Eagle feathers, like the Bible, now an option for swearing oaths in all Alberta courts

[Beringia]

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alberta/article-eagle-feathers-like-the-bible-now-an-option-for-swearing-oaths-in/?fbclid=IwAR2DQISjzYh5-Byf1myICe5vJo3M1JtAGYMl3Vks6kgwYFCBxhTLD0AHk0M





As the first Treaty First Nation person to receive a law degree from the University of Alberta, Wilton Littlechild requested – and received – special permission to swear the oath required of new lawyers with a sacred eagle feather.

Almost 42 years later, the Treaty Six Grand Chief found himself holding back tears during a ceremony making eagle feathers an option for swearing oaths in all Alberta courts.

“I felt very emotional because I saw an acceptance of our spiritual and cultural beliefs in a judicial proceeding in the Canadian justice system,” Mr. Littlechild said after the ceremony in Edmonton.

Until last week, individuals making an oath in civil, criminal or family matters in Alberta could swear only on a religious text or make a non-religious affirmation. In court, witnesses were commonly offered the Bible or the choice of affirmation before their testimony.

Eagle feathers will now be available in all proceedings as a traditional Indigenous form of conscience binding.

Chief Justice Catherine Fraser says she hopes the presence and use of the sacred eagle feather “demonstrates the court’s commitment to ensuring that the justice system is open to and respectful of aboriginal culture.”

“It represents one step – an important one, but only one – in implementing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action,” she said. “But reconciliation calls for more than just this.”


Ability to use feather is part of the Truth and Reconciliation process

https://nctr.ca/about-new.php

For over 150 years, residential schools operated in Canada. Over 150,000 children attended these schools. Many never returned. Often underfunded and overcrowded, these schools were used as a tool of assimilation by the Canadian state and churches.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/a-history-of-residential-schools-in-canada-1.702280

Though the Catholic church oversaw three-quarters of Canadian residential schools, it was the last church to have one of its leaders officially address the abuse.

On April 29, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI expressed his "sorrow" to a delegation from Canada's Assembly of First Nations for the abuse and "deplorable" treatment that aboriginal students suffered at Roman Catholic Church-run residential schools.

At the time, then Assembly of First Nations Leader Phil Fontaine said it wasn't an "official apology," but added that he hoped the statement would "close the book" on the issue of apologies for residential school survivors.

[Hortensis]

1. Great. We advance.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. How about Newton's Principia for an atheist option ? nt

[Jake Stern]

3. Time to drop religious based oaths and switch to solely non religious affirmations

The person making it can hold a bible, eagle feather, copy of Hustler, lucky rabbit's foot or any other totem they choose or nothing at all.

[Beringia]

4. Makes sense to me

I guess you can swear on anything in the US, because a rep used Captain America shield to do it.



https://nerdist.com/article/captain-america-shield-lan-diep-councilman-got-sworn-in-with-caps/

Jan 2017

California Councilmember Lân Diệp, an Americorps alumnus, former legal aid attorney, and “Road trip enthusiast,” did something in government recently that so few seem to be willing to do: swear to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America… while wearing a very sweet replica of Captain America’s shield.



(There is probably a distinction to the case of the Canadian Indians and this rep, but I don't know what it is, legally that is. Obviously this rep is making a joke and the Indians are very serious and consider the feather sacred.)