Amy Constant, a second year law student at the University of Saskatchewan (USASK) was awarded the 2025 USask Indigenous Achievement Award for leadership.
Constant, a graduate of Melfort and Unit Comprehensive Collegiate (MUCC) and member of James Smith Cree Nation, received the award during Indigenous Achievement Week in March.
Constant said it was an incredible honour to be recognized.
“I don’t do things to be recognized or anything,” she said. “I just like to step up and help people and, if I can, just be a leader.
“It feels nice to be recognized,” she added. “(It’s) humbling, I’m trying to get the best way to put into put into words. I didn’t expect it to happen.”
Constant has served in several leadership positions. She’s currently president of the college’s Indigenous Law Students’ Association (ILSA), which has been around for 10 to 15 years.
Constant joined last year—her first at the law school.
“I wanted to be with other Indigenous students and help support Indigenous students, and then our President was graduating,” she said. “I asked the second year’s last year if any of them wanted to run and none of them did, so I was like, ‘well I’ll step up and be a part of it.’”
She said there was some dysfunction during the previous year and the organization was looking for a fresh start. Constant wanted to ensure that ILSA continued to exist because there are only so many Indigenous law students and lawyers in Canada.
“I wanted Indigenous students to feel supported and continue to prosper and continue to grow,” she said.
Constant always wanted to get into law. She remembers debating different topics in Grade 5 at Maude Burke Elementary School in Melfort.
“I like debating topics,” she said. “I always feel strongly about a certain way, but I’m also able to see the other side and I was thinking ‘maybe I want to be a lawyer when I grow up?’”
When she learned more about systemic injustices, she became even more interested in law as a career.
“Then I learned more about the injustices that Indigenous people have faced, partly due to racist policy and racist laws that then act on them and how it’s contributed to things such as the representation of Indigenous people in the criminal system and in the child welfare system,” Constant said.
“I was like, ‘well, maybe as an Indigenous person I can go into law to help remedy this and make things right.’”
At first she wondered if being a prosecutor would make her the one responsible for sentencing Indigenous people to prison. She then went to work for the Saskatoon Tribal
Council and witnessed how the defence and prosecution work to make the justice system more positive.
“You can make alternative measures and come to a decision that’s not so much retributive as it is more restorative justice plans, which is what I’m largely passionate about, so I was like, ‘OK, I think I’m going to go to law school,’” she said.
Restorative Justice is a passion for Constant because it is more about the community and involves everyone.
“The research is there and shows it has larger success rates with people, with regards to recidivism and getting their lives back on track,” Constant said.
She said the way the court system is set up people can be intimidated by the process.
“It just seems kind of out of reach and remote for everyday people whereas restorative justice invites everyone who wants to be involved and makes sure they are involved because largely these people are going to be returning to the community and they are part of community no matter what, so that is the part I am largely invested in,” Constant said.
Constant is also a member of the college’s Indigenous Engagement Committee and also volunteered with Pro Bono Students Canada (PBSC). With PBSC, she worked on a legal education art project for inner-city youth to help them feel more empowered when they encounter the police, since they may feel more wary than their peers from different neighbourhoods.
She was also co-emcee of Legal Follies, the college’s popular student-run variety show. Constant also holds a degree in Human Justice from the University of Regina.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
