Picking rocks on his family’s field, Bruce McIvor realized he had to find something to do so he wouldn’t spend the rest of his life picking rocks like his grandparents did. Like many Indigenous people, they were displaced onto less desirable agricultural land. He ended up becoming a lawyer after a very difficult start in life. He lives in Vancouver but grew up north of Winnipeg on a farm near the Peguis First Nation reserve. Born of a Métis family that was forced off their land at St. Peter’s on the Red River, they resettled close to the Peguis people who also had to resettle. 

When he was five years old, McIvor’s dad passed away, leaving his mother to raise eight kids alone. She sold their cows and bought an abandoned school house and their family got by farming, with their trapline, digging seneca roots, cutting down trees on christmas break and whatever else they could to make ends meet. He didn’t know any professional people but he was hardworking, self-sufficient, confident and had self-respect. 

The seventh of nine children, McIvor was the second to graduate from high school and the only to obtain a university degree. He earned four degrees in all. Making the shift to urban professional life was a challenge thinking about where he came from and other lawyers tried to intimidate him early on. The confidence he had from playing hockey and fighting his whole life helped carry him through those difficult interactions, along with the resilience that came from enduring difficult times. 

For McIvor, not coming into his work with a sense of entitlement has served him well working with First Nations across the country. “I always tell people, at least from my perspective, one of the most fundamental characteristics of being a successful lawyer is a sense of humility,” he reflects. With the support of his mother and his family, he’s been able to build a successful career. 

Growing up with a speech impediment, his teachers thought he wasn’t smart and he was diverted into a vocational track of learning until his mother advocated for him to be redirected. McIvor barely graduated from high school and ended up going to Brandon University. He took his first university courses on the Peguis Reserve through a special university program until he could take courses in Winnipeg the next semester. For his undergraduate degree, he majored in history, then did a master’s and PhD in history at Simon Fraser University. He did research for Aboriginal law lawyers to make ends meet as a student and went on to get a law degree at UBC. 

“I really feel fortunate that I get to do what I do. I really love practicing law. The best thing about it is my clients. I have clients coast to coast and I have such wonderful clients. I just give thanks every day that they invite me in to share their experience, to be part of the important work that they're doing to defend and advance their rights, and not for themselves as much, but for their children and future, future generations,” he beams.

If he could give advice to his younger self it would be, "Never let someone tell me I couldn't do something.” Because of his speech impediment, someone told McIvor he couldn’t be a teacher and now he argues before the Supreme Court and publicly speaks all the time. He was determined to do what he wanted but he had to work through someone questioning his ability to pursue his dreams. 

One of his dreams was starting his own law firm, leaving behind where he used to work, because he wanted to practice differently. Practicing high quality law is important to him, but so is contributing to the broader public conversation about Indigenous rights. It’s not something that generates revenue, but it's something McIvor considers to be his responsibility. He ended up merging his law firm with another firm with the understanding that’s  how he wants to operate and his new partners were supportive. 

McIvor’s advice for Indigenous youth is “You need to create opportunities for yourself, and one of the ways you do that is to have contacts. Contacts are huge. Doesn't matter what you want to do with your life, having those contacts, and where a lot of non Indigenous people have an advantage is that they have families with all these contacts, right? They have professional families. They have contacts all throughout and they take advantage. A lot of Indigenous people will come from backgrounds where they don't have those kinds of contacts… Don't be shy about reaching out, particularly to other Indigenous people. Reach out to them…I just know that every colleague of mine is very focused on helping, wanting to help create opportunities for Indigenous youth that they all want to go out of their way to help you find a place, and so just take a chance. Don't be shy about it. Go out and contact people. You'll be really surprised in the positive response.”

He didn’t want to pick rocks forever; he wanted something more for himself. After studying history, Bruce McIvor is helping make the future brighter by defending the rights of First Nations communities with his law degree. With resilience and grit of the difficult circumstances he came from, he serves his clients with humility and passion for his profession every day.

Thanks to Alison Tedford Seaweed for authoring this article.