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The Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin PC CC CStJ
Non-Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong
Incumbent
Assumed office July 30, 2018
Appointed by	Carrie Lam
17th Chief Justice of Canada
In office January 7, 2000 – December 15, 2017
Nominated by	Jean Chrétien
Appointed by	Adrienne Clarkson
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Jean Chrétien Paul Martin Stephen Harper Justin Trudeau
Governor General	Adrienne Clarkson Michaëlle Jean David Johnston Julie Payette
Preceded by	Antonio Lamer
Succeeded by	Richard Wagner
Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
In office March 30, 1989 – January 7, 2000
Nominated by	Brian Mulroney
Appointed by	Jeanne Sauvé
Preceded by	William McIntyre
Succeeded by	Louis LeBel
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia
In office 1988–1990
Appointed by	Jeanne Sauvé
Personal details
Born	Beverley Gietz (1943-09-07) September 7, 1943 (age 75) Pincher Creek, Alberta, Canada
Citizenship	Canadian
Spouse(s)	Roderick McLachlin (m. 1967; died 1988) Frank McArdle (m. 1992)
Children	Angus McLachlin (b. 1976)
Alma mater	University of Alberta
Profession	Judge

Beverley Marian McLachlin, PC CC CStJ (Chinese: 麥嘉琳, born September 7, 1943) is a Canadian jurist and author who served as the 17th Chief Justice of Canada from 2000 to 2017, the first woman to hold that position and the longest serving Chief Justice in Canadian history. In her role as Chief Justice, she also simultaneously served as a Deputy of the Governor General of Canada.

McLachlin retired December 15, 2017, nine months before reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75.^[1] Her successor as Chief Justice of Canada is Richard Wagner, who was nominated by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2017.^[2] Her successor as a Justice of the Court is Sheilah Martin, who was nominated by the Prime Minister through a new process that permitted "any Canadian lawyer or judge who fits a specified criteria" to apply.^[3][4][5]

In March 2018, McLachlin was nominated to become a non-permanent judge on the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal, the first Canadian jurist nominated to the post.^[6] The appointment was gazetted and came into effect July 30, 2018, for a three-year term.^[7]

Early life and family

McLachlin was born Beverley Gietz in Pincher Creek, Alberta, the eldest child of Eleanora Marian (née Kruschell) and Ernest Gietz. Her parents, who were of German descent, were "fundamentalist Christians"^[8][9] of the Pentecostal Church.^[10] She received a B.A. and an M.A. in philosophy and an LL.B. degree (winning the gold medal as top student and serving as Editor-in-Chief of the Alberta Law Review) from the University of Alberta. She was called to the Bar of Alberta in 1969 and to the Bar of British Columbia in 1971. She practised law from 1969 until 1975. From 1974 to 1981, she was an Associate Professor and Professor with tenure at the University of British Columbia.

She has one son, Angus (born 1976), from her first marriage to Roderick McLachlin, who took care of much of Angus's upbringing.^[10] Her first husband died of cancer in 1988, a few days after she was appointed chief justice of the B.C. Supreme Court.^[10] In 1992 she married Frank McArdle, a lawyer and executive director of the Canadian Superior Courts Judges Association.^[10]

Career as a judge

Canada

In April 1981, McLachlin was appointed to the County Court of Vancouver. Just five months later, she was appointed to the Superior Court of British Columbia. In 1985 she was appointed to the British Columbia Court of Appeal, three years later in 1988 she was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia. She was nominated by Brian Mulroney to be made a Puisne Justice to the Supreme Court of Canada on March 30, 1989.^[10] On the advice of Jean Chrétien, she was made Chief Justice of Canada on January 7, 2000.^[11]

Upon being sworn into the Supreme Court of Canada, she also became a Deputy of the Governor General of Canada together with the other justices of the Supreme Court.

When Governor General Adrienne Clarkson was hospitalized for a cardiac pacemaker operation on July 8, 2005, McLachlin performed the duties of the Governor General as the Administrator of Canada.^[12] In her role as Administrator, she gave royal assent to the Civil Marriage Act which legalized same-sex marriage nationally in Canada.^[12] She relinquished that task when the Governor General returned to good health in late July.

She is the Chairperson of the Canadian Judicial Council, on the Board of Governors of the National Judicial Institute, and on the Advisory Council of the Order of Canada. She is a Member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada. She was made a Commander of the Legion of Honour by the Government of France in 2008.^[13][14] On December 15, 2006, she was appointed Commander of the Venerable Order of Saint John.^[15]

McLachlin has defined her function as one that requires conscious objectivity, which she describes as follows:^[10]

What you have to try to do as a judge, whether you're on charter issues or any other issue, is by an act of the imagination put yourself in the shoes of the different parties, and think about how it looks from their perspective, and really think about it, not just give it lip service ...

As a judge, and I've been a judge for a long time, I have always resolved to just try to judge the issues as honestly as I can, and not to think about things in too strategic a manner. My job is simply to listen to what the parties have to say, and to do my best to understand the position, the ramifications of deciding one way or the other, to think about what’s best for Canadian society on this particular problem that’s before us, and give it my best judgment after listening to, also, my eight other colleagues. So there's a consensual element there.

McLachlin has stated, "I think the court belongs to the Canadian people and it should reflect the Canadian people." In the opinion of an interviewer, this is "not only to convey an impression of balance, but to bring in perspectives that were so long absent from the judicial imagination. To her, judgment is not a coldly neutral evaluation of competing positions, robotically free of passion or perspective. It is an engaged, human act of imagination."^[10]

The Supreme Court, under McLachlin, ruled against the former Conservative government of Stephen Harper on several important issues, including prostitution, assisted suicide, mandatory minimum gun crime sentences, Senate reform, whether Taliban fighter Omar Khadr deserved an adult sentence, and whether Federal Court judge Marc Nadon could be elevated to the Supreme Court.^[10]

McLachlin surpassed Sir William Johnstone Ritchie as the longest-serving Chief Justice of Canada in history on September 22, 2013.

Hong Kong

McLachlin was nominated in March 2018 to become a non-permanent member of the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong. The Court appoints foreign judges from common-law jurisdictions outside of Hong Kong, of which McLachlin is the first Canadian, to sit as non-permanent members of the court.^[16] Her appointment was approved by the Hong Kong Legislative Council,^[17] and the Chief Executive gazetted the appointment effective July 30, 2018. McLachlin's appointment was accompanied by the ones of Baroness Hale of Richmond, also as non-permanent judge, and Mr Justice Cheung, as permanent judge, at the court.^[18][19] In the same year, she published a legal thriller novel entitled Full Disclosure.^[20]

Judgments

During her early years on the Supreme Court, she was characterized as a judge with libertarian leaning after her dissent in R v Keegstra, finding that the hate-speech criminal offences were unconstitutional, and her judgment in R v Zundel where she struck down the criminal offence of spreading false news. This was also seen to an extent in her decision of R v Sharpe where she upheld the child pornography criminal provisions, but limited it by excluding imaginative works that are for private use. During this, she also ruled that the laws should apply to fictional depictions, declaring that 'person' would include fictional people as well as real people:^[21]

Interpreting "person" in accordance with Parliament's purpose of criminalizing possession of material that poses a reasoned risk of harm to children, it seems that it should include visual works of the imagination as well as depictions of actual people. Notwithstanding the fact that 'person' in the charging section and in s. 163.1(1)(b) refers to a flesh-and-blood person, I conclude that "person" in s. 163.1(1)(a) includes both actual and imaginary human beings.

— Supreme Court of Canada, R v Sharpe, Paragraph 38

Among her more controversial decisions was her ruling in R v Seaboyer, in which she struck down the rape shield law because it violated the right to a fair trial of those accused of sexual assault.

McLachlin has tried to forge additional consensus in the court's decisions, often writing controversial decisions herself to forge that consensus. In doing so, she is widely recognized for "still writing lots of judgments in her own clear style".^[22]

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled on February 6, 2015, that the prohibition on assisted suicide was unconstitutional and overturned its own prior decision on the subject from 1993, Rodriguez v British Columbia (AG). McLachlin wrote the dissent in the 1993 case and was the only Justice from that era remaining on the court in 2015.^[23]

Controversies

Nadon Incident (2014)

In July 2013, during the consultation period prior to appointment for Marc Nadon, Chief Justice McLachlin contacted justice minister Peter MacKay and the Prime Minister's Office regarding the eligibility of Marc Nadon for a Quebec seat on the Supreme Court.^[24] Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated that he had refused a phone call from McLachlin on the Attorney General's advice. Harper's comments were criticized by the legal community and a complaint was forwarded to the International Commission of Jurists in Switzerland.^[25][26] The International Commission of Jurists concluded that Beverly McLachlin deserved an apology from Harper, but none had been given as of July 2014.^[27]

McLachlin charges Canada with cultural genocide (2015)

In May 2015, McLachlin was invited to speak at the Global Centre for Pluralism, and said that Canada attempted to commit "cultural genocide" against aboriginal peoples in what she called the worst stain on Canada's human-rights record.^[28] University of Regina academic Ken Coates was quick to support McLachlin, and said that she was "only stating what is clearly in the minds of judges, lawyers and aboriginal people across the country".^[29]

Others were far less sympathetic. Columnist Lysiane Gagnon called the comments "unacceptable" and "highly inflammatory" and suggested that McLachlin had opened herself up to accusations of prejudice.^[30]Gordon Gibson, another columnist, said the use of the word "genocide" was incendiary and disproportionate and that the Chief Justice's comments made her sound like a legislator.^[31]

Honorary Degrees and other awards

She is the Honorary Patron of the Institute of Parliamentary and Political Law. She has also been awarded the Yes She Can Award from Balmoral Hall School in 2005. She is currently the Visitor of Massey College, an interdisciplinary graduate college for students of distinguished ability at the University of Toronto.^[32] She has been awarded with over 31 Honorary Degrees from various universities, which include:

Honorary Degrees

Location	Date	School	Degree
British Columbia	27 September 1990	University of British Columbia	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[33][34]
Alberta	1991	University of Alberta	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[35]
Ontario	June 1995	University of Toronto	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[36]
Ontario	Spring 1999	York University	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[37]
Ontario	2000	Law Society of Upper Canada	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[38]
British Columbia	2000	Simon Fraser University	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[39]
Alberta	2000	University of Calgary	[40]
Ontario	2000	University of Ottawa	Doctor of the University (D.Univ)[41][42]
Ontario	8 June 2000	Brock University	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[43]
British Columbia	November 2000	University of Victoria	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[44]
Alberta	Spring 2001	University of Lethbridge	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[45]
Nova Scotia	2002	Mount Saint Vincent University	Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL)[46]
Prince Edward Island	2002	University of Prince Edward Island	Doctor of Laws (LL.D) [47]
Quebec	2003	Université de Montréal	Doctorate [48]
Nova Scotia	2004	Dalhousie University	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[49]
Northern Ireland	2004	Queen's University Belfast	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[50]
Manitoba	27 May 2004	University of Manitoba	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[51]
Ontario	14 November 2004	Carleton University	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[52][53]
Maine	7 May 2005	University of Maine at Fort Kent	Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL)[54][55]
Philippines	2006	Ateneo de Manila University	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[56]
Ontario	18 June 2010	University of Windsor	Doctor of Civil Law (DCL)[57][58]
Ontario	2010	Ryerson University	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[59]
Nova Scotia	2010	Cape Breton University	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[60][61]
Ontario	2011	Queen's University	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[62]
Quebec	June 2011	Concordia University	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[63]
Ontario	26 October 2012	University of Western Ontario	Doctor of Civil Law (DCL)[64]
Ontario	2012	Lakehead University	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[65]
Scotland	2014	University of Edinburgh	Doctorate[66]
Quebec	2015	Bishop's University	Doctor of Civil Law (DCL) [67]
Ontario	31 May 2016	Laurentian University	Doctor of Laws (LL.D) [68][69]
Quebec		Université de Montréal	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)
Massachusetts		Bridgewater State College	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)
Quebec	1 June 2016	McGill University	Doctor of Laws (LL.D) [70]
Alberta	28 April 2017	Lethbridge College	Bachelor of Applied Arts [71][72]
Newfoundland and Labrador	19 October 2017	Memorial University of Newfoundland	Doctor of Laws (LL.D) [73]

Ribbon bar of The Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin

• 
  Order of Saint John – Commander^[74]
  


• 
  125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada Medal^{[citation needed]}
  


• 
  Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal^{[citation needed]}
  


• 
  Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal^{[citation needed]}
  


• 
  Legion of Honour – Commandeur^{[citation needed]}
  

See also

• List of Supreme Court of Canada cases (McLachlin Court)

Book

• 
  Full Disclosure. Novel. Simon & Schuster Canada, Toronto 2018

References

External links

• Supreme Court of Canada biography


• The Canadian Encyclopedia - Beverley McLachlin


• 
  Fundamental Freedoms: The Charter of Rights and Freedoms - Charter of Rights website with video, audio and the Charter in over 20 languages