Aboriginal people testifying at the Ottawa provincial courthouse are now able to swear an oath on an eagle feather to affirm they are telling the truth.
The Elgin Street courthouse was presented with two eagle feathers by local aboriginal elders and justice workers during a ceremony held at the Odawa Native Friendship Centre on City on Jan. 22.
Greg Meekis, Odawa’s aboriginal community justice program coordinator, was the one who offered the courthouse the eagle feathers after hearing that several people had requested to testify on a feather, but could not be provided with one.
He says it was an important move for the courthouse to give aboriginal people who still follow traditional customs and teachings the option to swear on an eagle feather, just as others can choose to swear on the Bible or the Qur’an, or affirm to tell the truth.
“It shows aboriginal people that the court has a willingness to adopt and recognize the traditional ways and beliefs and spirituality of aboriginal peoples,” he says. “It will also help to bridge that uncertainty that people go through with the court, because a lot of them will come into the court system and the process will seem so intimidating.”
The eagle is a highly regarded, sacred symbol in many aboriginal communities and eagle feathers —which represent truth, strength and honour—are often used in First Nations ceremonies and justice circles. They are not easy to obtain since they must be passed on as a gift, usually in recognition of an achievement, says Meekis.
Several other Ontario courts have introduced eagle feathers into their courtrooms as a way to make the legal process more inclusive for aboriginal people. This is the first time since the 1990s that Ottawa has had eagle feathers in its provincial courtrooms, says Algonquin elder and lawyer Claudette Commanda, who was also present at the ceremony.
Canada’s judicial system has made the effort to recognize and implement some aboriginal legal methods of justice and reconciliation, says Gary Barnes, a defence lawyer at Barnes Barristers in Centretown. He also noted that if a witness requests to swear an oath on a specific item because of cultural or spiritual beliefs, the court will do its best to try to provide the item.
“It’s not uncommon for the court to want to be accommodating to anyone, for that matter, but especially to our First Nations people because of how our legal system has treated them in the past,” he said.
The Ottawa courthouse’s acceptance of the eagle feathers can be seen as a great feat for aboriginal people, but it is a small step toward more extensive recognition they hope to have in the Canadian justice system, says Commanda.
“Canada . . . has not yet provided the full room for our fundamental indigenous laws to be incorporated into the courts, whether that’s at the provincial level or at the federal level,” she says. “So certainly there’s still work that needs to be done in that respect.”