Legal Counsel, Ministry of Indigenous Affairs and First Nations Economic Reconciliation
English, Bachelor of Arts (BA) 1997
Aboriginal Law, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Kirsten Manley-Casimir is currently Legal Counsel with Ontario’s Ministry of Indigenous Affairs and First Nations Economic Reconciliation. Previously, she was the Director of Legal and Research supporting Kimberly Murray as the federally appointed Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites Associated with Indian Residential Schools. Her team researched and drafted many public reports in their short two years term, including the recently released full Final Report with 42 Obligations for implementation to provide a new legal framework to support to support Survivors, Indigenous families and communities searching for the missing and disappeared children and their unmarked burials.

In 2015, Kirsten helped to establish the Indigenous Justice Division within the Ministry of the Attorney General, Ontario, and was Acting Legal Director for seven years. She co-developed the award-winning Bimickaway curriculum and implemented an approach to government lawyering called "lawyering for reconciliation."

Kirsten completed BA in English Honours at York University and her LLB and LLM at Osgoode Hall Law School. She completed her PhD in law at the University of British Columbia Faculty of Law focused on the government’s constitutional duty to consult and accommodate Aboriginal Peoples under section 35 of the Constitution Acts. She has taught at Osgoode Hall Law School and Queen’s University and worked as a Research Lawyer at the Law Commission of Ontario. Kirsten also has several articles published in peer-reviewed journals. She lives in Toronto with her husband, two kids and two dogs.