Title: Confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court
Date: April 8, 2022
Description: On April 8, 2022, Tanya Walker joined Metro Morning with Ismaila Alfa on CBC Radio to discuss the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court
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a history has been made this week
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katanji brown jackson was confirmed as a
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u.s supreme court justice making her the
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first black woman to reach the country’s
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top court it was a meaningful moment for
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my next guest tanya walker is a lawyer
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and managing director of walker law in
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toronto good morning
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good morning
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so what what does it mean to you
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watching as katanji brown jackson
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ultimately was confirmed to the supreme
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court
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well thank you for having me and what it
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means to me is it’s just exciting
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um it moves me to
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even just feel a little emotional
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because it just even though judges are
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impartial
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this uh
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nomination this appointment reflects the
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diversity of the united states and our
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diversity in our country is very similar
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and it just acknowledges that if you can
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work hard um change can happen um and if
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you see something then you might believe
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that something that you can do in the
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future so i’m really really excited to
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see
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um that this change has happened if you
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can work hard then change can happen um
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added to that for many many decades has
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been that you need to work harder than
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others to reach those heights what does
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it say about that
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i i actually agree with you so
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being a black woman i that’s what i was
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taught by my parents and that’s what i
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do and um sometimes you do need a little
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to work a little bit harder to
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demonstrate um to those who may not
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believe that you should be there that
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you should be
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so
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i but
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the the key phrase here is work hard
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and um sometimes uh in the past even if
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you did work hard change wouldn’t be
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achieved and that’s what i like to see
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now is that if you work hard or even
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harder change can can be a change i
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can’t imagine or i can imagine actually
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what type of uh inspiration this will be
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for young black women and young black
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girls around the world in fact but but i
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i wonder for you when you were younger
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who were the black female lawyers that
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you looked up to well i the black female
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lawyer that i looked up to that actually
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made me decide to become a lawyer when i
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was a little girl maybe around four or
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five years old and i’m really dating
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myself her name is claire huxtable from
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the cosby show i’m not sure if you’re
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familiar with that show of course so i
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saw her as a little girl and i didn’t
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even understand what lawyering meant and
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i was like i want to be her
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and so my parents said well you’re
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argumentative so that you might you know
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that’s one check
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but you have to work very very hard to
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get into a good school and to
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follow through with law school and it’s
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something you can do my parents never
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said no to me so i think it’s a
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combination of seeing someone even if it
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was an actress
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that i saw myself in her at such a young
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age along with having so much support
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that convinced me that i this is
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something i could do i don’t know if i
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necessarily would have had the same kind
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of uh conclusion had it not been seeing
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someone in that role now in canada the
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first judge of color was uh just named
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to the federal supreme court last june
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the honorable mahmoud jamal
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there’s not been a woman of color on our
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top court as of yet i mean this this
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confirmation is an american confirmation
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but how do you see it influencing canada
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well as you said as of yet so there
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there is always time to for change to
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come and i and i hope it does come with
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someone who is uh appointed who really
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everyone believes should be there i i
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don’t want anyone to think someone’s
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there because of like a diversity kind
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of higher um but there is there is time
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for change and and hopefully that’s
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something that i’ll see in my lifetime
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is that uh a female judge in the supreme
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court who is of color um
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will be appointed
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you you point out that i hope nobody’s
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there because of this this this phrase
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um a diversity higher you know that in
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reaction to um judge brown jackson being
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confirmed there are people in the u.s
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who are are
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you know pushing back saying that
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president biden had stated he was going
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to find a black woman for this position
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and that others weren’t considered
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essentially referring to her as a
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diversity hire what’s your action to
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that
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i
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i don’t um
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i understand where he’s coming from
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um and i think he’s just trying to
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stress the importance of having
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diversity on the bench in that in the
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highest level court of the united states
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i don’t know if people would have
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reacted the same way if he just didn’t
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say that and just said you know what i
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found the best person for the job and
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that person just happens to be a black
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woman so
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um i i might have approached a little
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bit differently but i’m just little
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tanya walker i’m not the president of
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the united states i think there’s a fair
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point i mean the idea that that the
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action should be the statement no no
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need necessarily for a verbal statement
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exactly you see what you see i was the
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first black female bencher elected with
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our law society from toronto
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and i didn’t i when i ran in 2016 and
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2019 i didn’t lead with that people
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could just see this is what i look like
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right so um and i am i appreciate that
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only lawyers can vote for me and i got
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in twice and um i appreciate having
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their support so i i prefer to lead with
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um you know skill and intellect and hard
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work and then people can see what they
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can see now i know that your first
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inspiration was claire huxtable but but
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you know getting a little older what
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would a moment like this have meant to
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you to see an actual lawyer in real life
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being uh confirmed into this position
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i think that it would have convinced me
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as a little girl that um you don’t just
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uh have to practice law there are other
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areas of law that you can pursue such as
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the supreme court um i think that’s
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something that i might have considered
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when i was a little girl even just
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growing up but because i didn’t see
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someone in that role that looked like me
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i didn’t ever consider it so i do hope
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that the younger generation it will open
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their eyes to see um that
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you could pursue you could pursue law um
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and you can be in private practice work
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for the government or you can be a judge
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of the supreme court whether it’s canada
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or united states always agree to
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celebrate the first but always even
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better to move on uh to the point where
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there’s no need to celebrate first
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because it’s just part of life um tanya
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thanks for being here this morning
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thank you for having me have a great day
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you too
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tanya walker is a lawyer and managing
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director of walker law in toronto
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yes