Images of Justice

Louis A. Knafla is a professor of history at the University of Calgary,
the co-editor of Law, Society, and the State: Essays in Modern Legal
History, and the author of Lords of the Western Bench.

The Yellowknife courthouse houses a collection of 14 Inuit carvings that
represent landmark cases in the Northwest Territories between 1955 and
1970. The collection was begun by Justice John Sissons, the first
resident justice of the Supreme Court. His practice of having Inuit
artists document legal cases through their carvings was continued by his
successor, William Morrow. Both justices were strong supporters of
Native rights, and both believed that the common law must be adapted to
serve the interests of the North and its local peoples.

The cases, which involved murder, assisted suicide, adoption, customary
law marriages, and game law infractions, occurred at a time when the
Inuit were moving into the anglophile commercial settlements that
fringed the radar stations of the DEW Line. Using interpreters, the
author interviewed relatives of the artists. Their comments on the
social context of each case have been incorporated into her accounts,
which run about 10 pages each.

In a 30-page introductory chapter, Eber reviews the history of the NWT
Supreme Court. Of particular interest are her views on early justice
under the Inuit prior to the advent of the federal circuit courts. She
warmly praises Sissons and Morrow for their courage in defending the
traditions of the Native people and challenging the bureaucrats in
Ottawa.

Eber is deeply disturbed by social problems such as drug/alcohol abuse
and high unemployment, which have fueled crime and the emergence of a
criminal underclass. She advocates new approaches to dispute resolution
and punishment. While the Community Justice Initiative program has had
some success, she believes that the Inuit themselves will have to
remodel the legal traditions of the future.