Recounting career, Merle Alexander describes himself as 'child of Aboriginal law'

The lawyer who co-drafted BC's DRIPA says landmark shifts in Indigenous rights shaped his career

Recounting career, Merle Alexander describes himself as 'child of Aboriginal law'

When Merle Alexander was studying political science at the University of Victoria, it seemed to him that Indigenous rights were all anyone wanted to talk about, both on and off campus.

It was the early 1990s, and the federal government had just established the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples in response to the Kanesatake Resistance, also known as the Oka Crisis. In British Columbia, where Alexander had grown up, Gitksan and Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs were embroiled in a complex, 374-day trial with the provincial government over 58,000 square kilometres of land – a dispute that would eventually lead to a landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision on Indigenous rights and title.

Meanwhile, Indigenous leaders had recently established a task force with the BC and federal governments to investigate how to approach treaty negotiations. In 1992, former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and the nation’s provincial governments introduced the Charlottetown Accord, whose proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada included enshrining the right of Indigenous peoples to self-government.

It was a time when “this really intense academic and even public awareness around Aboriginal rights issues was very front and center,” Alexander recalls.

From a young age, Alexander, from the Tsimshian community of Kitasoo Xai'xais First Nation, was drawn to a career in law, captivated by the glamour of courtrooms that he saw in the media. However, the acute focus on Indigenous rights by faculty members, classmates, and the media throughout Alexander’s undergraduate years transformed his vague legal career aspirations into a clear path forward.

That time “helped me really get a sense of the need for there to be Indigenous lawyers,” Alexander says. “It triggered a real, concrete passion for a very particular career.

“I knew going into law school that I was going to focus on working for Indigenous peoples,” he says.

Alexander has done just that in the 24 years since he graduated from law school. At the start of his career, much of his practice focused on First Nations economic development, which included supporting Indigenous companies and negotiating resource contracts.

Subsequent tenures at boutique, mid-sized, and major law firms – including DLA Piper, Norton Rose Fulbright, and Gowling WLG – evolved his practice to focus on resource law. At Miller Titerle + Co, where Alexander has been a partner since 2018, his work involves advocating for sustainable development, title and rights affirmation, and environmental conservation.

It’s a practice that “always tracks where the Canadian economy is going,” Alexander says. “If there's a real key focus on LNG [liquefied natural gas], I'm doing lots of LNG negotiations. If hydro is very hot in the Canadian climate, then I'm negotiating with somebody like BC Hydro or other hydro entities.

“Whatever’s trending, I’m always on the First Nations side, negotiating opposite industry,” he says.

The way Alexander tells it, a throughline of his career is being at the right place and time. By the time he was in law school, Delgamuukw v. British Columbia had reached the Supreme Court of Canada; Alexander worked on an intervenor’s factum in the case. As a young lawyer, a series of SCC decisions that defined the Crown’s legal duty to consult Indigenous peoples before making decisions that could infringe on their rights reshaped his practice.

“Sometimes I describe myself as a child of Aboriginal law because my career has tracked a lot of the substantial changes,” he says.

“I just had the perfect timing to be learning… when the law was dramatically changing.”

But Alexander is shaping the law, too. In the first twelve years of his career, he served as a pro bono United Nations negotiator, advocating for Indigenous peoples in environmental treaty and intellectual property contexts. The reputation he developed in those years led to his recruitment, years later, to the co-development team for BC’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act. The 2019 law established a UN declaration on Indigenous peoples’ rights as the province’s framework for reconciliation.

Helping the province implement the law – which is known as DRIPA and mandates aligning provincial laws with the UN declaration – now makes up approximately half of Alexander’s practice.

Much of his current work involves helping reform BC’s Mineral Tenure Act, which regulates how mineral claims are granted in the province. Multiple First Nations have challenged the current regime, which allows the province to grant individuals and companies mineral rights in Indigenous territories without first consulting or receiving the communities' consent.

Alexander says the legislative changes rank among the most exciting work he’s done in his career.

“I think I've had a very blessed career,” he says. “To be at the right place at the right time.”