A high honour, a just mission

“‘You will probably die at this table.’ That’s what my wife said.”

Those are the words of John Olthuis, now in his 80s – former law firm partner who continues serving as senior counsel for treaty negotiations in Newfoundland and Labrador in a case that was started more than 30 years ago.

In December 2023, for his lifetime of work seeking justice for Indigenous peoples across Canada, Olthuis was appointed as Member of the Order of Canada – one of the highest honours a Canadian can receive. Olthuis was chosen for “his significant contributions to the practice of Aboriginal law,” as well as his “expert mentorship of the next generation of Indigenous lawyers.”

Pipelines & treaties

Olthuis grew up in a “typical conservative, Christian Reformed family” in Western Canada. His dad, he remembers, always stressed how at the core of Christianity was the mandate to love your neighbour. “There are many different ways to love your neighbour, and justice is one of those ways. And so I decided I would become a lawyer.”

Olthuis completed his Bachelor’s degree in 1961 and graduated law school in ‘64. He started his own practice in Edmonton. “I soon came to understand that most of the legal profession is there to protect vested interest. It has little or no interest in marginalised peoples.”

In 1962, while still a law student, Olthuis co-founded the Christian Action Foundation (CAF) in Alberta. One of CAF’s major accomplishments was winning public funding for independent schools, including Christian schools. CAF eventually merged with a similar group in Ontario to become the Committee for Justice and Liberty, which later became Citizens for Public Justice (CPJ).

Jim Visser, CPJ Board member and longtime friend, notes that Olthuis is admired both in secular and faith-based spaces. “He was incredibly insightful and looked up to as a leader and spokesman from a very early age,” Visser says. “He’s truly a gifted leader and commands respect.”

In the 1970s, Olthuis moved to Toronto where he worked in partnership with the Dene Nation concerning the proposed Mackenzie Valley Pipeline. His efforts culminated in the proposal of a Just Energy Policy for Canada, which would include a decision-making framework for energy projects that considers effects on the environment and on Indigenous peoples. Unfortunately, the proposal was not adopted, despite the other church leaders and experts appearing as witnesses in support of the policy. His work helped with a recommendation to create a 10-year moratorium for pipelines in the Northwest Territories, which Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau accepted, giving the Dene the opportunity to negotiate a Modern Treaty with Canada.

In 1978, Olthuis made national headlines for initiating a legal case that advanced to the Supreme Court of Canada. He fought to have the National Energy Board Chair removed from Mackenzie Valley Pipeline hearings due to “an apprehension of bias,” as the chair was an executive of the energy company applying for the pipeline. Later, he became a member of the Assembly of First Nations legal team that helped, through advising First Nations leaders, formally entrench aboriginal and treaty rights in Canada’s constitution. He worked specifically with Grassy Narrows and Temagami First Nations, among many others.

Legal expertise

Olthuis was one of the founding partners at Olthuis Kleer Townshend (OKT) LLP, a law firm with offices in Toronto and Yellowknife. Founded in 2000, OKT is Canada’s largest law firm specialising in Indigenous rights, with roughly 50 lawyers representing Indigenous communities in almost every jurisdiction nationwide. Former CPJ staff member and now a Partner at OKT, Lorraine Land says that Olthuis’s work has made a noticeable impact on Canada’s legal system: “Even while I was in law school, I kept coming across John’s influence on Canadian law.” Land says she is inspired by Olthuis’s “fierce commitment to an actively-engaged faith based on deep compassion” and the way he looks at challenges straight-on.

Mentoring new Indigenous lawyers has long been a priority for Olthuis, who hopes that they’ll be able to bring back some Indigenous legal principles and traditions. “The main part of the mentorship,” he says, “is to give them room to recover their Indigenous history so that [legal, political and social] structures can take their place again, alongside settler structures.”

Olthuis has been recognized by Best Lawyers as among the best legal talent in the world and listed in the Canadian Lexpert Directory for being “most frequently recommended” in the area of Aboriginal law. He also was awarded a Law Society of Ontario Medal of Excellence in 2018 and holds an Emeritus position at the Institute for Christian Studies.

His faith, Olthuis says, motivates everything. He cites the concept of socially engaged Calvinism, which supports principled pluralism: communities with different values should be allowed to see their values reflected in structures that affect their daily living. This way of thinking finds its roots in Kuyperian political movements in the Netherlands, carried to North America by Dutch immigrants. 

The church’s witness will greatly suffer, Olthuis tells CC, when Christians exchange deep justice for shallow charity. “[This] is fundamentally contrary to what the gospel teaches us,” he says. “Jesus was very outspoken about the marginalised.”

“Indigenous communities have more control over their regional economies” thanks to Olthuis, Land says; they’ve “achieved modern land claims and self government agreements and have the space now to develop stronger communities based on the legacy of the work of John and others.” 

John Olthuis will be formally inducted into the Order of Canada during an official ceremony this summer.