Supreme Court justices meet with public, media and legal community on trip to N.W.T.

Three justices of the Supreme Court of Canada spent a couple of days in Yellowknife, N.W.T., meeting with media, lawyers, the public and Indigenous Elders to answer questions and bring awareness to their role in the justice system. Justice Michelle O’Bonsawin says it’s an important trip to understand people in different parts of the country. “It’s also part of our own cultural competency to understand because I’m an Indigenous person but I’m not an Indigenous person who lives here,” she said. “So some may think an Indigenous person from Ontario is going to understand the lived realities of someone from the N.W.T. but that is not so, so it adds to my own personal knowledge to understand about knowledge traditions and orders that from the different communities that I take back and I willingly share with my peers.” O’Bonsawin was appointed to the high court by former prime minister Justin Trudeau. She’s the first Indigenous person to sit on the bench. O’Bonsawin grew up in a French-speaking family in northern Ontario but her roots are Abenaki from the Odanak First Nation in Quebec. Chief Justice Richard Wagner and Justice Nicholas Kasirer were also in Yellowknife. Michelle O’Bonsawin stands by her ceremonial robes. Photo: APTN. Also on hand for the meeting with the media is Shannon Smallwood, chief justice of the Supreme Court of the N.W.T. One topic of interest during the meeting was the absence of Gladue reports in the territory. These reports are named after a 1999 Supreme Court of Canada ruling. They’re document the life of the person who is before the courts accused of a crime. They often contain deeply personal and disturbing information. The goal of the reports is to inform judges and lawyers about the challenges the accused has faced in their life. But these reports are not offered in every jurisdiction in Canada – including the N.W.T. “My court is very interested in pursuing [Gladue Reports],” Smallwood said. “I know that’s something the Department of Justice has looked into. “It  hasn’t materialized, but I’m hopeful that that will come to be because it would be very helpful.” Read More:  ‘Pathfinder’ Supreme Court Justice Michelle O’Bonsawin on the land and her Indigenous perspective O’Bonsawin said she’d like to see the relationship between the justice system and Indigenous Peoples improve – but it will take time. “That there will be hopefully a social change, a change in the justice system where there’ll be a better understanding of the impact of different things like residential schools, intergenerational trauma on our people, so that in the future hopefully these numbers are going to lessen,” she said. “I think it’s not just the justice system as a whole that has to do the heavy lifting, I think it’s societal change and everyone has a role to play in that.” The justices of the Supreme Court will head to Thunder Bay, Ont., and Sherbrooke, Que., to wrap up their tour. Continue Reading