Above: Palbinder Kaur Shergill. Photo: YouTube
The Canadian judiciary is following in the footsteps of British politics. Just the other day two Indian origin Brits—one a turbaned male Sikh—had become MPs in Britain’s recent elections. Now, Canada has chosen a turbaned female Sikh judge for its Supreme Court of British Columbia (BC), Canada.
On Friday (June 23), Punjab-born Palbinder Kaur Shergill was named a judge by the country’s minister of justice, Jody Wilson Raybould. She is also the world’s first turbaned Sikh woman judge, as per media reports.
This is under the new judicial application process of October 20, 2016, which talks about transparency, merit, and diversity. Hence this was no quota appointment, but an appointment strictly on merit.
Shergill has been a human rights lawyer, and helped shape human rights and religious accommodation law in Canada through her pro bono work as general legal counsel for World Sikh Organization (WSO), Canada.
Shergill’s parents emigrated to Canada when she was four. Shergill grew up in Williams Lake, BC, earned and received her law degree from the University of Saskatchewan.
—India Legal Bureau