Gerald M. Morin
Gerald "Gerry" M. Morin is a Canadian judge. He is a member of the Cree Nation.
Early life and education
Morin was born in in Cumberland House, Saskatchewan. He attended Charlebois School in Cumberland House until grade 10, then completed high school at L.P. Miller Comprehensive School in Nipawin, Saskatchewan, in 1971.He obtained a certificate in social work from Saskatchewan Polytechnic in 1973. He obtained another certificate in social work in 1978 from the University of Regina, and in 1979 earned a Bachelor of Social Work from the same institution. He enrolled at the University of Saskatchewan in 1984 and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws and Juris Doctor in 1987.
Career
Morin started working as a probation officer in 1973. He was an assistant professor at the University of Manitoba School of Social Work, where he taught community development, and where he served as the Director of the Indian Child and Family Services Training Program from 1982 to 1984. After graduating from law school in 1987, he practised law in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and he was a sessional instructor at the Gabriel Dumont Institute's Native Justice Program. He has served as a member and president of the board of the Prince Albert Indian and Métis Friendship Centre. In 1999, he was the first Indigenous person in Saskatchewan's history to receive a Queen's Counsel designation.On January 24, 2001, he was the first Cree-speaking person to be appointed as a judge to the Provincial Court of Saskatchewan for Prince Albert, where he helped set up the Cree Court Circuit. As a judge, he sat in Indigenous communities such as Pelican Narrows, Sandy Bay First Nation, Whitefish Lake First Nation, and Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation, at times addressing defendants in Cree. In 2012, he initiated the Wunusweh Centennial Lecture in Aboriginal Law, an annual lecture series at the University of Saskatchewan's College of Law.
He has also served as a Deputy Judge in the Territorial Court of the Northwest Territories and the Territorial Court of Yukon.
He retired in 2019, but continues his judicial duties in all three jurisdictions.
In December 2022, he was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada, "or his groundbreaking contributions to the Cree Court Circuit, and for his mentorship of the next generation of lawyers and judges."