Shaunna Kelly

Shaunna Kelly is a Status member of the Mississauga First Nation and of Canadian-Irish descent.  Her professional path has led her to practice as a criminal defence lawyer in Toronto since her call to the Bar in 2009 – with one brief interruption in 2022, when she took a nine-month contract to work with the Indigenous Justice Division of the Ministry of the Attorney General. 

Currently, she serves as a board member at the Period Purse and as the Indigenous Director to the Criminal Lawyers' Association (CLA) Board. She was previously elected as a Toronto Region Board Member to the CLA for two consecutive terms before assuming the position of Indigenous Director. She is a member of the Legal Aid Ontario consultation registry and has served on the Gladue Court Operations Committee in the Ontario Court of Justice since 2015.

Her entire legal career has held a primary focus on working with Indigenous people and addressing issues relating to the intersection of Indigenous Peoples, Rights and the Canadian colonial system. Her courses often focus on inequality within the colonial concepts of justice, the ongoing overrepresentation of Indigenous people in the legal system, and, more recently, issues relating to Identity as an Indigenous person.

• Gladue court Representative to the CLA (2015 - present)
• Board member to the Period Purse (2023 - 2025)
• Board Member of the Criminal Lawyers' Association (2019 - 2025)

Selected publications

• Kelly, Shaunna. A different approach: rethinking probation. Rule of Law Report, LexisNexis Canada, Volume 6, Issue 1, March 2023.
• Kelly, Shaunna. Battling burnout among Indigenous Practitioners, Law 360 Canada online, March 2023.
• “President’s Message” (2022) For the Defence Vol 42, No. 1 (TOPIC: Retention of Indigenous Lawyers).
• Self Identity and Gladue Principles Applied; (2022) The Golden Thread, Issue No. 4 (reprinted with permission in the For the Defence, Vol. 42, No. 2).
• “Application of Gladue Principles Beyond Sentencing Hearings” (2012), For the Defence 34.