Saturday, August 20, 2022

New Supreme Court of Canada nominee is young. But how young?

Yesterday, Michelle O'Bonsawin became the first Indigenous judge to be nominated for the Supreme Court of Canada. This is a big deal Indigenous people everywhere.

My first thought as I watched the television news coverage of the event was, "Wow, she looks young for a Supreme Court judge", and my second thought was to look up her age on the internet. Because that kind of thing is available on the internet, right? That's what the internet is FOR!

But try as I might, I was not able to find out. My first port of call was Wikipedia, which does indeed have an entry for Justice O'Bonsawin. But, while it tells me that she was born in the French Ontarian town of Hanmer, near Sudbury, Ontario, and is a member of the Odanak First Nation, nowhere does it tell me WHEN she was born. 

I found that strange, and investigated further. But it seems that the internet, with all its deep resources, does not actually know when Justice O'Bonsawin was born, nor how old she is. Which is kind of strange, no? Is she particularly sensitive about her age? Is it a state secret? Is it just that the internet and the media have not caught up on that particular snippet of information yet? Weird.

Anyway, suffice to say, she is clearly young, as Supreme Court judges go. How young? We may never know. But, just in passing, the third thought I had  regarding this nomination was: what a sweet, civilized process Canada has for new Supreme Court judges compared to the fractious, partisan American one!

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