Wayne D. Garnons-Williams

Lecturer, Indigenous Entrepreneurship
headshot of Wayne Garnons-Williams

Wayne D. Garnons-Williams, BA, LLB, MPA, LLM

Wayne is the founding President of the International Inter-tribal Trade and Investment Organization, Senior Lawyer, and Principal Director of the law firm Garwill Law Professional Corporation, and leads an international business entitled Indigenous Sovereign Trade Consultancy Ltd. specializing in Tribal Trade and Sustainable Economic Development.

He is the past Chair of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations Appeal Tribunal and is currently on the board of directors of the International Law Association – Canada chapter, Council of the Great Lakes Region, Capacity Canada and Board Chair of the 60’s Scoop Healing Foundation.

He is also a Research Fellow specializing in International Comparative Indigenous law at the University of Oklahoma, College of Law. He was appointed by Order in Council as a member to the NAFTA Chapter 19 Trade Remedies roster and then appointed in 2020 as a CUSMA Advisory Committee Member on Private Commercial Disputes, Article 31.22.

He has recently written four chapters and is co-editor for a textbook published by Cambridge University Press on International Indigenous Trade & Environmental law and is teaching a course based on his textbook as part of the Indigenous Entrepreneurship program at United College, University of Waterloo.

He is the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business 2019 Award winner for Excellence in Aboriginal Relations, the 2020 Queen’s University alumni award winner as well as the recipient of the 2020 Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL) - International Legal Specialist in Peace, Justice and Governance Award. He is Plains Cree from Treaty 6, Moosomin First Nation.