The Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin, P.C.
Chief Justice of Canada
Madam Chief Justice McLachlin, B.A., M.A., LL.B. Born Beverley Gietz, in Pincher Creek, Alberta, September 7, 1943, the eldest child of Ernest Gietz and Eleanora Kruschell and a self-described "farm girl", she is the widow of Roderick A. McLachlin who passed away in 1988. In 1992 she married lawyer Frank E. McArdle [Canadian Institute for Advance Legal Studies/National Judicial Institute]. She has one son, Angus, by her first marriage.
Approximate annual salary: $308,400, plus allowance. Her hobbies include music, cooking, gardening and walking with her Labrador Retriever.
Educated at University of Alberta, M.A.(philosophy), 1968; LL.B., 1968 Called to the Bar of Alberta, 1969, and to the Bar of British Columbia, 1971. Practised law with Wood, Moir, Hyde and Ross, Edmonton, 1969-71, with Thomas, Herdy, Mitchell & Co., Fort St. John, B.C., 1971-72, and with Bull, Housser & Tupper, Vancouver, 1972-75.Lecturer, Associate Professor and Professor with tenure at the University of British Columbia, 1974-81
Appointed to the County Court of Vancouver, April 9, 1981, to the Supreme Court of British Columbia, September 8, 1981 and to the Court of Appeal of British Columbia, December 5, 1985. Appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia, September 7, 1988. Appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada, March 30, 1989. Appointed Chief Justice of Canada January 7, 2000.
Views : Chief Justice McLachlin states that a judge's work is "… high-level specialized, intellectual work." (text of a speech to the Canadian Club June 17, 2003 -Toronto)
Other views: "She is a person of outstanding ability, she is someone who understands this country, she is a person of balance and I think she will serve the Supreme Court very well," [Anne McLellan]
."… they [the Supreme Court] blatantly manipulated the evidence before them so as to arrive at the desired result. Then they wrote a judgement which tried to lend a fig-leaf of legality to their preconceived conclusion ." [Pierre Trudeau, in a speech on the occasion of the opening of the University of Toronto Law Library in March 1991]
"Lawyers are trained to think clearly? Lawyers –in terms of coming to the right conclusion about the real world –are some of the worst thinkers on the planet Earth. Because of their tendancy to twist reality, they have a fantastic gift for sounding logical while missing the broad side of the barn. It is more accurate to say lawyers are trained to think logically within the framework of law –as chess players think within the framework of chess. (There is a very old saying, "The law sharpens a mind by narrowing it.") Would you go to a chess player for advice on your life? On business? Somewhere, I can hear somebody answering, "Hmm, well, umm ... if he had a nice pinstripe suit ... if she drove a BMW ..." [Nicholas Carroll, author and veteran of countless radio and TV interviews, including Canadian CBC and CTV].
"She is aggressively attempting to form, shape and lead public opinion as the official PR person for the Court... in the first place the court had to create an argument (weak though it was) to assume jurisdiction to overturn the discretionary decision of an elected school board, and had to also "read in" or "re-interpret " the clear wording the BC School Act in order to achieve its objective." [RWC newsletter Jan 14, 2003]
"Of all the attributes she brings to the high court, there is one
that sticks out. Many legal experts say she does not consider the Charter
of Rights to be necessarily sacred." [Jason Moscovitz
CBC Date: 991103
Time: 22:00:00 ET - 22:26:00 ET]
Chief Justice McLachlin is also Chairperson, Canadian Judicial Council. Chairperson, Advisory Council of the Order of Canada. Chairperson, Board of Governors of the National Judicial Institute. Member of the Privy Council of Canada.
Honourary:
University of British Columbia, LL.D. (Hon.), 1990; University of Alberta, LL.D. (Hon.), 1991; University of Toronto, LL.D. (Hon.), 1995; York University, LL.D. (Hon.), 1999; Law Society of Upper Canada, LL.D. (Hon.) 2000; University of Ottawa, LL.D. (Hon.) 2000; University of Calgary, LL.D. (Hon.) 2000; Brock University, LL.D. (Hon.) 2000; Simon Fraser University, LL.D. (Hon.) 2000; University of Victoria, LL.D. (Hon.) 2000; University of Alberta, LL.D. (Hon.), 2000; University of Lethbridge, LL.D. (Hon.), 2001; Bridgewater State College, LL.D. (Hon.) 2001; Mount Saint Vincent University, LL.D. (Hon.), 2002; University of Prince Edward Island, LL.D. (Hon.), 2002; University of Montreal, LL.D. (Hon.), 2003.
http://www.deakin.edu.au/buslaw/law/publications/studentnews/sn_vol3no2.pdf GIETZ, ERNEST 1977 7 30
http://www.victoriacollege.edu/pubs/2001report.pdf
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia
http://www.pas.gov.on.ca/scripts/en/BoardDetails.asp?boardID=853
http://www.nji.ca/Public/partner_organizations.cfm?Choice=7
http://www.duhaime.org/misc/clia.aspx
http://www.now.carleton.ca/2004-11b/590.htm
http://www.icangripe.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=000052
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9343602
speeches: Remarks of Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin to Ontario Bar Association, 24 January 2002