Soon, there will be two vacancies on the Supreme Court of Canada, as Justice Charron is retiring on August 30 and Justice Binnie will leave when a replacement is named. As such, the Indigenous Bar Association recently asked Prime Minister Stephen Harper to consider appointing an aboriginal to the Supreme Court. Of course, there has been some opposition to appointing someone because of their race to the highest court in Canada. In fact, former Supreme Court Justice John Major (who found in favor of aboriginal interests only 20.6% – 6/29 times — one of the lowest ever) expressed his disdain for such a racially-based appointment. Oddly enough, I happen to agree with Mr. Major, but for wildly different reasoning.
What would an aboriginal Justice on the Supreme Court of Canada give aboriginals in Canada other than an expected vote in favor of their interests most (if not all) of the time? That may occassionally help when the vote is a close one, but given the track record of the Supreme of Canada concerning aboriginal cases (which can be found here) it would not be nearly enough to outweigh the negative effects.
The aboriginal justice may also bring to the table a perspective that the other eight justices may not have considered. But if his or her perspective is so different from the other justices, then that unique sagacity would be better utilized in independent aboriginal courts with other aboriginal judges who decide matters solely for aboriginal litigants. An aboriginal justice on the Supreme Court of Canada would only dilute the Canadian judicial waters a smidge, but damage aboriginal sovereignty to a great degree.
Firstly, having an aboriginal on the Supreme Court of Canada would greatly lessen the possibility for there to be true aboriginal courts in the future. “What need would there be for them,” is the foreseen argument, “when aboriginals are are already represented in Canada’s highest court,” as if all tribes from coast to coast fall under one societal and cultural banner. Thus, rather than having unique, culturally-based justice systems that truly serve aboriginal people, we’d have one token justice who’s expected to vote in a certain way in aboriginal interests and with the expectation that we stop demanding that we implement our own systems; Royal Commission recommendations be damned.
Secondly, having an aboriginal on the Supreme Court of Canada would only pull aboriginal tribes further into the folds of Canadian society, at the detriment of their own sovereignty. For sure, what kind of true nation would send its wisest and most knowledgeable people outside of its own jurisdiction to work within, and for, the very same system that imposes itself on the aboriginal judge’s own nation? Then again, the same could be said for any aboriginal lawyer working within the outside legal system – but a justice in the highest court of the land would only serve to amplify and magnify this conundrum to a heretofore unforeseen degree.
Let’s hope that when Justices Charron and Binnie leave, their vacancies are filled with Canadians, not with aboriginals who would better serve their own people in other capacities.
Thoughts?
Turtle Talk 
President Obama announced two names to fill vacancies on the federal bench in Arizona. Would either of these candidates be the first Native to serves on the federal court?
Having an Original Justice On the Supreme Court of Canada, would be a definite positive. First of all, Canada has ruined the sovereignty of First Nations, Metis and Inuit. The reason the communities are in disarray is because of the racist Indian Act. Not allowing First Nations women to keep their Indigenous identity, but allowing a White woman to become an Indian if she married one. How absurd to think that a sovereign people would allow such erosion of culture and clan system. Using the word allow is automatically an erosion. The Canadian government has failed to be a trustee of the Original peoples, failed miserably along with their United States counterpart. With that being said, Originals of Turtle Island should not be under the jurisdiction of The Crown, but because of this jurisdiction problem facing Originals, they are being judged and sentenced, thrown in Crown jails and prisons despite the fact that your article says they are sovereign. Until the day that Canada stops eroding the sovereignty of other Nations, put an Original on the Supreme Court. It is only a matter of time before the minority population outgrows the majority White population anyways.