------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
<font face=arial size=-1><a
href="http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=12hj5vvv1/M=362343.6886681.7839642.3022212/D=groups/S=1705060411:TM/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1123520733/A=2894350/R=0/SIG=10tj5mr8v/*http://www.globalgiving.com";>Make
a difference. Find and fund world-changing projects at GlobalGiving</a>.</font>
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
Lawyers to decide whether to back first nations
Aboriginals want support in lobbying for judicial vacancies
Cristin Schmitz
CanWest News Service
Monday, August 08, 2005
http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=f36930c9-0e7d-45ab-bc34-7052b812c45c
OTTAWA -- Amidst charges from some of its members that it is veering into
"racial profiling," the Canadian Bar Association will decide this week if it
should join the Assembly of First Nations in lobbying for the appointment of a
qualified aboriginal jurist to the Supreme Court of Canada.
The prestigious association of 34,000 judges and lawyers will vote at its
annual meeting in Vancouver next weekend on whether to press the government to
appoint native jurists to the appellate courts.
But many lawyers, including the bar association in Quebec, are uncomfortable
with the proposed move because it calls for appointment of jurists who are
aboriginal, rather than jurists well-versed in aboriginal legal traditions.
"Should race be a factor in an appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada? Many
lawyers have a deep-seated discomfort at such a notion," admits Supreme Court
expert Eugene Meehan, a former Canadian Bar Association president.
"Ultimately, the question is: Do you have to be [part of something] in order to
know how to adjudicate on it?" he suggested. "The Supreme Court of Canada has a
strong caseload of divorce and family law cases -- might it make sense that we
appoint judges who are divorced, rather than judges with expertise in the
actual practice of divorce and family law? The bottom line is: If an
appointment is made on the basis of race being a factor in that qualification,
there will be more than a few people who will use the 'R' word to describe that
reality."
The goal of getting native representation on a court which decides aboriginal
rights and treaties is seen as so vital by the Assembly of First Nations that
its national chief, Phil Fontaine, wants to address the bar association's
national council on the subject next weekend.
"With the [Supreme Court] vacancy that was just recently announced, the
national chief is going to lobby not so much for a specific individual, but for
the notion of getting an aboriginal person into that seat," confirmed AFN
spokesman Don Kelly. "We are in favour of an aboriginal justice being appointed
to the Supreme Court of Canada, and beyond that, if there is a way to appoint
First Nations in the selection of the judiciary, we would even want that to
happen. The Constitution itself recognizes that we are not just another
minority in Canada, that we are not just a special interest group. Aboriginal
people have definite traditions and world views that you really wouldn't
understand unless you were raised and steeped in those world views."
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Native News North
List info{all lists}:
http://nativenewsonline.org/natnews.htm
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NatNews-north/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
