TURPEL-LAFOND APPOINTED PROVINCIAL COURT JUDGE

Released on March 4, 1998

Justice Minister John Nilson today announced that Dr. Mary Ellen

Turpel-Lafond, a lawyer of the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, has been

appointed a judge of the Provincial Court of Saskatchewan. Judge

Turpel-Lafond will preside in Saskatoon.



"I am pleased to announce this appointment," Nilson said. "Judge

Turpel-Lafond's brilliant career experience as a lawyer and an

educator will be invaluable to the people of Saskatchewan in her new

role as Provincial Court Judge."



Judge Turpel-Lafond was admitted to the Nova Scotia bar in 1990 and to

the Saskatchewan bar in 1993. She obtained a Bachelor of Laws from

Osgoode Hall Law School in 1985, a Masters in International Law from

Cambridge University in 1988 and her Doctorate of Law from Harvard Law

School in 1991.



Judge Turpel-Lafond has written extensively on Aboriginal and law

reform issues. She has taught law at Dalhousie School of Law, the

Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto, the University of

Saskatchewan College of Law and held a position as the Aboriginal

Scholar there, and Notre Dame Law School in South Bend, Indiana. She

was the first Aboriginal person to become a tenured professor of law

in Canada.



She has received many post-graduate research grants and awards,

such as the Nova Scotia Law Foundation grant for research on

Aboriginal peoples and international law and the Therese F.

Casgrain Fellowship, awarded by the Social Sciences and

Humanities Research Council of Canada, for research on women and

social change in Canada.



Prior to this appointment, Judge Turpel-Lafond practised law on

the Asimakaniseekan Askiy Reserve in Saskatoon.



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For more information, please contact:



Warren Bickford

Saskatchewan Justice

Regina

Phone: (306)787-8606