Judge Corrine Sparks is retiring after 34 years behind the bench.
Sparks was the first African Canadian to serve on the bench in the province of Nova Scotia.
She was born and raised in Lake Loon, and attended Mount Saint Vincent University and completed her law degree at Dalhousie University and graduating in 1979.
Judge Sparks practiced private law until her appointment to family court in 1987. She was responsible for launching a judicial mentorship initiative with the Schulich School of Law to support African Nova Scotian and Indigenous lawyers interested in applying to become a judge.
Furthermore, Sparks also helped organize judicial engagement sessions with the African Nova Scotian community in Cherry Brook in 2018 and Whitney Pier, Cape Breton in 2019.
The sessions were designed to show to enhance the administration of justice by broadening the horizons and skills of judges in order to better appreciate the challenges facing African Nova Scotians, particularly in the context of the justice system, and enabling members of the African Nova Scotian community to gain a greater understanding of the legal system and the judiciary.
Judge Corrine Sparks last day is Dec 31, Sparks will remain busy with her new duty of serving as one of two commissioners adjudicating disputes over land ownership in historic African Nova Scotian communities. This work is part of the Land Titles Initiative the Province of Nova Scotia launched in 2017 to help residents get clear title to land in East Preston, North Preston, Cherry Brook/Lake Loon, Lincolnville and Sunnyville.
