LAO hires AVP for new Indigenous Services Department

Published: March 4, 2024

Legal Aid Ontario is creating an Indigenous Services Department bringing together existing lines of work from across the organization to create a more holistic, strategic approach to the delivery of services for Indigenous clients. The Indigenous Services Department will lead LAO’s implementation of reconciliation initiatives and work within LAO’s mandate to better reach and serve Indigenous clients, and to address the overrepresentation of Indigenous peoples in the justice system. The work requires the dedicated focus of a strong and supportive leader with expertise in this area.

LAO is pleased to announce Fallon Melander as the new associate vice president of Indigenous Services. Ms. Melander will join LAO on April 8, 2024.

Ms. Melander is of mixed settler and Anishinaabe ancestry and is a member of Wiikwemkoong First Nation. Her maternal grandparents are the Fox and King families both from Wiikwemkoong, located on Mndioo Mnising. Ms. Melander has worked for over a decade advocating for Indigenous rights. Her focus has been on guiding and ensuring settler institutions build meaningful relationships with First Nation, Métis and Inuit Peoples and communities. She was called to the Ontario Bar in 2011 and served as LAO policy counsel, leading the Aboriginal Justice Strategy from 2011 until 2019. She then founded Metrolinx’s Indigenous Relations Office where she built foundational relationships and guided policy and process for Ontario’s regional transportation plan. Ms. Melander has worked for the past several years at Sheridan College, most recently as the special advisor to the President & Vice Chancellor on Indigenous Engagement.

With the creation of the Indigenous Services Department, LAO is responding in a concrete and meaningful way to the recommendations made during engagement on the Aboriginal Justice Strategy, to LAO’s action plan on Truth and Reconciliation Initiatives, and to LAO’s commitment to strengthening services for Indigenous clients.

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Legal Aid Ontario to strengthen services for Indigenous clients