Judging Bertha Wilson: Law as Large as Life (Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History)

Madame Justice Bertha Wilson, the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada, is an enormously influential and controversial figure in Canadian legal and political history. This engaging, authorized, intellectual biography draws on interviews conducted under the auspices of the Osgoode Society for Legal History, held in Scotland and Canada with Madame Justice Wilson, as well as with her friends, relatives, and colleagues. The biography traces Wilson's story from her birth in Scotland in 1923 to the present. Wilson's contributions to the areas of human rights law and equality jurisprudence are many and well-known. Lesser known are her early days in Scotland and her work as a minister's wife or her post-judicial work on gender equality for the Canadian Bar Association and her contributions to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. Through a scrupulous survey of Wilson's judgements, memos, and academic writings (many as yet unpublished), Ellen Anderson shows how Wilson's life and the law were seamlessly integrated in her persistent commitment to a stance of principled contextuality. This stance has had an enduring effect on the evolution of Canadian law and cultural history. Supported with the warmth and generosity of Wilson's numerous personal anecdotes, this work illuminates the life and thought of a woman who has left an extraordinary mark on Canada's legal landscape. Madame Justice Bertha Wilson, the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada, is an enormously influential and controversial figure in Canadian legal and political history. This engaging, authorized, intellectual biography draws on interviews conducted under the auspices of the Osgoode Society for Legal History, held in Scotland and Canada with Madame Justice Wilson, as well as with her friends, relatives, and colleagues. The biography traces Wilson's story from her birth in Scotland in 1923 to the present. Wilson's contributions to the areas of human rights law and equality jurisprudence are many and well-known. Lesser known are her early days in Scotland and her work as a minister's wife or her post-judicial work on gender equality for the Canadian Bar Association and her contributions to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. Through a scrupulous survey of Wilson's judgements, memos, and academic writings (many as yet unpublished), Ellen Anderson shows how Wilson's life and the law were seamlessly integrated in her persistent commitment to a stance of principled contextuality. This stance has had an enduring effect on the evolution of Canadian law and cultural history. Supported with the warmth and generosity of Wilson's numerous personal anecdotes, this work illuminates the life and throught of a woman who has left an extraordinary mark on Canada's legal landscape. Contents 5 Foreword 9 Foreword 11 Preface 13 Acknowledgments 19 Part One. The Preparatory Years: Life Before the Bench 27 1. Growing Up: Daughter, Sister, and Student 27 2. The Clergyman’S Wife 43 3. Diligence at Dalhousie 59 4. The Osler Innovations 75 PART TWO. On the Bench: The Ontario Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada 107 5. The Ontario Court of Appeal 107 6. A Canadian Philosophy of Judicial Analysis 156 7. The Supreme Court of Canada 173 8. Diversity at the Margins 191 9. Beyond Family Law: Justice for Women and Children 221 10. Getting Down to Business: Law and Economics in the Marketplace 259 11. Contextual Proceduralism 295 12. Outside the Court 341 PART THREE. Life after Judging 359 13. The Gender Equality Study 359 14. The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples 376 15. Portrait of a Judge 403 Adjunct Interviews 409 Archival Resources 417 Select Bibliography 475 Index 479 "Madame Justice Bertha Wilson, the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada, is an enormously influential and controversial figure in Canadian legal and political history. This biography draws on interviews with Madame Justice Wilson and her husband John, as well as with her friends, relatives, and colleagues, conducted under the auspices of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History. The biography traces Wilson's story from her birth in Scotland in 1923 to the present. Wilson's contributions to the areas of human rights law and equality jurisprudence are many and well known. Lesser known are her early days in Scotland and her work as a minister's wife, her post-judicial work on gender equality for the Canadian Bar Association and her contributions to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples."--Jacket