Renée Pelletier

Renée Pelletier is the Managing Partner at OKT. Renée is of Maliseet descent and grew up in Fall River, Nova Scotia. Her practice includes work on Aboriginal and treaty rights litigation and specific claims. She has litigated judicial review applications and appeared before various levels of courts on motions, trials and appeals. Renée was cited by the Supreme Court of Canada in the high-profile case R. v. Ipeelee, 2012 SCC 13. Renée regularly advises and represents her Indigenous clients on consultation matters, regulatory and environmental matters, reserve land management and impacts and benefits agreements. Renée is especially passionate about assisting her Indigenous clients in achieving greater self-determination. She also strives to incorporate the legal traditions of her Indigenous clients into the work she does on their behalf. Renée has also served as a member of the Independent Federal Environmental Assessment Expert Review Panel. The Panel engaged Canadians and Indigenous peoples and provided recommendations to the Government of Canada on reforms to federal environmental assessment processes.

Renée recently acted as co-lead counsel on the Canada’s first Aboriginal title to water trial where she played an important role in advancing arguments and leading evidence on the Indigenous perspective on title to water.

Renée has worked at Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto, volunteered for the Native Women’s Resource Centre, and worked with the Innocence Project about the case of Native American Activist Leonard Peltier. Renée was also a Native Court Worker at College Park Criminal Court.

Renée is a member of the New Brunswick and Ontario Bars. She is French Acadian, her first language is French, and she is fluently bilingual in both French and English. Renée is also a member of the Indigenous Bar Association. Renée is a frequent guest lecturer in Aboriginal and Environmental Law and is a sessional lecturer at the University of New Brunswick, teaching an upper year course on land claims and self-government. Renée also serves as co-chair of Osgoode Professional Development’s Certificate Program in the Fundamentals of Indigenous Peoples and Canadian Law.

Renée is listed as a “frequently recommended” lawyer in the Lexpert Directory and is ranked in both Lexpert and Best Lawyers in Canada as one of the top lawyers in the area of “Aboriginal Law.”