OTTAWA — Michelle O’Bonsawin, the judge poised to become the first Indigenous justice on the Supreme Court of Canada, is set to appear at a parliamentary committee meeting Wednesday afternoon.
The meeting with MPs and senators will be O’Bonsawin’s first public appearance since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau nominated her for the role last Friday.
Justice Minister David Lametti and the head of the independent advisory board for Supreme Court appointments also appeared in front of the House of Commons justice committee earlier in the day.
O’Bonsawin comes to the court after serving as a judge at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Ottawa for the past five years. Before that, she spent eight years as general counsel for the Royal Ottawa Health Group.
Born in the small northern Ontario town of Hanmer, she is a fluently bilingual Franco-Ontarian and an Abenaki member of the Odanak First Nation.
“It is extremely important that Indigenous Peoples be able to see themselves in what are quite frankly colonial institutions,” Lametti told the committee. “And see their participation as a way of making those institutions better, and see this as a way of making Canadian law better.”
The requirement for English-French bilingualism has often been cited as a barrier for Indigenous candidates seeking a position on the country’s highest bench, but Lametti pushed back on the notion in his remarks to MPs.
“Let there be no doubt that there are qualified Indigenous candidates who speak both official languages,” he said.
“It is an apex court, the top court in Canada. You have a whole career to prepare for it. So bilingualism, as a criterion for that court, I firmly believe shouldn’t stand in the way of good Indigenous and non-Indigenous candidates.”
The question-and-answer session with the incoming justice will allow MPs and senators to learn more about her, but unlike the process in the United States, a vote by elected officials is not required to cement her appointment.
O’Bonsawin will fill the vacancy left by Justice Michael Moldaver, who is set to retire on Sept. 1 and whose contributions Lametti called “monumental.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 24, 2022.
Marie-Danielle Smith, The Canadian Press
