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Everyone will feel they are given a fair hearing in her courtroom. Coming
from the position of someone who has stood in the place of being
“other”, she is careful to honour the need for gentleness and respect, and to
make room to actually see and consider the different sides and perspectives
people bring with them.
Mapping the terrain of our further journey along the road of reconciliation,
Ardith broke the glass ceiling. Young Indigenous lawyers now can
imagine themselves following in her footsteps. This is all part of the legal
profession’s inspired collective response to the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission’s Calls to Action, which drive us to reimagine a justice system
enriched by the principle of proportionality, inspiring hope as we weave
the threads back together again.
ENDNOTES
1. Though not the first member of her extended family
to serve on the bench. Interested parties may choose
to search her last name and that of Judge Begbie: her
paternal great-uncle was once the Attorney General
of the province and one of the first lawyers trained on
these lands to practise in British Columbia.
2. Expanding Our Vision: Cultural Equality & Indigenous
Peoples’ Human Rights (January 2020), online:
<www.bchrt.bc.ca/shareddocs/indigenous/expand
ing-our-vision.pdf>.
3. R v Van der Peet, 1996 2 SCR 507 at para 263,
McLachlin J (dissenting, but not on this point).
4. Online: <testifyindigenous.ca/we-are-our-lawswalking
the-light-shining-through/>.
5. “But I Was Wearing a Suit” (2017), online: <www.
cle.bc.ca/butiwaswearingasuit/>.
6. 2006 SCC 59.
7. 2014 SCC 44.
8. 2003 SCC 71.
9. Wrapping Our Ways Around Them: The Child, Family
and Community Service Act (CFCSA), Aboriginal
Communities and Parents Plain Language Guidebook
(Nlaka’pamux Nation Tribal Council-
ShchEma-mee.tkt Project), online: <pubsdb.lss.bc.
ca/pdfs/pubs/Wrapping-Our-Ways-Around-
Them-eng.pdf>.
10. UBCIC, News Release, “UBCIC Congratulates Ardith
(Walpetko We’dalx) Walkem on Appointment to the
British Columbia Supreme Court” (14 December
2020), online: <www.ubcic.bc.ca/ubcic_ardith_
appt_bc_supreme_court>.
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