Carissa is an environmental professional, lawyer and mediator with almost two decades of experience in program development, alternative dispute resolution, and building relationships across cultures and jurisdictions. She is currently an appointed Member of a community-level land-use planning appeal body in Toronto.
She uses conflict as an opportunity to explore problem solving and improve cohesion between people and between people and nature. Recently, she supported facilitated discussions with Indigenous communities and government in the Northwest Territories to historically implement Canada’s commitment to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Carissa is dedicated to equity, diversity and inclusion in the legal and environmental fields. She is an active member of numerous Boards and Executives, including the Advisory Panel of Diversity in Sustainability.
Carissa’s new short film, Rivers and Me, explores the mental health connections between environmental degradation, climate change and biodiversity loss - and what we can do.
Her recent podcast series “Race, Reconciliation and the Environment” includes two episodes with guest speakers Steven Nitah, Chief Negotiator for the Łutsël K'é Dene First Nation in the establishment of Thaidene Nene National Park Reserve, as well as Professor Emeritus Kathleen Mahoney, the Chief Negotiator for the Assembly of First Nations for the historic Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement, achieving the largest settlement in Canadian history and was a major architect of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The first episode explores the current impact of colonialism on people and nature, and how an equity discussion can transform this colonial approach. The second episode looks at how nature conservation can overcome its colonial history through a better understanding of Canada's multi-juridical context, and the out-of-court solutions arising from Canada's historic Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement. We also explore the framing of ecocide within the context of Professor Mahoney’s work in expanding the definition of genocide under international law.
Her 2019 Cambridge University Press book chapter “Inclusion of Indigenous Children’s Rights: Informing Water Management in Canada” in Children’s Rights and Sustainable Development builds on two decades of professional writing, and explores the international law basis for Indigenous legal practices to inform and improve the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in Canada.
