Welcome

Welcome to Kathleen Mahoney’s website.  Here you will find Kathleen’s biography, her CV, her latest blog posts, and other news.

The Settlement Process: A Personal Reflection

U of T journal_Settlement Process

How Indigenous Legal Principles Created the Largest Settlement in Canadian Legal History: The Untold Story

KathleenMahoneyTheUntoldS

Representing Survivors: A Critical Analysis of Recommendations to Resolve Northern Ireland’s Historical Child Abuse Claims

Repr Survi_Crit_Analysis

The Rule of Law in Canada 150 Years After Confederation: Re-Imagining the Rule of Law and Recognizing Indigenous Peoples as Founders of Canada

Blog_KM_Indigenous_Founders

Keeping Faith Out of the Public Square: Is Calgary City Hall Offside?

O God, author of all wisdom, knowledge and understanding. We ask Thy guidance in our consultations to the end that truth and justice may prevail, in all our judgements. Amen.

(Prayer recited at Calgary City Council meetings)

What is wrong with this invocation? The Supreme Court of Canada would say nothing, as long as it is not invoked at City Hall to open meetings.

Human Rights and Equality under Attack: The Difficult Challenge Ahead

Human rights and equality discourse is under attack in many parts of the world. The assumption that equality is a social ideal has been hijacked, hoodwinked, and misrepresented in even the most advanced human rights jurisdictions. The anti-equality discourse is being led by those with agendas that are not at all commensurate with the promotion and continuance of a human rights culture that has advanced the rights of marginalized people all over the world since the inception of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Bishop Tutu: His Challenge to the Legal Profession on the Morals and Ethics of Climate Change

I was privileged this past weekend to hear Archbishop Desmond Tutu speak at a conference on climate change and treaty rights in Fort McMurray, Alberta from May 31-June 1, 2014 (see the program here). His remarks were directed at climate change in general and the Alberta oil sands development in particular. He clearly made the link between carbon emissions from the oil sands and climate change. He then situated the issue of climate change squarely in a moral and ethical dimension. He argued that consideration of this dimension must play a central role in legal and policy decisions about responses here in Canada and around the world.

The Indian Residential School Settlement: Is Reconciliation Possible?

Being the Chief Negotiator for the Assembly of First Nations instigating and completing the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement, cannot be described in words. The round-the-clock sessions with upwards of 80 lawyers, the meetings from coast to coast to coast with survivors, the conferences with experts from around the world, negotiations with the Vatican and the Prime Minister’s office–it doesn’t get much better than that for a human rights lawyer and law professor. Out of this amazing odyssey came the largest, most comprehensive and unique class action judgment in Canadian legal history. The question now is, to what effect? Can we expect reconciliation with the First Nations of Canada? Will the wounds finally heal? These are the questions up for discussion in this blog.

The Role of the “Noble Savage” in Environmental Social Activism

This post will discuss what I call the “The Role of the Noble Savage” in the pursuit of environmental justice through social activism. I will use the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines Project to provide context.

Enbridge is a thirty-one billion dollar corporation based out of Calgary, Alberta. Enbridge owns and operates the world’s longest crude oil and liquids pipeline system. This system transports more than 2 million barrels per day of crude oil and liquids, and provides natural gas to 1.9 million customers in Canada and the United States.