Tuesday August 23, 2022
Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday August 23, 2022
Michelle O’Bonsawin becomes 1st Indigenous person nominated to Supreme Court of Canada
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Friday his nomination of Michelle O’Bonsawin to the Supreme Court of Canada.
June 3, 2015
She will become the first Indigenous person to serve on Canada’s highest court.
O’Bonsawin is Abenaki from Odanak. She is Franco-Ontarian and fluently bilingual, according to a news release announcing the nomination.
She has served as a judge on the Ontario Superior Court of Justice since 2017. O’Bonsawin also holds a PhD in law from the University of Ottawa.
In her application questionnaire, made available by the Department of Justice, O’Bonsawin described how her experience as an Indigenous person in Canada has shaped her life and legal career.
“I believe my experience as a francophone First Nations woman, a parent, a lawyer, a scholar and a judge provide me with the lived understanding and insight into Canada’s diversity because I, and my life experience, are part of that diversity,” she said.