Claire advises Indigenous governments and individuals on a variety of legal issues. She has particular expertise in fisheries, water rights and governance, legal interests in reserve land and land management, Indigenous membership or citizenship, and Indian registration (status). She also advises First Nations on these issues in modern treaty negotiations. Claire was initially drawn to working for Indigenous peoples through studying natural resource management and the conflict between Indigenous and non-Indigenous fishers on the Fraser River. She brings this interest in ecology and natural resource management to her legal practice.

Claire assists her clients in seeking justice through the courts in judicial review, trial and appeal proceedings on matters of Aboriginal and treaty rights, consultation and accommodation, Charter rights and disputes under the Indian Act. She has appeared at the British Columbia Supreme Court, British Columbia Court of Appeal, Alberta Court of King’s Bench, Alberta Court of Appeal, Saskatchewan Court of King’s Bench, Federal Court and Supreme Court of Canada.

Prior to joining JFK, Claire was a judicial law clerk at the Ontario Court of Appeal where she worked on a wide range of criminal and civil law issues for Justices Watt, MacFarland, Juriansz and Strathy. Claire had the honour of assisting Justice Harry LaForme of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, the first Indigenous person appointed to an appellate court in Canada, with a paper on the development of Aboriginal rights under section 35 of the Constitution.

Outside of her work Claire enjoys the beautiful outdoors of BC by running, hiking, camping, skiing and playing soccer with a great team of other women over 30 just waiting for their knees to give out. Claire is a former university athlete and acted as Chair of the University of Victoria Vikes Women’s Rowing Alumni Chapter to support the next generations of student athletes. She is also a past Chair of the Aboriginal Law Section of the Canadian Bar Association (2021-2022) and former Chair of the Aboriginal Law – Vancouver Island Subsection (2016-2018).

 Practice Focus:

• Appellate litigation
• Modern treaty negotiation and litigation
• Indian registration, band membership and Indigenous citizenship
• Aboriginal and treaty fishing rights
• Water rights and governance

Qualifications:

• Called to the Alberta Bar, 2018
• Called to the British Columbia Bar, 2013
• Called to the Ontario Bar, 2013
• University of Victoria, J.D., 2012
• Simon Fraser University, B.A., 2008

Selected Publications and Presentations

• Claire Truesdale, “COVID 19 and Indigenous Communities: Impacts on Indigenous Employers and Employment Issues, Courts and Consultation” (delivered at the Pacific Business and Law Institute Conference: COVID 19 and Indigenous Communities, 26 May 2020)
• Claire Truesdale, “Helping Indigenous Clients Apply for Registration under the Indian Act” (delivered at the Legal Services Society Provincial Advocates Conference, 9 October 2019)
• Claire Truesdale and Karey Brooks, A Guide to Aboriginal Harvesting Rights (Vancouver: Legal Services Society, 2017)
• Claire Truesdale, “Gender Discrimination and Indian Status” (delivered to the Aboriginal Law – Vancouver Island Section of the Canadian Bar Association, 25 November 2016)
• Claire Truesdale, “Excluded by the Accidents of History – Implications of the Daniels Decision for Non-Status Indian People and Communities” (delivered at the Pacific Business and Law Institute Conference on The Daniels Case at the Supreme Court of Canada: Recognition of Métis and Non-Status Aboriginal Peoples, 23 June 2016)
• Justice Harry S. LaForme with the assistance of Claire Truesdale, “Section 25 of the Charter; Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982: Aboriginal and Treaty Rights – 30 Years of Recognition and Affirmation” in Errol Mendes & Stéphane Beaulac, eds., Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Markham: LexisNexis Canada Inc., 2013)

Claire Truesdale provides legal services through Claire Truesdale Law Corporation