Montreal, Aug 19 (AFP\/APP): Canada on Friday nominated Michelle O’Bonsawin as the first Indigenous person to serve on its Supreme Court, a historic first for a country seeking to make amends for abuses against native peoples.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said O’Bonsawin, a member of the Odanak First Nation, would bring “invaluable knowledge and contributions” to the court.<\/p>\n
“Her nomination is the result of an open, non-partisan selection process,” Trudeau added.<\/p>\n
O’Bonsawin has sat on the Ontario Superior Court of Justice since 2017 and has specialized in mental health issues and human rights.<\/p>\n
“As a First Nations woman growing up in Northern Ontario, I became aware of the need for dedicated individuals to provide a strong, representative voice on behalf of those who could not speak for themselves,” the judge wrote in a questionnaire as part of her candidacy for the job. It was released by the government.<\/p>\n
She will take up her new position after a non-binding vote later this month in Parliament.<\/p>\n
O’Bonsawin’s nomination is the second in a row to make history at the Supreme Court. Last year Mahmud Jamal became the first person of color to take up a seat on the tribunal.<\/p>\n
Canada in recent years has been trying to come to grips with a dark chapter of its past: the abuse and death of Indigenous children sent to Catholic-run boarding schools over a span of decades.<\/p>\n
From the late 1800s to the 1990s, Canada’s government sent about 150,000 children into 139 such schools.<\/p>\n
Indigenous children were separated from their families, language and culture in a bid to stamp out their identity.<\/p>\n
Many were physically and sexually abused at the schools, and thousands are believed to have died of disease, malnutrition or neglect.<\/p>\n
During a visit last month Pope Francis met with survivors of the residential school system and apologized for the abuses, which he said amounted to genocide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Montreal, Aug 19 (AFP\/APP): Canada on Friday nominated Michelle O’Bonsawin as the first Indigenous person to serve on its Supreme Court, a historic first for a country seeking to make amends for abuses against native peoples. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said O’Bonsawin, a member of […]<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55397,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-world-news"],"yoast_head":"\n