Maggie Wente

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Maggie Wente is a Partner at OKT. She is a member of Serpent River First Nation and is of Anishinaabe and settler lineage. Maggie advises First Nations and regional Indigenous groups on a broad range of topics. Lately, Maggie has focused much of her practice on advocating for the equality rights of Indigenous peoples, and in particular equality for First Nations children and individuals in child welfare systems. She does this in litigation and in negotiations about child welfare funding and program design and delivery. Maggie also assists First Nations draft their own child welfare laws.

Maggie also advises and litigates about a broad range of First Nations governance matters, such as Indian Act reserve matters, election codes, membership codes, land management, and the responsibilities of First Nations councils.

Maggie has appeared in courts of appeal and trial-level courts in Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Federal Court, as well as in commercial arbitrations, and human rights, labour and other tribunals.

She is actively involved in community services as a frequent speaker at conferences and CPD events, at law schools, as a mentor to Indigenous law students and lawyers. She gives time as a fervent food bank volunteer, a volunteer with Women’s LEAF, and as a Director of the Boreal Songbird Initiative. Maggie is past-President of the Board of Directors at Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto and was a Commissioner at the Ontario Human Rights Commission from 2006 to 2015.

Maggie graduated from the University of Toronto’s combined LL.B/M.S.W. program and from McGill University (B.A., Philosophy). Maggie is a member of the Indigenous Bar Association, the Ontario bar and the Newfoundland and Labrador bar, and is listed as Most Frequently Recommended in the Lexpert Directory on Indigenous Law and in Best Lawyers in Canada.