that we often feel while sitting in our classrooms at law school.
We often sit in classes like criminal law and public law, experiencing the erasure of our experiences.
Our bodies are erased in the way class subjects are taught by who we read, who is allowed to speak,
and whose ideas and opinions are centered.

Naomi Sayers with Families of Sisters in Spirit after opposing

bill c-36 (the new prostitution provisions).
We talk about criminal law cases and our bodies are only brought up in tokenistic ways. We talk
about Gladue principles and have to hear heavy sighs and see eye rolls. We talk about sex work and
we hear the narrative that Indigenous women in the sex trade must be saved-and the assumption
that there are zero sex workers, current or former, while at law school. And we talk about the over
policing of Black people (and Indigenous People are thrown in there for good measure) and we hear
the huffs and puffs or the stories of white people being entered. With her hand raised high, "But in
my experience with police....", asserts the solicitous white peer.
Perhaps some of the reasons why racialized women are leaving the criminal profession are more
complex than what is discussed in the report. Perhaps it is also because we do not get paid the same
as white women, let alone white men. What about Black and Indigenous women in criminal law
practice? We are often mistaken for the assistant in the courtroom, rather than the lawyer. And the
most obvious, racialized lawyers in criminal law practice are often in solo practice. Maybe it is
because we are not even hired as much.
We commend the report for talking about retention. But let's talk about getting into the door first,
the barriers of getting into law school and the obstacles of staying in law school. And so, the report
discusses some of the barriers for women who remain in private practice. The report reads, "Not one

single strategy will likely remove the barriers that are keeping some women from staying." Women
cited concerns about "being forgotten by clients or colleagues while they were gone" while away on
maternity leave. The condescension runs deep.
Nevertheless, we write these words with hope of calling on these women to always remember their
Black and Indigenous colleagues...often not seen as lawyers or courtroom players but seen as the
help.
In the end, although this constant erasure is frustrating, we believe that our strength and resistance
will help us prevail. Our bodies carry the stories of our ancestors, surviving genocide, colonialism,
and slavery. We also see hope and light in the experiences of the Black and Indigenous women that
came before us. For example, we see Black women and Indigenous women, doing law differently. We
see them creating their own law firms, like this law firm created through one tweet, KMR Law
Group, after one of the Black women who formed this firm was referred to as a slave by a partner.
This story, and eventually our own, is a story of re-claiming, resisting and a refusal to remain silent
about our truths and our realities--realities and truths that Rider Law roanoke va are just as
important as the white cis-women complaining about maternity leave as if it is the only thing
feminism has left to tackle.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-sayers/remembering-black-and-indigenous-women_b_9517250
.html