Candace Charlie

About Candace

Candace Charlie is a Cowichan Tribes member from the Kwa'mutsun village, born and raised on Cowichan Indian Reserve #1. Her work centers on Aboriginal rights and title, environmental assessments, and lands and resource governance, with practice areas including Aboriginal and treaty rights, Land Code, governance support, and natural resources. She worked for Cowichan Tribes' Lulumexun Lands & Governance Department from 2015 to 2021, in roles including Referrals/Crown Consultation Coordinator, Land Code Coordinator, and Matrimonial Real Property Law Coordinator, before articling and then joining Woodward & Company as a lawyer in early 2023. She represented Cowichan Tribes in Cowichan Tribes et al v Canada (2025 BCSC 1490), securing recognition of Aboriginal title for Tl'uqtinus village lands and an Aboriginal right to fish. She studied at the UBC Faculty of Music before earning a sustainability policy studies degree from Kwantlen Polytechnic University, then completed the University of Saskatchewan's Program of Legal Studies for Native People (2017) and her law degree at the University of Victoria in December 2021, and was called to the BC Bar in 2022.

Education & credentials

Undergraduate

Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Sustainability Policy Studies

Other degrees

Program of Legal Studies for Native People, University of Saskatchewan (2017)