List of Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada

Supreme Court of Canada
History Act Process
Current members
Beverley McLachlin (Chief Justice) Rosalie Abella Michael Moldaver Andromache Karakatsanis Richard Wagner Clément Gascon Suzanne Côté Russell Brown Malcolm Rowe
All members
List of Chief Justices List of all Justices List of Justices by Court composition
Judgments

Beverley McLachlin is the current Chief Justice of Canada and the first woman to hold this position.

The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada. It was created in 1875 by a law passed by the Parliament of Canada, the Supreme and Exchequer Court Act.^[1] Since 1949, the Court has been the final court of appeal in the Canadian justice system. Originally composed of six justices (the Chief Justice of Canada and five puisne justices), the Court was expanded to seven justices by the creation of an additional puisne justice position in 1927,^[2] and then to nine justices by the creation of two more puisne justice positions in 1949.^[3]

The justices are appointed by the Governor-in-Council (Governor General of Canada on the advice of the Cabinet). The first six justices of the Court were all appointed in 1875 by the then Governor General of Canada, the Earl of Dufferin, on the advice of the Canadian Prime Minister, Alexander Mackenzie.

Of the nine justices, three positions are required by law to be held by judges who are either judges of the superior courts of Quebec, or members of the Bar of Quebec, at the time of their appointment.^[4][5] Traditionally, three of the remaining judges are appointed from Ontario, two from the four western provinces, and one from the Atlantic provinces. The judges from these provinces, other than Quebec, must have been a judge of a superior court, or a member of the bar of one of those provinces for ten or more years prior to the appointment.^[6] A Supreme Court justice, as with all federal judges, has guaranteed tenure during good behaviour, and may sit on the bench until the age of 75 years.^[7] Beverley McLachlin is the current Chief Justice and is the first woman to hold this position.^[8]

In this list, justices are placed in the order in which they took the judicial oath of office and thereby started their term of office. While many of the justices' positions prior to appointment are simply listed as "lawyer", many had part-time positions, such as teaching, or acted as counsel to various levels of government.

Justices

     † Denotes current justices

List of current justices by mandatory retirement date

When the Supreme Court was created, the justices of the Court had life tenure, meaning they could sit on the Court until they either retired or died. In 1927, a mandatory retirement age of 75 was introduced.^[10] The retirement age applied to any judge who was already over age 75, which meant that Justice John Idington, aged 86, was forced to retire on the day the amendment came into force, March 31, 1927.

The mandatory retirement age is still set at 75 by the Supreme Court Act.^[7] Justices can retire from the Court prior to the mandatory retirement date.

In this list, "Seniority" is based on the date of appointment to the Court.

See also

• List of Chief Justices of Canada
• List of Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada by court composition

References

Bibliography

Further reading

• Government of Canada. "Current and Former Puisne Judges". Judges of the Court. Supreme Court of Canada. Retrieved February 14, 2012. 
• Government of Canada. "Current and Former Chief Justices". Judges of the Court. Supreme Court of Canada. Retrieved February 14, 2012.