Legal Aid Alberta lawyer Justin Hjelsvold turned in his drywall trowel for a career in law and a chance to improve access to justice for clients, especially in Indigenous communities. Hjelsvold shares his motivation for pivoting careers, learning about his Indigenous identity as an adult and how he builds trust with clients and community.
An encounter with the justice system through an arrest, court appearance, bail hearing or criminal charge can change the direction of a person’s life.
For an Indigenous person, those effects can be devastating, especially when factoring in other disadvantages such as housing instability or poverty, which can affect things like securing bail.
“When you’re denied bail, you’re much more likely to plead guilty to something that might have been beatable at trial,” explains Justin Hjelsvold, a duty counsel lawyer with Legal Aid Alberta (LAA).
Fear of the justice system
That can lead to Indigenous people accumulating criminal records and more interactions with police that skew their perceptions of the justice system, he adds.
“For Indigenous people themselves, the justice system is something quite often for them to fear, to try to escape from, to avoid, which could often make their situation much worse.”
As a duty counsel lawyer, part of Hjelsvold’s job is to help overcome those fears by building trust with clients on a human level. His family and roots as a Métis person help, as does his blue-collar background after a 15-year career in drywall.
Watch: Why Indigenous representation matters for access to justice
Finding the law, Indigenous identity later in life
Learning about the law and his Indigenous identity both happened later in life. His father grew up in foster care and was disconnected from their Ojibwe roots and the Ebb and Flow First Nation in Manitoba.
“I grew into that all at once, and it’s been a real eye-opening experience,” Hjelsvold says. “That sense of loss, of disconnection to your family and communities is something a lot of Indigenous people share.”
He credits his wife, Jenny, who is Ojibwe and a member of Curve Lake First Nation, not only for giving him a nudge toward the law but also helping him learn about his family’s culture. Like him, Jenny grew up off-reserve, but she also came from difficult circumstances.
“I always knew I was Indigenous, but I didn’t understand the nature of that. She encouraged me to find out more about my past. She taught me a lot about ceremony and brought me to her band. It was beautiful.”
From drywall trowel to law books
Hjelsvold concedes he might still be drywalling today if it wasn’t for her influence. It’s a career he sort of fell into after high school and initial attempts at university. He wasn’t ambitious, he says, and after a few years in drywall he found he enjoyed the freedom of making his own hours and being his own boss.
“It’s when we had kids that I think I realized I needed a change,” he remembers. “I went through a couple of recessions and just the ups and downs of that, I couldn’t put my family through anymore.”
So at the age of 37, Hjelsvold traded in his drywall trowel for a briefcase and Martin’s Criminal Code. While in law school at the University of Alberta, he joined LAA as the organization’s first Indigenous summer student and later returned as an articling student-at-law.
His initiation to the law coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, which closed courtrooms and affected proceedings across the country. However, criminal dockets still needed to run and he immediately relished the opportunity to hone his skills as a student duty counsel.
“Always being in court was something that really excited me. You got to meet so many people. One thing that impressed me, that I try to tell people all the time, is I found there’s really not a lot of truly bad people out there. There’s a lot of people that are in dire straits, but for a good reason. They often just need some help.”
Representing Indigenous clients at Legal Aid Alberta
After articling, Hjelsvold embraced the opportunity to work at LAA full time as a duty counsel primarily in criminal law, but also family law and in Indigenous courts. He often represents clients from Alexander First Nation at Alexander Court, which convenes at the courthouse in Morinville, about 40 kilometres north of Edmonton. Before LAA’s involvement in the community, there was no duty counsel. That meant people either had to hire a private-practice lawyer or represent themselves.
“A lot of matters churned through the court system.”
As an Indigenous duty counsel, Hjelsvold has made connections with the community. That includes the Yellowhead Tribal Community Corrections Society, which serves several First Nations in the area. He also works with the Alexander Justice Committee — a group of elders and community members who discuss legal issues in the community. Those discussions often involve connecting people with services such as housing and addiction support.
Building trust is a key part of the work, and Hjelsvold says his humble beginnings often help. He knows what it’s like to struggle financially and the stress that can place on families. Many of his clients have jobs, but some have fallen out of work or faced other challenges that can lead down the wrong path.
If he can help an accused person realize they’re not bad people, it can help give them hope for the future — for themselves and for their families, too.
“While I can’t hope to have that kind of effect on everybody that I interact with, I know that I have in some cases.
“I meet so many people, and I get the chance to just say a few words to them that maybe they've never heard before. Or perhaps they’ve never had somebody talk to them like that before. So I find that to be a great opportunity.”
More Indigenous lawyers needed
His experiences as duty counsel and his ability to connect to people illustrate the need for more Indigenous lawyers in the court system. “Frankly, there’s just not enough of us. So anybody I meet that’s thinking of doing this, I tell them to go for it. If I can do it, you can do it. It’s just like anything else: one day at a time.”
Hjelsvold is grateful for the opportunity to do this kind of work at LAA, surrounded by like-minded people who are equally passionate about their role in improving access to justice. “It’s a really special organization” full of the “best people I’ve ever met.”
“They really believe in what they’re doing. They’re motivated. They want to be here. They want to work hard. They want to represent their clients, and I find that inspiring. There’s not a lot of jobs like this in the legal field, especially in criminal law.”