Memberships & Professional Affiliations
Canadian Bar Association
Awards
- 2026 Benchmark Litigation Star
- 2026 Lexpert Ranked Lawyer
- 2025 Benchmark Litigation Star
- 2025 Benchmark Litigation 40 and Under List
Practice Areas
- Litigation
Claire advises Indigenous governments and individuals on a variety of issues including specific claims, fisheries, water rights and governance, treaty rights, reserve lands and land management, citizenship and membership, Indian registration, and related issues, including in modern treaty negotiations.
She works to make court processes more transparent and accessible for Indigenous leadership and community members. Claire pursues justice for her clients at courts and tribunals on matters of Aboriginal and treaty rights, consultation and accommodation, jurisdiction, Charter rights, fiduciary duties, and disputes under the Indian Act. She has appeared before the Specific Claims Tribunal; superior and appellate courts in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan; the Quebec Court of Appeal; and the Federal Court. She has also represented intervenors before the Supreme Court of Canada in Pekuakamiulnuatsh Takuhikan, Reference re An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis Children, Youth and Families, Ktunaxa and Daniels.
Claire is a past Chair of the Canadian Bar Association’s Aboriginal Law Section and former Chair of its Aboriginal Law – Vancouver Island Subsection. She is also a former university athlete and past Chair of the University of Victoria Vikes Women’s Rowing Alumni Chapter.
She is a settler of Irish, Norwegian, Finnish, Dutch, English and Welsh ancestry. She grew up in in Scarborough, Ontario on the territory of the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and Wendat peoples, Treaty 13 land, and within the Dish with One Spoon Wampum. She now makes her home in Vancouver, BC, on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations with her husband, son and dog. Outside of her work Claire enjoys the beautiful outdoors of BC by running, hiking, cross-country and downhill skiing and playing soccer – just waiting for her knees to give out. She has run five half marathons and one marathon and they have not let her down yet.
Notable Cases
- Counsel for Songhees Nation in McEwen v. Songhees Nation, 2025 BCSC 1167
- Counsel for the Okanagan Indian Band in Quebec (Attorney General) v. Pekuakamiulnuatsh Takuhikan, 2024 SCC 39
- Counsel for the Okanagan Indian Band at the Specific Claims Tribunal in Okanagan Indian Band v. His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, 2024 SCTC 3 and 2024 SCTC 4
- Counsel for the Aseniwuche Winewak Nation at the Quebec Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of Canada (decision pending) in Reference to the Court of Appeal of Quebec in relation with the Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families, 2022 QCCA 185, 2024 SCC 5
- Co-counsel for Cumberland House Cree Nation at the Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench in Chief René Chaboyer et al v the Water Security Agency et al, 2023 SKKB 62, 2025 SKCA 31
- Counsel for the Te’mexw Treaty Association at the Court of Appeal for British Columbia in Ahousaht Indian Band and Nation v. Canada (Attorney General), 2021 BCCA 155
- Counsel for the Okanagan Indian Band at the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Simpson v. Ziprick Estate, 2020 BCSC 401
- Co-counsel for the Te’mexw Treaty Association at the Supreme Court of Canada in Ktunaxa v. British Columbia (Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations), 2017 SCC 54
- Co-counsel for Aseniwuche Winewak Nation at the Supreme Court of Canada in Daniels v. Canada (Indian Affairs and Northern Development), 2016 SCC 12
Selected Papers and Presentations
- Claire Truesdale, “Preparing Compelling Evidence” (delivered at the Pacific Business and Law Institute Conference: Specific Claims 2025, 7 May 2025)
- Claire Truesdale, “Consultation as Relationship Building” (panel presenter at Osgoode Professional Development’s Certificate in Consultation: 30 April 2025)
- Claire Truesdale, “Indian Status and Membership in Canadian Law” (delivered at the Pacific Business and Law Institute Conference: Indigenous Membership and Identity, 30 January 2025)
- Claire Truesdale, “Reference re An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families – Overview and Implications” (delivered at the Pacific Business and Law Institute Conference: Developments in Aboriginal and Indigenous Law 2024, 22 October 2024 and to the Aboriginal Law – Vancouver Island Section of the Canadian Bar Association, 24 May 2024)
- 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: 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” Errol Mendes & Stéphane Beaulac, eds., Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Markham: LexisNexis Canada Inc., 2013)