PHOTO BY ANNETTE BOURGEOIS
Paul Okalik: First a lawyer, then an MLA
Nunavut's first Inuk lawyer may have little time to spend in the court room.
ANNETTE BOURGEOIS
Nunatsiaq News
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But Okalik won't be spending much time in the courtroom. Nunavut's first Inuk lawyer became one of the territory's first lawmakers Monday.
Three days after reciting his oath, Okalik won the right to represent Iqaluit West residents in Nunavut's first legislative assembly.
The Pangnirtung native, who moved to Iqaluit last year after graduating from the University of Ottawa law program, will now spend the next four years as a legislator writing the laws of Nunavut.
Okalik's struggle to reach and pass the bar may have been personal, but his achievement is felt throughout the territory. In becoming Nunavut's first Inuk attorney-at-law, Okalik has become a beacon to others, especially young people who'll look to the energetic young lawyer and, perhaps, see themselves.
"People will be looking at that and saying if Paul can do it, so can I," Nunavut Tunngavik President Jose Kusugak said. "It's a hurdle Inuit find so hard to get over — the law."
Okalik's parents didn't live to witness his accomplishment, but his sisters, Ida and Elisapee, flew in from Pangnirtung to attend the ceremony. Paul's children, Shasta and Jordan, made the trip from Ottawa.
Troubled times
During the past year Okalik articled with Anne Crawford at the Maliiganik Tukisiiniakvik legal aid clinic in Iqaluit.
"His early encounters with the law weren't too successful," Crawford chided the 34-year-old Okalik during last Friday's ceremony.
As a teenager losing a battle with alcohol, a young and despondent Okalik dropped out of high school in Iqaluit, his burning desire to one day practice law dying to an ember.
He eventually returned to school, in Fort Smith, to earn a welder's degree and his high school equivalency. Okalik spent the first two years of his working life underground in the Nanisivik Mine, a job he found dirty and monotonous.
In 1985, Okalik set his foot upon a path that would lead him to an Iqaluit courtroom where, in front of a Supreme Court Justice, he would swear an oath no Inuk from Nunavut ever had.
That was the year he began working on negotiating the Nunavut land claim agreement. Yet, heavy drinking in the late 1980s landed him repeatedly in jail. In 1991, he signed himself into a 28-day alcohol treatment program.
That fall, he made plans to attend Carleton University to pursue an undergraduate degree in political science and Canadian studies.
He completed his bachelor's degree during the summer of 1993 and was accepted to the University of Ottawa's law program in September. Last year he graduated with a law degree.
Pearls of wisdom
Northwest Territories Supreme Court Justice Ted Richard, who articled in Iqaluit as a student lawyer 26 years ago, sat on the bench before Okalik, along with Supreme Court Judge John Vertes and Territorial Court Judge Beverly Brown.
"No matter what happens next Monday, I do hope we see you in court on a regular basis as a lawyer," Richard said.
A dozen lawyers and justices of the peace flanked Okalik as he swore his oath.
From the bench Brown offered Okalik several pearls of wisdom, notably to remain true to the law.
"You must never be compromised in the adversarial system we work under," she said.
Lawyers must respect the law, Brown said, even if they don't always agree with it. She added it's their job to challenge the status quo and challenge laws that may be unfair.
"It seems as though we've come from the dark into the light to see Paul Okalik called to the Bar," Simon Nattaq, speaking on behalf of Iqaluit's mayor, said. "It's good to see one of our own join the ranks here and wearing the colors."
Other prominent community leaders, including Dennis Patterson, who in 1975 became Iqaluit's first resident lawyer, Tagak Curley and Joe Kunuk, also attended the ceremony.
Kunuk, the acting interim commissioner of Nunavut, suggested that money may be available for Nunavut students to enter law school and follow the example Okalik has set.
"With the new MLAs... we'll be able to make the funding system with the government of Nunavut more friendly," Kunuk said.
Only last year the fledgling Arctic College legal studies program fi led and died after funding fell through to support the program.
With the oath taken and the words of praise received, the personable Okalik breathed a sigh of relief before thanking those family and friends who supported him.