DJ Larkin

DJ Larkin is a lawyer and legal advocate who has worked with people experiencing criminalization and systemic marginalization for over a decade. DJ has worked to centre the voices of people who use drugs through support for peer-led groups in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and in working with individuals and organizations in numerous other regions and communities on litigation, law reform, policy development, community-engaged research, public education and capacity building.

DJ has also represented Indigenous governments—both elected and hereditary—in litigation regarding rights, land, and resource management. In 2017-2018, they also co-investigated and co-authored an in-depth report on systemic exclusion and marginalization of people living at the intersection of poverty, housing insecurity, and criminalized substance use aimed at creating systemic legislative and policy reform.

DJ currently lives on the unceded Indigenous lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) & səlil̓wətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Peoples, and is committed to lifelong learning, self-improvement, and action to dismantle settler colonialism.