The Faculty of Law mourns the passing of Dr. Marguerite Ritchie, Q.C. on April 24, 2016 in Ottawa.
Born in Edmonton, Dr. Ritchie earned a LLB from the University of Alberta and a LLM from McGill University. She was called to the Alberta Bar in 1944 and shortly thereafter moved to Ottawa to begin work for the federal Department of Justice.
Throughout her career, Dr. Ritchie represented Canada at numerous international meetings, including the Warsaw Convention in The Hague in 1955. In 1974, she founded the Human Rights Institute of Canada, a non-profit organization dedicated to pursuing equality and justice for Canadians, especially women and Aboriginal women. (The Institute was dissolved in 2013.) Dr. Ritchie gifted the Human Rights Institute of Canada's archives to the University of Alberta, and also provided financial support for an archivist. Dr. Ritchie was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2000.
In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations to Shepherds of Good Hope, an organization dedicated to serving the poor and homeless in Ottawa.
For more information on Dr. Ritchie's legal and philanthropic contributions, a profile on her career has been written for the Globe and Mail, or read her Autumn 2015 profile in Cornerstone Magazine, republished on the University of Alberta website.