Meet Our Speakers - Raymond Jordan Johnson-Brown

Meet Raymond Jordan Johnson-Brown - a keynote speaker completing a BCL/JD and MSW at McGill

Interviewed by Nicole Buzzelli

Can you tell us a little about your work on food sovereignty? What brought you to work in this area?  

My work is rooted in my lived experience being raised by an Afro – Mi'kmaq mother and experiencing disproportionate rates of food insecurity. Growing up, I remember seeing the way my mother struggled to access food. I have since reflected on how the system limited and controlled what our possibilities were as they related to food, and the centrality of food within health and child welfare systems. Food impacts mental health, our relationships, the land, and the environment. I believe there is an innate responsibility to work in reciprocity and have a sense of responsibility to the land and all living things. Another part of my lived experience was being in foster care. My foster parents are first generation immigrants from Jamaica, and I saw how food insecurity impacted those communities. Black, Indigenous and immigrant populations are a part of my formation and give my work on food sovereignty direction. Overall, my lived experience is what has shaped my understanding and approach to food sovereignty work.  

How has your work contributed to shaping food law and policy in Canada?  

The biggest thing is the release of The Right to Food Canada’s “Seeds of Sovereignty” report last year. When you work on a national scale with multiple distinct Indigenous communities, it gets complicated. Some of the First Nations communities had an entirely different experience than those in Nunavut. For example, our sites in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick had issues with hunting and food safety regulations. The governing body of law in accessing these rights is the Indian Act, however, provincially, there are statutes that limit these rights. For example, in British Columbia, the health and safety board prohibited a community from serving the hunted food in their licensed space, deeming it unsafe to serve based on health and safety standards. As a result, there was a need to advocate for the rights to hunt. Conversely, for the Inuit, hunting was already a strong part of their programming – they have a country food box program where the community can access arctic char and other important traditional foods.   

All this to say, the “Seeds of Sovereignty” report contributed in process. It disrupts the standard frameworks built through a colonial imagination and looks at building systems by, for, and with community. This framework empowers each community to make their own distinct decisions so that they can realize Indigenous food sovereignty in their specific context. Instead of the tendency to universalize Indigeneity, the “Seeds of Sovereignty” report encourages the recognition of both commonality and distinctions between communities so that food-based solutions can adapt to specific contexts and cultures.   

You’ve recently enrolled in law school at McGill University - has this changed your perspective on food law or policy?   

Studying law has helped me to see how law can meet what is happening within communities, which are already doing the work of resisting and mobilizing. The legal system feels so out of reach for so many people. I am more encouraged and optimistic of what law can do than before – I better understand ways that the community can learn and use law to forward the movements that are already occurring within communities. Learning the legal language has helped me to picture how law can be rooted in the community. Overall, law is a tool that can provide a game plan for what can be achieved at different levels of governance.  

At the conference, you will be speaking on the “Constitutional Dimensions of Northern Food Security”, and on the plenary keynote, “Inflection Point or Business as Usual?: Assessing the Current Moment”. Can you provide us with a snapshot of the points you anticipate speaking on at the conference?  

The most significant contribution I can offer is explaining what life is like on the ground after spending time in Nunavut and seeing the ways that community is organizing. A strong example of this is the Qajuqturvik Community Food Centre in Iqaluit. Nutrition North brought a program, the operation of which was corporate led. As a result, the discounts given through the program benefited the corporation rather than the community. Despite the high food costs, the community came together and provided for one another. I am bringing this community-level perspective that is sometimes missed or is not always offered as a first-hand account. I really think we are at a place of imagination and restoration within communities. They are organizing and operating in ways that honour their traditional teachings. I intend to focus on this inflection point by providing my first-hand account of this process within communities.   

What do you think is the best way for law students to get involved in issues around food law and policy?  

It is important that law students get specific on their personal relations to inform the issue they want to tackle. They should consider who owns the land they exist on, who were their ancestors, where do you come from and what is their story? How does this align with efforts to improve and make possible food sovereignty? Once they learn this about themself, they can apply this to an initiative that matters to them. Objectivity is not always helpful in the context of intervention, and we are seeing a shift toward qualitative practice even in scholarship. I believe the emphasis should not be as much on the definition of food law and policy, but rather on what food means to the student. The student should use this as a basis to build something – from independent study, to further conversations with experts in the discipline, to other projects. In this space, students will be able to find people who are like-minded and willing to work together to solve the issue. Sometimes we miss what can be mobilized within ourselves as we do this work when we focus too much on getting the job and not enough on what matters to us. Personally, my lived experience is at the foundation of what I do, and I find this liberating. It would be wonderful if law students could start from here too.