New judge appointed

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Donald John Bird, a member of the Montreal Lake Cree Nation, has been appointed a judge of the Provincial Court in Meadow Lake.

"Judge Bird's experience in the fields of corrections, policing and community-based justice initiatives, coupled with his experience in the practice of law, will serve him well in his new role as a Provincial Court judge, provincial Justice Minister Frank Quennell said in announcing the appointment on May 10.

Bird received his bachelor of laws from the University of Saskatchewan in 1996. While in law school he served as an investigator with the Saskatchewan Police Complaints Investigators Office. From 1996 until 2001 he was co-ordinator of the Aboriginal Policing program at Saskatchewan Justice. In 2001 he accepted a position with the Prosecutions Division where he has been a member of the Cree Court party, a group of Cree-speaking court officials, including a judge, Crown prosecutor, legal aid lawyer, two court clerks and a probation officer, who travel to provincial court locations in northern Saskatchewan providing Cree-speaking people with access to court proceedings in their own language.

Since 1997 Bird has been a member of the multi-disciplinary review team responsible for conducting reviews of child deaths for the Office of the Children's Advocate of Saskatchewan.

Prior to attending law school Bird was a member of the RCMP in North Battleford, worked as a probation officer and a corrections worker.

One of Bird's responsibilities in his new position will be establishing an Aboriginal Provincial Court Party in Meadow Lake, which will travel to a courts across northwestern Saskatchewan.