(OTTAWA) Justice Michelle O’Bonsawin, who is set to become the first Indigenous justice on the Supreme Court of Canada, will speak at a parliamentary committee meeting Wednesday afternoon in Ottawa.
Posted at 6:16 a.m.
The meeting of M.me O’Bonsawin with MPs and senators will be his first public appearance since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his nomination last Friday.
In the morning, Justice Minister David Lametti and the head of the Independent Advisory Board for Supreme Court of Canada Judicial Appointments, former Prince Edward Island Premier Wade MacLauchlan, will appear separately before members of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights.
Michelle O’Bonsawin arrives at Canada’s highest court after serving as a judge of the Ontario Superior Court in Ottawa for the past five years. She is Franco-Ontarian, bilingual, and Abenaki member of the Odanak First Nation located east of Sorel-Tracy, Quebec.
Justice O’Bonsawin’s areas of expertise include mental health, labor and employment law, human rights and privacy law. She has also taught Aboriginal law in the common law from the University of Ottawa and was responsible for the Aboriginal Relations Program at the Royal Ottawa Health Services Group.
The Q&A session will allow MPs and Senators to learn more about Mr.me O’Bonsawin, but unlike the process in the United States, a vote of elected officials is not required to confirm his nomination.