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Garrett Woolsey's avatar

Can you explain the elevation of Michelle O’Bonsawin to the court to us?

David Clinton's avatar

I just did a bit of digging around and there's surprisingly little information available about her background. (her nominee questionairre looks like the best resource: https://fja-cmf.gc.ca/scc-csc/2022/nominee-candidat-eng.html). The PM's announcement did claim that it happened through an "open, non-partisan selection process" - but that could mean anything you want it to mean.

It is very interesting that her PhD thesis from Ottawa U was "embargoed" - which means we can't see it. You've made me curious, so I may try to find the time to look into this some more.

It's also interesting that she wrote: "the Supreme Court of Canada must work to move society forward in a progressive way yet remain respectful of the law"

Garrett Woolsey's avatar

Tough to do data analysis when the data is "embargoed," isn't it.

David Clinton's avatar

The thesis may be off-limits, but her Superior Court decisions aren't.

I just asked a friend who earned her own PhD from University of Ottawa just a month or so back. She said that it's *very* unusual to embargo a thesis for this long.

I've been thinking about ways to use some of the OSINT tools I used to teach to IT professionals in my current research. We'll see what might be possible.

Garrett Woolsey's avatar

I believe at least one appeal court had some interesting things to say about her legal acumen.

Ken Schultz's avatar

Quelle surprise!

As is so often the case, the "usual suspects" are quite willing for "their" philosophy to be dominant but are horrified when a different philosophy is even considered.

Rose_Anne's avatar

Thank you, David.