Reconciliation and Trauma: A Bench and Bar Learning Event
June 24-25, 2026
Meet our Speakers
Beverley Bagnall Hope
Beverley Bagnall Hope: Swampy Cree. Bev offers an amassed 39 years in the social work field in various capacities from front line to leadership roles in First Nation community, NGO’s, Government, both Provincial & Territorial as well as within formal and informal educational settings. Bev is presently in partnership with her husband Frank writing programs, facilitating, training, leading On the Land healing camps and workshops. As well as developing programs and assisting to create curriculums for Indigenous programming for Aboriginal Head Start for Fort Providence NT and other programs in Alberta. Bev has been trained in Western professional and Traditional cultural leadership practices. Bev has been taught and mentored by several significant Elders and Knowledge Keepers. The acknowledgment of attaining the rights to become a teacher happened when her main Elder transferred to her his grey hair. This sacredness is held in a gentle and loving way. Bev has also been acknowledged as a Traditional Healer by Health Canada in the NT.
Vincent Bélanger
Vincent Bélanger is a licensed psychologist who has been practicing in Yellowknife since 2011. Vincent has worked in various roles with Health and Social Services, including the Outpatient Psychiatry Program and the Community Counselling Program in Yellowknife. He now works four days a week in the Holistic Wellness Advisor role at the Liwegoati building within the context of integrated health care teams. Vincent has also maintained a private practice since 2017, whose primary focus is psychotherapy. Trauma focused treatment is an important part of Vincent’s practice, primarily using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment therapy (ACT), Schema focused Therapy, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) to help clients heal from trauma.
Christopher Buchanan
Christopher Buchanan is a Partner at McLennan Ross LLP in Yellowknife. He represents employers and businesses on matters related to all legal aspects of employer-employee relations, human rights complaints, and collective bargaining. Raised in Yellowknife, he is proud to have earned the trust of a variety of clients throughout the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, including individuals, small businesses, governments, Indigenous governments, insurers, and corporations.
Sukham Dhindsa
Sukhmanpreet (Sukham) Dhindsa is a Yellowknife lawyer and founder of SKD Law, a practice focused on wills and estates, family law, child protection, and legal issues related to intimate partner violence (IPV). Her work is grounded in an intersectional framework that addresses the overlap of family, criminal, child protection, and quasi-criminal systems, particularly for individuals navigating complex and high-risk circumstances. She represents individuals, children, and Indigenous governments and works closely with community organizations throughout the Northwest Territories. Sukham's approach to law emphasizes community-based engagement and the delivery of legal services beyond conventional institutional settings. She brings both practical and systems-level insight to addressing the legal and social complexities faced in the North. Her work is informed by a commitment to advancing substantive access to justice.
Hawa Dumbuya-Sesay
Hawa Dumbuya-Sesay is a social worker and non-profit executive with over 15 years of experience supporting women, children, and families in northern and remote communities. She has served as the Executive Director of YWCA Northwest Territories for over five years, providing strategic leadership across housing and shelter services, family violence prevention, child and youth programming, childcare and legal advocacy. Hawa brings expertise in organizational leadership, crisis intervention, systems advocacy, and culturally responsive service delivery, with a strong commitment to equity and trauma-informed practice. She holds a Master of Social Work from the University of Calgary and is a mother of four, bringing both professional and lived experience to her work supporting families and communities across the North.
Rainer Erasmus
Protect Your Path founder Rainer Erasmus is a dedicated addictions counsellor, mentor, and advocate for recovery-focused community support. Since founding Protect Your Path in March 2024, Rainer has focused on helping individuals rebuild stability, reconnect with ancestral roots, and create meaningful long-term change through supportive sober community, stable housing and attainable job acquisition with Protect Your Path partners. Drawing from both lived understanding and frontline experience, Rainer has built a counselling approach that emphasizes authenticity, trust, and real-world recovery strategies. His work supports individuals navigating addiction, relapse prevention, reintegration, trauma, and personal growth, while also assisting organizations in developing stronger recovery-oriented support systems. Rainer is also the founder of Echoes of the Drum Recovery Society, where he is developing initiatives that will provide intensive aftercare services alongside sober living residences. Known for his direct but compassionate approach, Rainer is passionate about creating spaces where people feel supported without judgment while still being challenged to grow. His leadership style focuses on building genuine relationships, encouraging personal responsibility, and helping people rediscover strengths they may have lost sight of during addiction and hardship. Through Protect Your Path and Echoes of the Drum Recovery Society, Rainer continues to advocate for accessible, community-driven recovery services that meet people where they are and help guide them toward lasting change.
Frank Hope
Frank Hope: Dehcho Dene NT, a Residential School Survivor. Frank is fluent in his traditional language of Dene Hattie. Frank has been involved with the Aboriginal Healing Foundation (AHF) since its inception as a Community Support Worker/Regional Liaison for the Yukon and the NT assisting communities to actively manage their funded contracts with AHF. He then became a Residential School Specialist facilitating psycho-educational trauma recovery healing programs in urban and remote communities in the NT. He then became the NT/Yukon representative/liaison for the Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) process. As well as working with the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls at the National events and as a statement gatherer for the families who have lost their loved ones. Other relevant experience includes 6 years as a probation officer, 15 plus years as a trained and certified drug and alcohol counsellor, certified Life Coach and facilitator, 12 years as a lead Suicide Assist Trainer in the NWT. Frank co owns Shakes the Dust Hope Consulting with his wife and can be contacted through their website www.shakesthedusthopeconsulting.com Frank has most recently been acknowledged by Health Canada in the NT as a Traditional Healer.
Nicola Langille
Nicola is a lawyer at Addario Law Group LLP in Toronto. For 6 years, she worked as a Staff Lawyer with the Legal Aid Commission of the Northwest Territories. In 2018-2020, she served as the lead criminal law policy advisor to then Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, David Lametti. In 2014-2015, she served as a Law Clerk to the Honourable Justice Clément Gascon of the Supreme Court of Canada. Nicola received her B.C.L./LL.B. from McGill University's Faculty of Law, and her LL.M. from New York University's School of Law.
The Honourable J. Michael MacDonald, ONS, CM
The Honourable J. Michael MacDonald joined Stewart McKelvey as Counsel in April of 2019 following a distinguished career on the Bench. Mr. MacDonald was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia in 1995 and the Associate Chief Justice three years later. He became the 22nd Chief Justice of Nova Scotia and the Chief Justice of the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal in 2004. A member of the Canadian Judicial Council for twenty years, he has chaired several of its committees, most recently the Judicial Conduct Committee. As Chief Justice, in 2014, Michael led the creation of the Nova Scotia Access to Justice Coordinating Committee, a group of legal professionals working to make Nova Scotia a national leader in access to justice. During his tenure as Chief Justice, he promoted several judicial outreach initiatives to engage the Indigenous and African Nova Scotia communities. His efforts to foster inclusion on the Bench include creating a judicial mentorship initiative for African Nova Scotian and Indigenous lawyers. He also volunteered with Phoenix Youth to host justice day camps for young people from racialized communities. From 2020 to 2023, Michael chaired the Mass Casualty Commission, which culminated in 130 recommendations designed to make Nova Scotian and Canadian communities safer. Michael’s access to justice initiatives have been recognized by Cape Breton University and Mount Allison University with honourary doctorate of laws degrees. The Canadian Bar Association (Nova Scotia Branch) has renamed its annual access to justice award the “J. Michael MacDonald Access to Justice Award” to honour Michael’s work in this area. In 2024, he received the Order of Nova Scotia, the Province’s highest honour, and in 2025, he was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada, one of the country’s highest civilian distinctions. He has presented at, and participated in, numerous legal conferences in Canada, the United States, and Europe, and has assisted the judiciaries in Kazakhstan and Ukraine. He is a regular guest speaker at Dalhousie’s Schulich School of Law and a recipient of the Queen’s Golden, Diamond and Platinum Jubilee medals, along with the King Charles III Coronation Medal. Michael focuses his practice on alternative dispute resolution, along with presentations on trauma-informed fact finding. As well, he presently chairs the Working Group that supports the Action Committee on Modernizing Court Operations, co-chaired by the Chief Justice of Canada and the Federal Minister of Justice. Michael also volunteers with Phoenix Youth Programs and presently chairs its board of directors.
Paulina Ross, JD, MSc, BA
Paulina Ross was born and raised in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (sociology), a Master of Science (environmental), and a Juris Doctor degree. Her graduate research focused on climate change, traditional foodways, and food security in the Northwest Territories, and resulted in multiple peer-reviewed publications examining northern and Indigenous community’s resilience to environmental changes and traditional ways of life. Following law school, Paulina returned north to article with the Government of the Northwest Territories before joining Legal Aid NWT as a Criminal Defence Lawyer. In that role, she served as lead defence counsel for specialized courts, working primarily with Indigenous clients accused of intimate partner violence. Her practice focused on helping accused persons’ navigate the criminal justice system, including supporting clients through treatment-based and restorative approaches, contested matters, and pathways toward accountability and rehabilitation. Paulina’s work has consistently centered on the realities facing northern and Indigenous communities, including the intergenerational impacts of trauma and colonialization, systemic barriers within the justice system, and the importance of culturally informed responses to intimate partner violence. Her perspective is grounded in both her northern upbringing and her experience working directly with clients in the criminal justice system. Paulina has presented on an array of northern and Indigenous issues at international conferences, including the Arctic Frontiers Conference in Tromso, Norway; the Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavik, Iceland; and the International Conference on Food Security in Barcelona, Spain, among others. She currently works as Legal Counsel for Legal Division with the Government of the Northwest Territories, advising on a broad range of legal issues affecting northern communities, governance and peoples.
The Honourable Chief Justice Shannon Smallwood
The Honourable Chief Justice Shannon Smallwood was appointed to the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories and to the Courts of Appeal of the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon in 2011. She was appointed to the position of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories in September 2022. She is a member of the Sahtu Dene from Fort Good Hope, Northwest Territories and was the first Indigenous Judge appointed in the Northwest Territories. Prior to her appointment, she worked as Counsel and later Senior Counsel and Team Leader for the Public Prosecution Service of Canada. As a Crown Prosecutor, she worked mainly on appeals, homicides, dangerous offender, child pornography and sexual offence files. She attended the University of Calgary and received her Bachelor of Arts in 1993 and Bachelor of Laws in 1999. She articled with the Alberta Court of Appeal and Court of Queen’s Bench in Calgary as well as the Department of Justice Canada in Yellowknife.
The Honourable Judge Stephanie Whitecloud-Brass
Judge Stephanie L. Whitecloud-Brass is Dakota/Lakota from the Tatanka Najin Dakota Oyate (Standing Buffalo Dakota Nation) located in south-eastern Saskatchewan. She moved with her family from the city of Saskatoon to Yellowknife in March of 2017 and was appointed to the Territorial Court of the Northwest Territories in December of 2022. Prior to her appointment, Judge Whitecloud-Brass was a criminal defence lawyer with the Legal Aid Commission for the Government of the Northwest Territories. Until then, practicing criminal law was not something she had done since the early years of her legal career, receiving her call to the Saskatchewan Bar in 2008. An alumnus of the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Law, Judge Whitecloud-Brass accumulated the bulk of her legal experience while working with the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, working as claimant counsel in the Independent Assessment Process as part of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement and as counsel with the City Solicitor’s Office in Saskatoon. Judge Whitecloud-Brass is thrilled that we could gather for this event on Chief Drygeese Territory and is honoured to be a part of today’s event.
