Peggy Blair

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Peggy J. Blair is the past Director of Legal Services and Senior Legal Counsel for the Canadian Medical Association. She has been a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada since 1990 and is a past member of the Law Society of Alberta (1982-1999).

In 1993, Blair was the lead counsel in R. v. Jones and Nadjiwon, the first Canadian case to recognize Aboriginal and treaty rights to fish commercially in priority to other users. As a result of the backlash which followed, which included Aboriginal boats being set on fire, protest marches and a stabbing/swarming incident in Owen Sound, she attended Harvard University to train in Negotiation Skills (1993). A widely acclaimed expert in Aboriginal cross-cultural negotiations, ^[1] Peggy was then involved in multi-party negotiations to resolve the volatile issues around the fisheries, which ultimately resulted in a precedent-setting and comprehensive co-management agreement between the First Nations, federal and provincial governments, involving all aspects of Great Lakes fisheries management (2001).^[2]

Blair worked for the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples as a policy adviser on land claims and dispute resolution issues.^[3] She was appointed as a part-time member with the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal where she conducted hearings across Canada into allegations of discrimination (1993-1996)^[4] and she was the Chief Federal Negotiator in self-government negotiations involving 27 communities in northern Ontario (1997-1998).

In 2003, Blair was selected by a multi-stakeholder panel as a Senior Adjudicator for the Indian Residential Schools claims dispute resolution (DR) process, hearing claims of serious sexual and physical abuse across Canada.^[5]

Blair has a Masters in law (1998) and a doctorate in law (2003), both from the University of Ottawa. She was the first anglophone to be awarded the Prix d’excellence by the Association des professeurs de droit du Québec. She has published widely on Aboriginal issues concerning resource use and governance,^[6]; on the rights of Aboriginal women ^[7] and on Aboriginal culture ^[8]. Dr. Blair has been widely cited by well known Canadian scholars such as Douglas Harris, Kent MacNeil and Mark Walters as well as others for her academic analysis of Aboriginal fishing issues.^[9]

In 2004, she was appointed as a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law at McGill University, Montreal and reappointed in 2007. ^[10] She has been regularly named by Lexpert as one of Canada’s leading lawyers in her field since 1996.^[11]

In December 2004, Peggy travelled to Ukraine as an election observer during the presidential elections as part of the Canada Corps.^[12]

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