Hon. Rodger Cuzner: Honourable senators, Canadians would first hear the name Donald Marshall Jr., or Junior Marshall, in 1971, when he was just 18 years old. From Membertou First Nation on Cape Breton Island, he was charged and wrongfully convicted in the murder of Sandy Seale in Wentworth Park in Sydney, Nova Scotia.

Throughout his 11 years of incarceration, Junior Marshall maintained his innocence, and through his determined efforts to clear his name, he was finally acquitted in May 1993 by the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. His case made him the first high-profile victim of wrongful conviction in Canada, paving the way for others such as David Milgaard and Guy Paul Morin. Those years in prison took their toll on Junior physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

I got to know Junior at the rinks of Cape Breton as he followed his family’s hockey pursuits. He loved to be at the rink, but he found true peace and solace trekking the woods of Cape Breton and fishing the numerous lakes and streams.

In August 1993, after catching and selling eels near Antigonish, he was charged and convicted of doing so out of season and without a licence. That began a six-year battle over Mi’kmaq treaty rights that went, with the support and aid of the Nova Scotia and Atlantic chiefs, all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.

In their landmark ruling, reached in 1999, the court upheld that the Crown had granted rights to the Mi’kmaq, the Maliseet and the Passamaquoddy peoples signed in the 1761 Peace and Friendship Treaties.

This week marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of that incredibly consequential decision. Your former colleague Senator Dan Christmas said the feeling that day in the wake of the decision was not so much turning the world upside down but more so turning it right side up.

Dr. Jane McMillan of St. Francis Xavier University says that the impact of the Marshall decision continues to allow First Nations to build capacity and strength toward self-government and self-determination for all First Nations in Atlantic Canada.

As a Nova Scotian, I can speak first-hand to the growth and development that is witnessed in First Nations communities. All Nova Scotians are benefiting from their success, and we are enriched by the continued celebration of their rich history and culture.

Today we remember Donald Marshall Jr. and appreciate his courage and all that he has done for his people. May his memory be a blessing.

Hon. Senators: Hear, hear.