“I am pleased to announce the appointment of Justice Michelle O’Bonsaguin to the Supreme Court of Canada,” Trudeau said in a statement.
The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed an indigenous judge, Michelle O’Bonsaguin, to the Supreme Court on Friday for the first time as the country embarks on a reconciliation process with indigenous peoples.
“I am pleased to announce the appointment of Justice Michelle O’Bonsaguin to the Supreme Court of Canada,” Trudeau said in a statement.
She is “a highly respected member of the Canadian judiciary whose career is admirable. She will bring her invaluable knowledge to our nation’s highest court,” he added in a tweet.
A Justice of the Superior Court of Ontario since 2017, O’Bonsaguin specializes in the areas of mental health and human rights.
Michelle O’Bonsawin has been nominated as the first Indigenous person to serve on the Canadian Supreme Court.https://t.co/ZIwCx1wXFr
— DW News (@dwnews) August 20, 2022
Her appointment was welcomed by Murray Sinclair, former president of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, which conducted a six-year national inquiry into the boarding schools to which Aboriginal children in Canada were sent from the late 19th century to the 1990s.
“The time has come for the Court to have an indigenous judge, one who has first-hand knowledge of the effects of colonialism on indigenous communities,” he said in a statement.
Discrimination against aboriginal people in Canada is at the center of much debate in the country, especially after the discovery in the spring of 2021 of hundreds of graves at the site of a boarding school for aboriginal children.
Pope Francis traveled to Canada three weeks ago to apologize for the abuse these children suffered in boarding schools by members of the Catholic church.
O’Bonsaguin is the fifth judge appointed by the Canadian prime minister to the nine-judge Supreme Court.
Last year, Mahmoud Jamal, the first non-white judge, was appointed to the Supreme Court.
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