Michelle O'Bonsawin explained

Michelle O'Bonsawin
Office:Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
Termstart:September 1, 2022
Nominator:Justin Trudeau
Appointer:Mary Simon
Predecessor:Michael Moldaver
Office1:Justice of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice
Term Start1:May 18, 2017
Term End1:September 1, 2022
Nominator1:Justin Trudeau
Appointer1:Julie Payette
Birth Place:Hanmer, Ontario
Alma Mater:Laurentian University (BA)
University of Ottawa (LLB, PhD)
Osgoode Hall (LLM)
Occupation:Lawyer
Children:2
Honorific Prefix:The Honourable

Michelle O'Bonsawin (born 1973 or 1974) is a Canadian jurist serving as a puisne justice on the Supreme Court of Canada since September 1, 2022. Before her appointment to the Supreme Court, she served as a judge on the Ontario Superior Court of Justice from 2017 to 2022. O'Bonsawin is the first Indigenous Canadian to serve as a Supreme Court justice.

Early life

O'Bonsawin was born in Hanmer, Ontario, a Franco-Ontarian community near Sudbury in 1974.[1] Her father was a machinist and her mother worked as a teacher. She is a Franco-Ontarian and an Abenaki member of the Odanak First Nation.

Early legal career

O'Bonsawin began her legal career working for Royal Canadian Mounted Police legal services.[2] O'Bonsawin worked as in-house counsel for Canada Post for nine years before she joined the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group in 2009. There she worked as general counsel and established its legal services department. She also appeared as counsel for the organization on mental-health cases before the Ontario Superior Court and Ontario Court of Appeal as well as tribunals such as Ontario's Consent and Capacity Board and the Ontario Review Board.[3]

While working, she also studied to earn a master's degree in law from Osgoode Hall Law School.[4] Her practice focused on mental health, labour and employment, human rights, and privacy. She also taught a course on Indigenous peoples and the law at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law.

Ontario Superior Court of Justice

In 2017, O'Bonsawin was the first indigenous Canadian to be appointed to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Ottawa.[5] She assumed office on May 18, 2017.[6] In her application for the position, she described her legal philosophy as "progressive". Concurrently while working as a judge, O'Bonsawin worked on earning a doctorate in law from the University of Ottawa, and successfully defended her thesis on Gladue principles in February 2022.[7] Her PhD thesis has been embargoed and is not available for public consultation, which has raised concerns and attracted criticism.[8] [9]

In 2017, O'Bonsawin was the trial judge for the case CM Callow Inc v Zollinger, which applied the general organizing principle of good faith contractual performance from the 2014 Supreme Court of Canada case Bhasin v Hrynew.[10] [11] In 2018, the Court of Appeal for Ontario overturned her decision, ruling that she had improperly expanded the duty in a manner not directly linked to the performance of the contract and limited an expressly bargained-for right. In 2020, a majority of the Supreme Court of Canada overruled the Ontario Court of Appeal, reinstated O'Bonsawin's trial award, and provided clarity on the application of Bhasin.[12]

In 2024, it was reported that at least two of O'Bonsawin's decisions on the Superior Court of Justice have been reversed by the Ontario Court of Appeal. In one of the cases, the Court of Appeal suggested O'Bonsawin did not understand the law of evidence: "Although trial judges are presumed to know the law, this presumption does not entitle appellate courts to ignore what trial judges actually say in their reasons".[13] A prominent criminal lawyer accused her of making "sloppy errors" and of "misapplications of a bread and butter rule of criminal evidence".

In summer 2021, she co-chaired a conference organized by an association for French-speaking judges in Ontario.

In 2021, she was considered a possible candidate to succeed the retiring Rosalie Abella as a Supreme Court justice from Ontario.[14]

Supreme Court of Canada

On August 19, 2022, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau nominated O'Bonsawin to the Supreme Court of Canada to replace retiring Justice Michael Moldaver.[15] On August 24, O'Bonsawin appeared for a special meeting with the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights to answer questions from parliamentarians from both the House of Commons and Senate. On August 26, 2022, the Office of the Prime Minister announced that her appointment was formally confirmed and she would join the Supreme Court on September 1, 2022, the same day that Moldaver was retiring.[16] O'Bonsawin is the first Indigenous person to sit on Canada's highest court.

Personal life

O'Bonsawin is Franco-Ontarian and fluently bilingual, and as of May 2022, was taking lessons in the Abenaki language. She is married with two sons.

External links

Notes and References

  1. https://www.thecourt.ca/justice-obonsawin-carrying-the-burden-of-four-centuries/ Justice O’Bonsawin: Carrying the Burden of Four Centuries
  2. News: Aiello . Rachael . August 19, 2022 . Trudeau nominates Ontario judge Michelle O'Bonsawin to Supreme Court . . August 19, 2022.
  3. News: November 1, 2013 . Rising Stars . LexPert Magazine . August 19, 2022.
  4. News: Fine . Sean . May 9, 2021 . Who will Trudeau choose for next Supreme Court appointment? A look at the contenders . . August 19, 2022.
  5. News: Schmitz . Cristin . August 19, 2022 . Ontario has many Supreme Court-worthy jurists but top-notch bilingual woman may have inside track . The Lawyer's Daily . August 19, 2022.
  6. Web site: November 26, 2015 . Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs Canada - The Honourable Michelle O'Bonsawin's questionnaire . August 19, 2022 . fja-cmf.gc.ca.
  7. Web site: February 9, 2022 . Congratulations to Michelle O'Bonsawin for successfully defending her PhD thesis . August 19, 2022 . University of Ottawa Faculty of Law.
  8. News: Watson . William . August 25, 2022 . William Watson: Let's see the judge's thesis . Financial Post .
  9. Web site: SCC nominee 'embargoes' for five years her PhD thesis on extending Gladue principles beyond sentencing - Law360 Canada . 2023-06-12 . www.thelawyersdaily.ca . en.
  10. Bertolini . Daniele . 2021 . Toward a Framework to Define the Outer Boundaries of Good Faith in Contractual Performance . . 58 . 3 . 586–590; 612–614.
  11. Web site: November 27, 2017 . CM Callow Inc v Tammy Zollinger et al, 2017 ONSC 7095 . August 19, 2020 . CanLII.
  12. Web site: December 18, 2020 . CM Callow Inc v Zollinger, 2020 SCC 45 . August 19, 2022 . Supreme Court of Canada.
  13. News: Nardi . Christopher . July 18, 2024 . 'Sloppy errors': Another lower-court ruling by Supreme Court's O'Bonsawin overturned . National Post.
  14. News: MacCharles . Tonda . May 27, 2021 . Trudeau expected to name Ontario judge to Supreme Court of Canada before Canada Day . . August 19, 2022.
  15. Web site: August 19, 2022 . Trudeau nominates Indigenous woman to Canada's supreme court . August 23, 2022 . the Guardian . en.
  16. News: August 26, 2022 . Michelle O'Bonsawin confirmed as Canada's new Supreme Court justice . . August 26, 2022.