OUR MISSION AND VISION
Our mission is to support, inform, and empower Indigenous community members navigating the Canadian legal and carceral systems by offering culturally appropriate justice services and by creating alternative community-led justice processes rooted in Indigenous values.
Our vision is to have strong Indigenous communities accessing justice processes rooted in respect, healing, decolonization, and Indigenous law. We believe that Indigenous-led initiatives contribute to diminishing recidivism, victimization and the over-incarceration of First Nations, Inuit and Métis people of Turtle Island.
OUR TEAM
Executive Director
Administrative Coordinator
Manager of funding
Manager of Community Programs
Transition Coordinator
Knowledge Keeper
Reintegration Coordinator
Program Support
Restorative Justice Coordinator
Victim Services Coordinator
Maintenance
OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Nicolas Welt
Nicolas Welt, attorney at law, is currently acting as director of the Criminal Law and Health Law Office of the Legal Aid of Montreal. A member of the bar since 2009, he has practiced in criminal law at the Montreal and Kuujjuaq Legal Aid offices before joining the management team of the Centre Communautaire juridique de Montréal in 2022. He is an ethics arbitrator within the Comité éthique de la recherche pour les projets étudiants de l’UQAM since the fall 2019 and member of the CJPPM Board of Directors since 2017.”
Lynette Black
Lyn Black is a board member of the First Peoples Justice Centre of Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. Currently pursuing a Master of Social Work at McGill University, Lyn focuses on Indigenous rights-based harm reduction with people who experience homelessness and is the Director of Indigenous Support Work Project (ISWP/PTSW). In their undergrad, Lyn worked in Vancouver as a Native Court Worker and brings insight to the relationship between Indigenous peoples and Canadian law.
Daphné Drouin
Daphnée Drouin is a Mi’gmaw lawyer from Gespeg. She holds a law degree from the Université du Québec à Montréal and was called to the Bar in 2020. She joined O’Reilly, André-Grégoire et Associés in 2024, after working there as a student in 2017 and articling with the firm (then O’Reilly et Associés) in 2020. Before embarking on her career as a lawyer, Daphnée worked as a youth protection worker, notably for four years in Nunavik. Her experience in youth protection has given her a very specific objective: to provide legal support to Indigenous communities by building child and family services that meet the needs, values, traditions, customs, cultures, languages and ties of each territory. Daphnée works closely with First Nations across Quebec to accompany them towards self government, particularly in the area of child and family services. In addition, Daphnée is a part-time professor at the University of Ottawa. She teaches in the Microprogram in Development of Indigenous Family-Childhood Services – Foundations for Practice. Daphnée is active with a number of organizations and groups that aim to improve access to justice for First Nations and Inuit. She serves as President of the Board of Directors of the First Peoples Justice Center of Tiohtià:ke and is a member of the Quebec Bar’s Expert Group on Aboriginal Law.
Philippe Boucher
Philippe Boucher acts as a justice advisor for the Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach at Atmacinta. As a Gladue Report writer, he also works with Inuit men awaiting sentencing to present their life stories and alternatives to incarceration in criminal courts. He is also a doctoral candidate in Legal Studies at Carleton University in Ottawa. He holds a Master’s degree in Criminology from Université de Montréal, which focused on Indigenous men’s stories of ending domestic violence. His undergraduate degree at Concordia University combines Indigenous Studies and Sociology, and he completed a student exchange in Arctic Studies at the University of Lapland in Finland.
Sophia Kahentinéhshon Dupont
Sophia Kahentinéhshon Dupont is a Kanien’kehá:ka woman who has worked for over 35 years in key administrative support roles in the health and justice sectors. She has also been very involved in Indigenous board governance and joined the First Peoples Justice Centre of Montreal’s Board of Directors in November 2024.
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