Bernd Christmas
Mi'kmaw lawyer contributes at home
Article by Heather Andrews Miller
Bernd
Christmas of the Membertou First Nation in Cape Breton Island
was one of 14 people honored at the recent 2006 National Aboriginal
Achievement Award ceremony in Vancouver. Christmas was recognized
in the Business and Commerce category.
"Membertou has terrific leadership in three dynamic individuals.
Chief Terrance Paul, Dan Christmas, who is senior advisor to
the chief and council of the band, and Bernd Christmas,"
said Owen Fitzgerald. As director of the YMCA Entrepreneur Centre
of Cape Breton, Fitzgerald partnered with the leadership of the
Membertou First Nation in 2005 to fulfil a growing need for entrepreneur
training and small business development in the area.
The first Mi'kmaw to become a lawyer in Canada, Bernd Christmas
obtained his law degree in 1991 from York University in Toronto
as a graduate of the Osgoode Hall Law School.
In 1993, he accepted a position in corporate and commercial law
with Lang Michener, where he also expanded the firm's Aboriginal
practices. However, when Chief Terrance Paul requested his services
in 1995, Christmas gave up his lucrative and promising career
as an elite corporate lawyer to return home and assume the leading
business role of Chief Executive Officer of Membertou. At the
time, the First Nation was operating a $1 million annual deficit
and unemployment was rampant. A decade later, the results of
his decision have been ...
PEOPLE OF HONOUR INDEX