Nora Madeline Bernard, O.N.S.

Nora Madeline Bernard, O.N.S. (posthumous)
Millbrook First Nation

As a strong Mi'kmaq activist for her community of Millbrook First Nation and First Nations across the country, Nora Bernard was instrumental in ensuring justice, recognition and compensation for the Survivors of the Canadian Indian Residential School system. As a survivor of the residential school system herself, Ms. Bernard founded and became president of the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School Association in 1987, and launched a class-action lawsuit on its behalf. The action taken by Ms. Bernard inspired residential schools survivors across the country to file suits, and after the suits amalgamated, it became the largest class-action lawsuit in Canadian history, representing about 79,000 survivors. For 21 years, Ms. Bernard worked tirelessly to raise awareness and seek justice for Residential School Survivors. In 2007 the federal government settled the lawsuit for more than $5 billion. Ms. Bernard also worked as a counselor for the Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association and contributed to the United Church of Canada program "Toward Justice and Right Relationship: A Beginning" to foster reconciliation, justice and right the relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in Truro. She fought to rejoin her community when she lost her native status after marrying a non-native. In 2007, she was admitted to the Millbrook First Nation Band "her birth place". Ms. Bernard’s home was a mere 38 feet from the Millbrook First Nation’s Line and it took her 38 years to be admitted. Ms. Bernard was a kind and gentle woman whose inner strength allowed her to achieve the unimaginable for the survivors. Mr. Dick Cotterill, chairman, Council of Ministries United, said: "...every time I left Nora’s home, it was with a beacon of hope and love and respect. She was a great person, well deserving of recognition in the Order of Nova Scotia."