“At my previous law firm in [a large city in Alberta], I was tasked with drafting all of the
documents on a large asset-purchase in the range of multiple millions of dollars, and, I worked side-by-side with a corporate/ commercial partner to complete the deal.
When meeting with our client to sign all of the asset-purchase documents, and celebrating that
we were near the finish line (and after all of my hard work), the client proceeded to bring out a
piece of paper that he printed off at home and started to read it to me and the partner in the
room – this paper was from an email thread that essentially denigrated First Nation people and
perpetuated some awful myths and stereotypes.
I was livid. Especially after I just toiled for countless hours to get this deal over the goal line.
The client knew I was Indigenous and did not consider that I would not appreciate what he was doing. And the partner who was sitting with us in the conference room knew I was Indigenous, and said nothing to me until after the meeting – at which point the partner said he was not sure
what to do and brought up another similar incident with another client and said he didn’t know what to do in that moment either."
