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An Ontario Superior Court judge is facing removal from the bench basically because he’s not Indigenous.

That’s the crux of a recent move by the Canadian Judicial Council to examine Judge Patrick Smith’s alleged misconduct for accepting a temporary unpaid appointment as acting dean of the Bora Laskin School of Law at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay.

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Smith was asked to step in to solve a crisis when Angelique EagleWoman quit the dean’s job, calling herself a “victim of systemic discrimination” and blasting the university for allegedly thwarting her efforts.

Smith took the job only after asking for and getting the blessing of his own chief justice, Heather Smith (the two are not related), and of federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, the country’s first Indigenous justice minister.

It was always meant to be an interim appointment, with Patrick Smith effectively acting as a placeholder until the university could conduct a full hiring process for a new permanent dean.