Ceremony held to mark grand opening of Nova Scotia Indigenous court
WAGMATCOOK, N.S. — Nova Scotia has become the first province in Canada to open a superior court on a reserve that will incorporate Indigenous restorative justice traditions and customs.
“We can’t just talk about reconciliation. We have to act on it,” Mi’kmaq Grand Keptin Andrew Denny said Thursday during an opening ceremony at Wagmatcook First Nation in Cape Breton. “That’s why this court is here today.”
Nova Scotia Supreme Court Chief Justice Joseph Kennedy called the court “groundbreaking.”
“We believe that this is the first time in the history of this country that a superior court has sat in this context,” he told the crowd of Indigenous chiefs, judges, politicians and community members. “Nobody else has done this. No other province in Canada.”