|
|
Maryka Omatsu
Maryka Omatsu, a sansei and daughter of Denno Omatsu and Satsuko Takishita, is Canada’s first Japanese Canadian woman judge. While practicing environmental law, she was appointed to the Ontario Court of Justice (Provincial Division) in February 1993. Born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario, she became a founding member of Sodan Kai during the early years of her legal career. Sodan Kai was established to help educate Japanese Canadians in Toronto on redress. Before her appointment to the bench, she was chair of the Ontario Human Rights Board of Inquiry, an Ontario Law Society referee and a member if the women’s issues working group of the Ontario Fair Tax Commission. A key figure on the NAJC Redress negotiation team, Judge Omatsu has written movingly about the redress victory in an award-winning book, Bittersweet Passage (Toronto: Between the Lines, 1992).
Maryka Omatsu
|
|
Maryka Omatsu (left) and Audrey
Kobayashi, NAJC Strategy team.
(photo: Art Miki)
|
|
Maryka with Harold Hirose.
(photo: Art Miki)
|
|
|
)
)
)