Canadian Society of Forensic, Ottawa, ON

Our Society has its charter, its seal and its emblem or heraldic device. Our President has his symbol of office, the gavel. There is something very special about this gavel of ours. In medieval times, when folk attending gatherings were inclined to be more militant, the chief or person in authority, wielded a mallet-like weapon reinforced with an iron spike or two. We too have a spike in our gavel, but it is there only to serve as an expansion wedge to hold head and shaft together. This is no ordinary wedge - it is an interesting relic of a pre-historic age, a sliver of mastodon tusk retrieved from the Yukon River and donated by Bill Sutherland, one of our founding members.
The gavel head is hard Canadian oak and the shaft is Canadian elm. One face of the head bears a metal disc which came from a Northern Ontario mine. Into the metal disc a maple leaf was etched by Jim Churchman. The woodwork was finely crafted by Mr. Percy Plowman of Edmonton.
A plate around the mid-section of the gavel head bears the names of our past presidents, the year or years they held office and the locales of the meetings over which they presided.