Naomi Sayers is a lawyer and Indigenous feminist, called to the Ontario (2018) and Alberta (2020) bars with nearly a decade of consulting experience. She worked in-house at one of Canada’s largest electricity providers. She has appeared at all levels of court in Ontario; federal court – trial and appeals; Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench; and various tribunals throughout Ontario. Ms. Sayers represented Work Safe Twerk Safe, the first and only federally incorporated non-profit advocacy group dedicated to strippers' rights to work safely in Canada. Her advocacy on their behalf resulted in a precedent setting decision resulting in the Court recognizing the harms that sex workers experience in trying to access justice. That decision was also cited by the Supreme Court of Canada, affirming stigmatized groups’ right to privacy in litigation processes. Ms. Sayers is a member of Women in Canadian Criminal Defence; Criminal Lawyers’ Association and its Indigenous Committee; Canadian Bar Association and its Aboriginal Law section executive; the Law and Mental Disorder Association; the Ontario Bar Association’s Constitutional and Human Rights section executive, the Aboriginal Law section executive and the Women’s Lawyer Forum section executive.

Shaunna Kelly is Anishinaabe/Canadian-Irish and currently works with the Indigenous Justice Division of the Ministry of the Attorney General (MAG).  Before working with MAG, she practiced as a criminal defence lawyer for 13 years, was an elected member of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association Board of Directors, and was the Gladue Court Representative to the CLA.  Her criminal defence practice focused primarily on representing Indigenous people in Toronto.  She has volunteered vast amounts of her time by providing educational training on Indigenous-focused topics to legal participants in various roles and positions.  As defence counsel, she sat on several committees and advisory groups to provide a voice for criminal defence lawyers and Indigenous persons engaged in the legal system. She continues much of that work in her new role at IJD-MAG.  She will be returning to private practice in February 2023.