Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin speaking at the Art Gallery of Alberta, September 5, 2017
Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin addressed a packed room at the Ernest C. Manning Hall & Atrium at the Art Gallery of Alberta in the evening of September 5, 2017.
Addressing the crowd of around 150 judges and other legal professionals as well as University of Alberta administrators and assorted dignitaries, Canada's longest serving top jurist and first female Chief Justice (and UAlberta Law alumna) expressed her deep pride in Canada's Supreme Court and judicial system generally, while also cautioning against complacency.
"Unless our courts continue - and in fact do a better job - of serving ordinary people with ordinary problems, we risk becoming irrelevant," she said.
"And unless our institutions of justice are backed by a public that values them, we are in a fragile situation indeed."
McLachlin, who assumed the post of Chief Justice in 2000, is perhaps best known for her role in revolutionizing the role of the Supreme Court of Canada, making it more communicative, and therefore more relevant, to the Canadian public.
Having announced her retirement as Chief Justice in June 2017, she urged the upcoming generation of jurists to continue to promote access to justice and respond to the needs of ordinary Canadians.
"Canada has changed, and Canadians must have confidence in their courts' ability to respond to their needs. This is not something I take for granted; I worry about it a lot, especially now as I step down. That said, I truly believe that the Supreme Court has done a fantastic job over the last 30 years since the creation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and has come to stand out as a court of leadership. But there is still much work to be done."
UAlberta Dean Paul Paton hosted the event, which also featured speeches by University of Alberta President David Turpin and Chief Justice of Alberta Catherine Fraser. The event concluded with the presentation of a framed portrait of Rutherford Library (which housed the Faculty of Law when McLachlin attended it from 1965 to 1968) as a gift from UAlberta Law.
A Trailblazing Jurist
The Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin, P.C. was born in Pincher Creek, Alberta, and graduated from UAlberta Law with a LLB in 1968 (simultaneously receiving an MA in Philosophy), winning the Horace Harvey Gold Medal in Law as the faculty's top graduating student. She passed the bar in Alberta in 1969 and British Columbia in 1971, and achieved her first judgeship in Vancouver in 1981.
In September 1981, she was appointed to the Supreme Court of British Columbia, and became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia in September 1988. Seven months later, in April 1989, she was sworn in as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, and on January 7, 2000 was appointed Chief Justice of Canada by then-Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. She also served for seven years as a tenured associate professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of British Columbia beginning in 1974.
Chief Justice McLachlin will officially retire from the Supreme Court of Canada on December 15, 2017.