After taking her oath of office, the first Philippine-born judge Justice L. Bernadette Ho of the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta in Calgary, Canada, recognized her Filipino roots.
“I’m proud of my heritage,” Ho said in a swearing-in ceremony on Friday, May 25, according to a statement from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Monday.
Consul General Gilberto Asuque said Ho was a source of “great honor and pride” among Filipinos.
“I would like to express the great honor and pride not only of Filipinos in Canada but also in the Philippines and all over the world for having Justice Ho as the first Philippine-born Canadian to hold a high judicial position,” Asuque said.
The Philippine Consulate General in Calgary said Ho was only seven months old when her family migrated to the region in 1971. The newly appointed justice took her primary education in Cochrane, Alberta, and completed her degree in BA Communication Studies at the University of Calgary in 1992.
Ho also took up law studies from the same university, finishing on 1995. She was called to the Bar of Alberta by the following year as an associate and eventually a partner at the firm Macleod Dixon LLP.
DFA said that Asuque, along with Associate Chief Justice John D. Rooke and other justices at the Calgary Courts Center, were present during the ceremony. /cbb
READ: PH-born lawyer named Calgary’s newest judge