Soldier will focus on supporting young lawyers and promoting dialogue to protect the rule of law
When Stacey Soldier was working as a criminal defense lawyer early in her career, she met a young client who stared at her at length before asking Soldier if she could pose a question. “Sure,” Soldier replied.
“Are you a native lady?” the girl asked. Soldier told her that she was.
“She said, ‘I didn’t know native ladies were allowed to be lawyers,’” Soldier recalls. The girl was Indigenous, hailing from one of Manitoba’s northern communities. “In that moment, it crystallized for me,” Soldier says. “How important [it was for] people like her in the criminal justice system to see a face like mine.”
Soldier reflected on the moment on Thursday. Days earlier, on Sept. 1, the lawyer had made history when she became the first Anishinaabe woman to serve as president of the Manitoba Bar Association.
The development was the latest in a string of firsts for Soldier. She was the first person in her family to attend university and pursue a career as a lawyer; as a student at the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Law, she remembers being one of only a handful of Indigenous students. “The first anything is a proud and lonely walk,” Soldier says. “One of the things that I always think about is, how am I representing my community? In the legal community, are they going to be proud of me? Am I representing them well?”
Soldier’s experience informs her priorities as president of the MBA. Visiting her former law school recently, she was astonished at the diversity of the student body and the active Indigenous Students’ Association. “It’s amazing,” she says of the broad range of students. “I want to have the students understand that the bar association is there for them, it’s a support for them, [there are] learning opportunities and networks in place for them so that they can be a part of our profession and make their own marks.”
Like many other legal organizations across Canada, Soldier is also focused on safeguarding the rule of law. Attacks on the rule of law under the Trump administration in the US seem “to have emboldened people to do things that really would have been unthinkable, like 10, 20, years ago – even four years ago,” Soldier says. She points to recent cases of Canadian politicians questioning court or prosecutorial decisions – as some did in relation to the individuals involved in the 2022 convoy protest in Ottawa – as an example.
“I have moments [where I have] a sense of superiority when reading about issues in legal systems in other countries. I think, well, Canada is so great,” Soldier says. “But then I have to reflect on that, because while we do have a strong system here in Canada, it’s not perfect.
“Access to justice – it’s not a goal that's been achieved just yet,” she adds. “And that’s despite the best efforts from government, legal community and community organizations who address it.”
While Soldier says she doesn’t have the answers on how to best maintain the rule of law in Canada, “we need to start having a dialogue of what it means to be a voice to protect the rule of law, to be a voice to champion it… how do we how do I use my influence and privilege to counter this regression of that we’re seeing in society?”
Soldier is counsel at Cochrane Sinclair LLP, where her practice includes litigating criminal and child protection matters. She also represents victims of sexual violence. Soldier previously served as co-counsel for the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs at the National Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
She replaces Jessica Schofield as president of the MBA.
