Our approach

Founded in 1980 as Pape & Salter, our firm was one of the first in Canada to focus exclusively on representing Indigenous peoples and affirming their rights. In fact, we helped define the space – two years before the Constitution was patriated. Today, everything we do on behalf of our Indigenous clients draws on that legacy of experience.

From the beginning, we found ways to help clients take on seemingly impossible challenges and make them possible. Our founders believed passionately that Indigenous peoples in Canada had been subject to centuries of injustice and needed to see their desire for change transformed into tangible results. And if a potential solution ran up against legal barriers, that was all the more reason to pursue it.

Founding partners Rick Salter and Art Pape were childhood friends who discovered their shared passion for social justice growing up in Toronto. When Rick went away to college in the U.S., he joined Students for a Democratic Society and helped organize protests against the Vietnam War. Meanwhile Art, who attended university in Canada, became a leader in the peace and anti-nuclear weapons movements. The pair reunited in the late 1960s as members of the Company of Young Canadians, founded by the federal government to address poverty and inequality through community-based projects. Working in Indigenous communities across the northern Prairies, they collaborated with future Indigenous leaders like Harold Cardinal and Stan Daniels.

By the early 1970s, Rick and Art had moved to the West Coast, where they again directed their activism toward Indigenous issues, collaborating with the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs and Indigenous rights champion George Manuel. Recognizing the value of legal expertise in advancing their aims, the two friends enrolled in law school at the University of British Columbia. Soon after graduating, they founded Pape & Salter.

From day one, the new firm worked only with Indigenous clients – at a time when most law firms in Canada showed little interest in assisting with Indigenous claims. Rick was primarily a negotiator, focused on achieving wins at the treaty table, while Art was a litigator who strategically advanced cases – right up to the Supreme Court – aimed at moving Indigenous rights law forward. Pape & Salter worked on some of the country’s earliest modern treaties, acting as legal counsel on Yukon’s Umbrella Final Agreement and individual agreements in the territory, as well as on the Tłı̨chǫ Lands Claims and Self-Government Agreement.

In 1994, they were joined by Métis lawyer Jean Teillet, who brought the same energy and commitment to her work as both a litigator and a treaty negotiator. When Jean became a partner in 2005, the firm changed its name to Pape Salter Teillet. In all of their work, Rick, Art and Jean were driven by a deep sense of anger over the injustices of colonialism and a fierce belief in the importance of Indigenous self-government and self-determination. Their convictions define our firm to this day.

Art passed away in 2012, and Rick in 2021, but their work and its impact are carried on by the many lawyers and Indigenous leaders they mentored and trained. Until the end of their lives, both founders were actively engaged in the firm, supporting the next generation of lawyers and reinforcing the vision and values that still guide our path forward. Jean has likewise provided vital direction and advice, initially as Senior Counsel and now, since her retirement from legal practice, as Counsel Emeritus. Their collective legacy of achievement provides the foundation for all of our work – and for our clients’ trust.

The current team at PST continues to be inspired by our founders, and the principles that started our firm on its journey remain our north star to this day. After 45 years (and counting), we can draw on a wealth of experience and lessons learned as we tackle legal problems that are rooted in the past. At the same time, like our Indigenous clients across Canada, we’re focused on the future. And also like them, we’re anchored by our shared beliefs and driven by our commitment to making tomorrow better than today.