Karen Mackenzie
Northern News Services
Published Monday, September 24, 2007

POND INLET - A Pond Inlet woman was sworn in as a lawyer on her home turf last week.

Sandra Omik, a graduate of the Akitsiraq law school, is the first person to be called to the bar in the hamlet.

Sandra Omik, originally from Pond Inlet, smiles at her 2005 graduation from the Akitsiraq law program. Omik was called to the bar on Sept. 18 in her home hamlet. - photo courtesy of Greg Younger-Lewis

Though now based in Iqaluit with her two children, Omik said it was important to her to be able to share the moment with her family and friends.

"So many people did so much, and I had so much support," she said.

She was introduced to the bar by fellow Akitsiraq grad Qajaq Robinson and Justice René Foisy in a ceremony at a local hotel.

"I'm just so proud and happy for her. It's really neat that someone actually got their call to the bar in their home community," said Madeleine Redfern, another Akitsiraq grad.

"While most of us live and work in Iqaluit, it's important for us to recognize something like this with our friends and family back home," Redfern said.

Omik worked as a court secretary, and later a court worker, from 1993 to 1999 in Pond Inlet.

She was appointed as chief commissioner of Maligarnit Qimirrujiit, Nunavut's Law Review Commission, in 1999.

After graduating from law school in 2005, Omik successfully completed her bar exams last March.

She has worked in the Crown's office in Iqaluit since May.

Throughout her career, Omik said she has striven to remain upbeat in the face of many dispiriting things in the legal system.

"You have to be positive, otherwise you go crazy. Having worked in legal aid before, I learned how not to take that into my home life. I learned how to shut the lights off at five," she said.

"My extended family has always been a positive influence on me as well, very calm, very traditional, working hard even through bad times. I always think of times when (my parents) helped each other as a married couple, in a very good and respectful way, without resorting to anger and violence," she said. "I always try to remember that."

Coincidentally, her own swearing-in celebration shared the limelight with theirs, as her parents marked their 34th anniversary.

"Their day got bumped a little by mine," she said with a laugh.

Omik was a bit reluctant to have a ceremony at all, worried that she would dwell too much on the recent death of her grandfather, who died shortly after she passed her bar exams.

"But I felt kind of a sense of duty to make a show of it, to encourage other people to stay in school and to pursue their opportunities," she said, adding that one of her cousins pledged afterwards to continue her schooling.

One other very important person was missing at the ceremony, however: her grandmother, Jochebed Katsak, was out of town on a medical trip.

"I was trying to surprise my grandmother, but she went to Iqaluit the night before. It felt a little empty without her, but the rest of my family was there," she said. "My grandmother, she was so supportive. I had to call her every week and she was my support the whole time. She told me things like not to give up, to stay focused and not to let other things get in the way."