Canada has a long and troubled history when it comes to dealing with the First Nations of North America. Achieving reconciliation between Canada and the First Nations is an enormous challenge that covers every aspect of life. I'm not sure where the economy sits on the list of priorities, but it's definitely an important factor in reconciliation. Can the business professor offer any suggestions? Irene Henriques trying, she is Professor of Sustainability and Economics at the Schulich School of Business and her research focus is Indigenous entrepreneurship. Her work has profoundly optimistic, but also very realistic about the need to dismantle colonial institutions and build new economic relationships grounded in the agency of Indigenous peoples.

Prof. Dayna Scott, of York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School, holds a Canada Research Chair in Environmental Law & Justice. Her work examines the problematic jurisdictional reality that shapes the transition to a green economy, as Canadian mining companies seek to develop resources on land belonging to the First Nations.

Dr. Heidi Matthews is an Assistant Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, at York University. She is a passionate teacher and an outspoken social critic, a legal mind to be reckoned with on subjects from international criminal justice to sexual politics.

Prof. Celia Haig-Brown is an ethnographer and filmmaker who studies Indigenous education. She works with First Nations communities to understand the stories of residential school survivors and to document how First Nations are dealing with mining companies operating on their land.