4505 Canterra Tower
400 - 3rd Avenue S.W.
Calgary AB T2P 4H2

Direct Phone: 403.693.4319
Fax: 403.508.4349
Email: cleonard@mlt.com

First Nations Law

Clayton’s practice centers primarily on consultation issues between First Nations, the resource sector, municipalities and provincial governments. A significant amount of Clayton’s consultation practice relates to water management and allocation, Treaty water rights and other water issues facing First Nations. Clayton’s practice experience in the field of Aboriginal Law has also included land claims litigation and negotiations, park co-management negotiations, impact benefit agreements and providing legal advice in relation to consultation issues, governance, Treaty and Aboriginal rights, and memberships issues.

On completion of the Native Studies degree in 2000 Clayton was awarded the Harold Lawrence Hawe Bursary which funded his studies in law at the University of Alberta. At law school Clayton participated in the Kawaskihmon National Aboriginal Moot competition, was a member of the executive of the Aboriginal Law Students’ Association and won the Harris Gillespie Field, Q.C. Prize in Environmental Law for his work on the duty to consult and its relevance to First Nations’ environmental concerns.

• Admitted to the Alberta Bar
• LL.B. (Alberta, 2003)
• B.A. (Honours, Native Studies, Alberta, 2000)
• B.A. (Sociology, Concordia College, Edmonton, 1993)

• Harris Gillespie Field, Q.C. Prize in Environmental Law (2002)
• Harold Lawerence Hawe Bursary (2000)
• Governor General’s Silver Medal (2000 – Nominee)
• Johnny Sampson Prize in Native Studies (2000)
• Millar Western Scholarship (1994)
• Charles S. Noble Award for Student Leadership (1993)

• “Treaty Water Rights, the Duty to Consult and Accommodate, and Alberta’s Water Management Planning Process” for the Alberta First Nations Technical Advisory Group (March, 2007)
• “As Long as the Sun Shines and the Water Flows…: the ‘Made in Alberta’ Consultation Policy and Treaty Water Rights” for the Alberta Chiefs’ Summit (September, 2006)
• “The Duty to Consult and Historical Research” for the Faculty of Native Studies, University of Alberta (July, 2006)
• “South Saskatchewan River Basin Water Management Plan” for the Treaty 7 Chiefs’ Association (February, 2006)
• “What’s the difference? Consulting with Treaty First Nations and the Métis” Infonex Conference (November, 2005)
• “Alberta’s First Nations Consultation Policy” for the Treaty 7 Chiefs’ Association (September, 2005)
• “Alberta’s Interim Métis Harvesting Agreements and Treaty 7” for the Blackfoot Confederacy Annual Conference (July, 2005)

• G. Rangi Jeerakathil and Clayton Leonard, "Watered Down: Issues Surrounding Water Use, Legilsation and Policy in Southern Alberta", in Environmental Law: The Year in Review 2007, ed. S. Berger and D. Saxe, Canada Law Book, Aurora Ont.
• Dr. F. Tough, “Neither Fish nor Indians”: Pursuing Crown-Métis Relations through Historical Evidence Concerning Policies and the Constitution Act, 1930, Revised Conference Paper for Crown-Métis Relations: Section 91(24) of the Constitution Act, 1867, Law Commission of Canada and Métis National Council (November 21, 2007) (researcher).
• Catherine Bell and Clayton Leonard, “A New Era in Métis Constitutional Rights: The Importance of Powley and Blais.” (April 2004) Alberta Law Review (Vol. 41, No. 4).
• Dr. F. Tough, Importance of Freshwater Fish to the Métis of Western Canada, A report for R. v. Laviolette, 2005 SKQB 61 (contributor).