Our November 7 Speaker was Dr. Robin Fisher – celebrated historian, author and community leader in Elder College

For 30 years, Elder College was situated within and supported by Vancouver Island University.  That all changed in 2023 when VIU ended that support.  Then, a beautiful thing happened.  The community rose up to not only keep this important institution alive, but to re-invigorate it.  Dr. Robin Fisher stepped forward to become the President of the new Mid Island Elder College (MIEC).  But as he is quick to point out, it was a community and team effort. 

After 2 years, MIEC is currently hosting 90 courses on topics from health and lifestyle to history and technology and offers them in different formats and locations.  Also available is the Saturday Series of speakers that draws up to 200 people at its venue of Nanoose Place.

As a historian of BC history, Dr. Fisher is known for his work on newcomer/indigenous relations. He shared a key legal case that changed the trajectory of Aboriginal land claims.  Robin told this legal water shed story of the White and Bob case. It involved two Snuneymuxw men convicted under provincial game regulations for hunting out of season on Mount Benson. They sought to have their conviction overturned in an appeal that tested the fundamental land claims of First Nations people in Canadian law. It was tried in the Nanaimo courthouse in 1964. Their claim was based on a Treaty signed with James Douglas in 1864. For one hundred years the Province of British Columbia had taken the position that there was no such thing as First Nations title to the land: there was simply nothing to discuss. White and Bob overturned that position and changed forever our understanding of Aboriginal Land Claims in Canada.