John Borrows receives 2024 Guthrie Award

The Law Foundation of Ontario is pleased to announce that Professor John Borrows, BA, MA, JD, LLM, PhD, LLD, DHL, DLitt, FRSC, OC, is the recipient of the 2024 Guthrie Award, the Foundation’s signature award to recognize exceptional access to justice champions.

Recognized as one of the world’s leading scholars and educators on Indigenous law, John is a professor and the inaugural Loveland Chair in Indigenous Law at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law. Previously, John served as the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Law at the University of Victoria, Faculty of Law for eight years. John is Anishinaabe/Ojibway and a member of the Chippewas of the Nawash First Nation in Ontario.

“John has transformed the way that academic and legal sectors understand and intersect with Indigenous law,” says Linda Rothstein, the Foundation’s Board Chair. “He has profoundly shaped our recognition of Canada as multi-juridical and has revitalized Indigenous law within legal education, Indigenous communities, and Canadian society broadly.”

John’s innovations in education have been recognized nationally and internationally. Highlights of his academic achievements include:

• As a doctoral student and assistant professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, John was instrumental in the launch of Intensive Program in Indigenous Lands, Resources & Governments program – the only one of its kind in North America.
• When he was an associate professor at the University of Toronto, John developed the June Callwood Program in Aboriginal Law. The program continues to support Indigenous Community Fellowships for law students and graduates.
• Together with his daughter, Professor Lindsay Borrows, John established the first Anishinaabe Law Camp. This immersive ‘on the land’ program has grown from one (Osgoode Hall Law School) to four Ontario law schools and with other First Nations communities.
• At the University of Victoria, John co-founded the world’s first joint degree program in Indigenous legal orders, Canadian common law, and the interface between them – the first program of its kind in the world.
• Today, John teaches the mandatory first year course on Indigenous Peoples and the Law at the University of Toronto. It is a direct response to the Truth and Reconciliation Committee Call to Action #28 and a crucial introduction for the next generation of lawyers.

“John has integrated Indigenous law rooted in Indigenous peoples’ natural and social environment into the very heart of legal education,” says Jutta Brunnée, FRSC, Dean of the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law and the individual who nominated John for the Guthrie Award. “His extraordinary work revivifying Indigenous law has also contributed to a re-envisioning of the potential of law and participatory democracy. As John says: ‘Law is a social and human activity. It’s something you do, not merely something that’s done to you’. His message is reaching not only law students, but the broader world.”

An award-winning editor and author, John’s books are widely used in Law, Political Science, and Indigenous Studies courses throughout Canada and internationally. His academic work has been cited extensively by human rights bodies and various courts, including the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the Court of Appeal for Ontario, and the Supreme Court of Canada.

John’s opinions are solicited frequently. He was a Research Advisor for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and was credited by retired justice Murray Sinclair with having “a real impact” on its deliberations. He has presented to the Indigenous Committees of the House of Commons and Senate and he wrote the Treaty Justice Report for the Treaty Commissioner of Saskatchewan and the paper that guided the final Ipperwash Inquiry Report for the Government of Ontario.

John helped develop law’s educational infrastructure for the newly created northern territory of Nunavut and has advised many Indigenous communities and nations, including the Assembly of First Nations, Chiefs of Ontario, and Anishinabek Nation. He has also consulted for provincial law societies and the Federation of Law Societies of Canada.

John is the recipient of multiple prestigious awards. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada and has received the Molson Prize, the Killam Prize, the Governor General’s Innovation Award, the Charles Taylor Prize for Excellence in Policy Research, the Indigenous Peoples’ Counsel, and the Canadian Bar Association President’s Award.
John is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Canada’s highest academic honour.

He earned his BA, MA, JD, and LLM from the University of Toronto and his PhD from Osgoode Hall Law School. He has received honorary doctorates from Simon Fraser University, Queen’s University, University of Toronto, Victoria University, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, the Law Society of Ontario, and Dalhousie University.

About the Guthrie Award
The Law Foundation of Ontario created the Guthrie Award in 1996 to honour H. Donald Guthrie, Q.C., a long-standing member and Chair of the Foundation’s Board. A Guthrie Award recipient joins the legacy of the Guthrie Award and becomes a member of an esteemed group recognized for their achievements in improving access to justice. Past recipients have come from many directions – the judiciary, private bar, community legal clinics, and nonprofit organizations. They saw a chance to make a difference and took it. The full list of Guthrie Award recipients can be found at on the Foundation’s website.