Accountable hearts: practising wahkohtowin and legal ethics in a multijuridical context

By Hero Laird

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Tawow!

As part of a university-based legal research unit that supports community-led projects in Indigenous law, ethics and how they work in relationship to Indigenous law is vital to my work. How am I accountable to the communities I serve? How am I accountable as a lawyer and a member of the Law Society of Alberta? As an employee and student at the University of Alberta? In all this, I am navigating a multijuridical context as a non-Indigenous Treaty person, upholding Cree, Anishiaabe and other Indigenous legal orders as well as adhering to European-derived Canadian law. 

To me, ethics is a matter of accountability and trust. It is not abstract, but comes in the form of specific practises, processes and approaches that make up our day to day realities. 

I hope to reflect on this in some upcoming blogs, but for now I want to explore a few ways that personal accountability and institutional accountability connect. 

I see ethics as being at the heart of legal work. As the Law Society of Alberta Code of Conduct states, "regardless of the possibility of formal sanction, a lawyer should observe the highest standards of conduct on both a personal and professional level so as to retain the trust, respect and confidence of colleagues and members of the public." Of course, this is true for the many people who have a role in upholding law, not just lawyers. We all have roles as legal actors. What about a teacher who yells? What about when they are kind? Ethics are not only about mitigating against harm. They also empower positive interactions. 

Ethics connect to inner work or internal accountability that informs law and governance at all scales. Legal organizations, from families to community councils to courtrooms, rely on the choices of individual people and how they govern themselves internally. I have learned something about this in studying accounts of Cree and Anishinaabe law related to love as a legal principle, including the Michipicoten constitution and Nigel Grenier-Baker's writing on Cree laws of compassion, as well as Law Society Codes of Conduct, which emphasize personal integrity and personal responsibility. The central role of inner work in law was recently illuminated for me by WLGL Scholar in Residence Professor Larry Chartrand's 2026 lectures, in which he describes Métis legal ordering as expressed in the individual and family, which is supported by regional governance layers. 

To activate individual internal governance as a part of how our legal systems operate, I ask: How do I hold myself accountable, and how I am held accountable by others?

How do I hold myself accountable, and how I am held accountable by others?

Ethics play a role in this, as they imply a proactive and transparent centering of accountability in day to day work. Rather than seeking trust, each person's role is to demonstrate how we can act worthy of trust to those around us, to the best of our ability (and making space for grace when many of us inevitably stumble!).

This grounded approach is informed by the logic of many specific Indigenous legal orders that I understand to hold relating, and orienting life around specific relations, as central. The Cree principles of wahkohtowin (interrelatedness and the laws governing relationships) and miyo-wîcihtowin (building and maintaining good relations) are two examples that I have been reflecting on. This legal practise seems to involve the recognition of relational ethics and accountability in the lives of all people, all of us, who have a role as legal decision makers. I think Professor Margaret Kovach's work on Indigenous research methodology applies equally to legal action: "trustworthiness cannot be abstracted from methodology, community, and personal ethical choices" (at 99).

Grounding ethics in our personal choices and inner work is also informed by the Law Society of Alberta's Code of Conduct, and the University of Alberta's research ethics. The Code of Conduct, which sets out the "high standards" required of all lawyers, requires taking care to relate ethically, as in "honesty and candour in dealings with clients" (s 3.23) and accepting "personal responsibility" (s 7.2-14). The University of Alberta's Human Research Ethics principles include a respect for "human dignity" and a "recognition of the intrinsic value of human beings and the respect and consideration they are due." 

Although conflict between the ethics of different legal orders can be deep and harmful, there are ways in which the ethics of diverse legal orders can support each other to uphold ethical relationships. This is contingent on striving for what Professor Willie Ermine terms "ethical space" or "the thought about diverse societies and the space in between them that contributes to the development of a framework for dialogue between human communities." 

For example, University and Law Society accountability can support personal accountability to Indigenous communities as well. I think about my own role as a researcher in say, conducting an interview. Part of proactive ethical behaviour means I must always be aware of my ethical position in my role. Am I doing my part to create that ethical space? 

In my experience it takes a lot of care, thinking and work to articulate and follow through on commitments for ethical accountability. This can include conversations with our community partners that are clarified and confirmed through (1) a research partnership agreement collaboratively developed by the joint community-university research team, and (2) applying for an ethics certificate through the university, as well as, potentially, (3) applying for an ethics certificate through a Nation’s ethics review process, prior to conducting any interviews. For me as a lawyer, it also includes (4) revisiting the Law Society of Alberta Code of Conduct, which I am always accountable to follow. 

In this way, as a lawyer and legal researcher with the Wahkohtowin Lodge, I am held accountable in four ways - through the relationships in the community-university research team, and additional community, university and Law Society processes. That can be a strength. 

However, even once research partnership agreements are drafted and ethics certificates are granted, this relational and institutional strength is not guaranteed or inherent. How individual people (who make up communities and institutions) hold ourselves accountable for relational ethics when working within and across Indigenous and European-derived legal orders will impact their effectiveness. Codes of conduct, ethics certificates and research partnership agreements do not enact themselves. People must do the work, the work of interpretation and implementation. This involves creating ethical space in our own hearts and minds as well as between people. As part of holding myself accountable, especially as non-Indigenous Treaty person working in Indigenous legal orders, I can strive to practise law and research in ways that create this space. 

Until next time!