Donald Nicholls

Donald Nicholls is the Director of the Cree Nation Government Department of Justice and Correctional Services. Under the direction of the Grand Chief of the Cree Nation, he advocates for the rights and interests of the members of the Cree Nation of Eeyou Istchee, whose traditional territory, about half the size of France, is located in Northern Quebec, Canada. The Cree Nation Government oversees the implementation of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, Canada’s first modern day treaty and comprehensive land claims settlement agreement.

Mr. Nicholls leads the Cree Nation Government’s Department of Justice and Correctional Services, established in 2008, which has built various facilities in the Cree Nation, including courthouses, detention facilities, women’s shelters, and diversion/post-detention tiny home transitional communities for rehabilitation and reintegration. The Department is one of Canada’s largest Indigenous justice departments and has over 75 employees providing services and programs to victims and accused or detained individuals, and working with Cree children and youth each year in prevention programs. Mr. Nicholls has organized and hosted various international conferences on justice, law and Indigenous issues.

Mr. Nicholls previously served in the Executive Office of the Grand Council of the Crees (Eeyou Istchee) and Cree Nation Government, participating in multiple nation-to-nation agreements and negotiations. As an Adjunct Professor of Law at University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, he developed and taught a course on Indigenous rights and self-determination with Professor James Anaya, former UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. He has also worked with other UN Special Rapporteurs on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to achieve their mandates.

Mr. Nicholls regularly participates and makes submissions on behalf of the Grand Council of the Crees (Eeyou Istchee) and Cree Nation Government at meetings of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and other forums where decisions are made impacting the rights of Indigenous Peoples. He participated in the early development of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples at the Working Group on Indigenous Populations, and he was present for its adoption by the Human Rights Council in 2006 and the General Assembly in 2007. Most recently Ambassador Bob Rae requested that he appear before the UN Peacebuilding Commission as an Indigenous expert to look at Canada’s work on reconciliation and peacebuilding with Indigenous Peoples.

Mr. Nicholls holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Western Ontario (1993), a Bachelor of Laws from University of Toronto Faculty of Law (1996), a Bachelor of Civil Law from the McGill University Faculty of Law (1998), and a Master of Laws from the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law (2002). He is also an alumni of the Harvard Business School. 

In 2017, Mr. Nicholls was awarded the Governor General’s Meritorious Service Medal for his leadership of prevention programming delivered to 2,000 Cree children and youth each year. The same year, he was also given the Award of Peace by the Canadian Institute of Conflict Resolution for his work in Indigenous conflict resolution.