ARCTIC OBITER

...JUST CALLED: JEFFREY MARTIN
F
ive years ago I was filling out law school applications in Toronto. At that time Canada’s North was a place on a map, a
place I’d heard about but had never been to, a place I’d read about but had never seen.
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How did I end up in a land of summer skies that have no beginning and no end, a land of
winter heavens that dance with the shimmer of northern lights, a land where the warmth of its
campfires are matched only by the warmth of its people’s hearts?
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My introduction to the North came as a 2 nd year law student when I participated in Osgoode Hall Law School’s Intensive
Program in Aboriginal Lands, Resources and Governments. I was placed with the Federal Department of Justice in
Yellowknife and for seven weeks in the heart of a northern winter I dove into files during the work days and into the ice
and snow during nights and weekends. It was bitterly cold but also breathtakingly beautiful. The generosity of the people
at Justice and of “Yellowknifers” in general was overwhelming. I applied to article with Justice and before I began my final
year of law school I was already adding to my warm wool winter wardrobe.
I began my articles with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada where I was placed with an office that works out of
Yellowknife in the Kitikmeot region of Nunavut. My principal was Christopher Punter who graciously and kindly
introduced me to the practice of criminal law. As part of that office I travelled to Gjoa Haven, Kugluktuk, and Cambridge
Bay. I met with witnesses, judges, defence counsel and officers. I also went to schools where I met elementary school
children, high school kids, principles, and teachers. Wherever possible I went beyond the houses to the open spaces, to look
upon the endless horizons, to feel the expanse of land all around me.
My articles continued with the Federal Department of Justice. With Scott Duke as my principal I worked on a wide range
of civil litigation and advisory files with a focus on Aboriginal legal issues. The most memorable experience I had at Justice
was when I participated in a negotiated settlement plan with a former residential school student. Much of Canada’s history
is beautiful but there are also incredibly dark and tragic veins that run through our collective national past. To be a
participant in that process of acknowledging and recognizing that what happened to this man when he was a child was
wrong was incredibly important to me and will stay with me.
Since being called to the Bar I have begun a new position as counsel with the Northwest Territories PPSC office. My friends
and family back in Toronto ask me when I will be moving back to the South. The truth is that I don’t know. What I do know
is that the northern adventure I set out on two years ago is not over yet and in some ways it is just beginning.
6 ■ AUGUST 2013 ARCTIC OBITER