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JOURNAL
Canadian Supreme Court Justice Michelle O’Bonsawin
Accepts Honorary Fellowship
Honorary Fellowship in the College is awarded only occasionally, and is reserved for those who have achieved a high degree of respect and accomplish- ment in judicial or other roles in the profession or in public service. It is only offered to persons whose achievements and contributions have been partic- ularly significant, community leaders, and path- finders in their fields. Recipients have included the most senior members of the judiciary in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. At the Spring meeting in Phoenix, the College welcomed Justice Michelle O’Bonsawin of the Canadian Su- preme Court as its newest Honorary Fellow.
Installed as a Supreme Court Justice in 2022, Justice O’Bonsawin is the first indigenous member of Canada’s highest court. She is an Abenaki member of the Odanak First Nation and, as she noted in her remarks, “a proud member of the Turtle Clan.” In the Abenaki language “O’Bonsawin” means
“pathfinder” and represents a fitting description of a distinguished leader whose career has been filled with many professional firsts. When a school counselor advised her that as someone who came from a little French town in northern Ontario she could not aspire to be an attorney, Justice O’Bonsawin replied “Oh, yeah?; you just watch me,” and in the years that followed she carved a distinguished legal career that has spanned over twenty years and shown the way for others in her community and elsewhere.