Kennedy A. Bear Robe

About Kennedy A. Bear Robe

Big energy and resource developments are at the centre of Kennedy A. Bear Robe's practice, along with the strategies Indigenous Nations use to assert their own jurisdiction over how those developments are assessed, approved, then run and maintained. A partner at Gowling WLG, Bear Robe practises out of both the Calgary and Toronto offices.

A lot of this work happens at the negotiating table. As lead counsel, Bear Robe represents Indigenous Nations on self-government, on sharing resource revenue, on IBAs with private companies, and on cooperation and coordination with regulators. The agreements bring Indigenous governments together with federal, provincial and territorial governments and regulators, and with private companies, and the job doesn't stop once a deal's signed: Kennedy stays involved in the legal work of making it function. In Ontario's Resource Revenue Sharing talks, it was Bear Robe who served the Government of the Anishinaabe Nation in Treaty #3 as lead counsel and negotiator, and that same Nation later turned to Kennedy for advice on its Relationship Agreement with the Nuclear Waste Management Organization.

There's a hearing and courtroom side too. Bear Robe heads legal teams on several large environmental assessment and permitting files, represents clients before federal and provincial regulators and in the litigation that follows, and takes on environmental and Indigenous law disputes as litigation counsel. At the Federal Court of Appeal, Kennedy acted for Bigstone Cree Nation in Bigstone Cree Nation v. Nova Gas Transmission Ltd., 2018 FCA 89; provincial court appearances span British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. With a JD from the University of British Columbia, Bear Robe joined the BC bar in 2013 and has since added calls in Alberta, Ontario and the Northwest Territories.

Kennedy is Siksikaitsitapi (Blackfoot), a member of the Siksika Nation, and sits on the board of directors of the Siksika Group of Companies. Outside work, you'll find a proud parent who loves hunting, reading and art, and who also runs the fantasy football league at Gowling WLG's Vancouver office as its commissioner. Bear Robe has spoken widely on Indigenous law and resource issues, including at the CBA's Aboriginal Section conference, a CLEBC program on cultural competency for lawyers, and the Assembly of First Nations' Lands and Resources Forum.