Peggy Blair

Who is Peggy Blair?

Peggy J. Blair is the past Director of Legal Services and Senior Legal Counsel for the Canadian Medical Association. She has been a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada since 1990 and is a past member of the Law Society of Alberta.

In 1993, Blair was the lead counsel in R. v. Jones and Nadjiwon, the first Canadian case to recognize Aboriginal and treaty rights to fish commercially in priority to other users. As a result of the backlash which followed, which included Aboriginal boats being set on fire, protest marches and a stabbing/swarming incident in Owen Sound, she attended Harvard University to train in Negotiation Skills. A widely acclaimed expert in Aboriginal cross-cultural negotiations, Peggy was then involved in multi-party negotiations to resolve the volatile issues around the fisheries, which ultimately resulted in a precedent-setting and comprehensive co-management agreement between the First Nations, federal and provincial governments, involving all aspects of Great Lakes fisheries management. She has offered a number of interest-based negotiations training courses to physicians through the Canadian Medical Association since early 2008.