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A woman who became the first female Indigenous dean of a Canadian law school has launched a lawsuit against the university, alleging it racially discriminated against her and forced her to quit her post earlier this year.
Angelique EagleWoman was appointed head of the law school at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay in May 2016.
She resigned in June and alleges she was consistently micromanaged and undermined in her position forcing her to resign.
The lawsuit claims EagleWoman encountered resistance from a small segment of the faculty, staff and students who suggested to her that “she was not deserving of the position of dean and was not hired on merit.”
EagleWoman is asking for $2.67 million in damages.
Lakehead University has not released a response.

Protesters are expected to block a causeway connecting Cape Breton Island to mainland Nova Scotia today in an effort to raise awareness about the unsolved murder of an Indigenous woman.
22 year old Cassidy Bernard, mother to infant twins, was found dead at a home on the We’koqma’q First Nation last month.
Police are calling the woman’s death “suspicious,” and say the two infants _who were at home at the time of her death – were not harmed.
The community’s band council is offering a $100,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the woman’s murderer.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission heard concerns about coerced sterilization of Indigenous women during its years-long examination of Canada’s residential school legacy.
Sinclair said cases brought to his commission’s attention generally involved women who were under the supervision of a child-welfare case worker or a social worker from a child welfare agency.
Sinclair said (coerced sterilization) was in an issue in Saskatchewan and says the commission suggested a government evaluation of the child welfare system’s involvement in this.
Sinclair said forced sterilization is considered a crime under the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide adopted in 1948.

Nearly 500 indigenous leaders participated in the nations first ever national indigneous cannabis conference this week.
The gathering took place on Treaty 7 territory of the Tsuut’ina Nation near Calgary.
Former Ontario regional chief Isadore Day chaired the conference and said jurisdictional issues are the top priority shared by communities at the gathering. Day says indigneous nation asserting their jurisdiction int he cannabis and hemp industry needs to be respected by the mainstream industry and at all levels of government.