Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has nominated a French-speaking judge from Alberta to be the fifth female judge sitting on the bench of Canada’s top court.
Mary Moreau’s appointment, if confirmed, would create the
first female majority on the nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) since the court was formed in
1875, 148 years ago. Ms. Moreau’s confirmation would
shift the numbers to five female judges and four male judges.
The nomination of Ms. Moreau, 67, aims to fill the opening created by the retirement of Justice Russell Brown earlier this year, Mr. Trudeau
announced on Oct. 26. She would become the first francophone judge from Western Canada if confirmed.
Ms. Moreau, who was born in Edmonton, has served on the Alberta Court of King’s Bench for 29 years, since 1994, and was appointed chief justice of that court in 2017. She has practised primarily in criminal law, constitutional law, and civil litigation since being called to the Alberta Bar in 1980.
Federal Minister of Justice and Attorney General Arif Virani
shared the PM’s announcement on X, stating that he was “thrilled” with Mr. Trudeau’s choice, calling it “a glass ceiling shattered.”
“With Justice Moreau, the Supreme Court will have a majority of women on the bench for the first time in our history,” Mr. Virani wrote.
Canadian Bar Association president John Stefaniuk, in an Oct. 26
statement, said the “nomination represents an important step forward for gender equality.”
Ms. Moreau is a former television and radio
journalist with Radio-Canada Edmonton, the french programming arm of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). She was
appointed a deputy judge of the Supreme Court of Yukon in 1996, and of the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories in 2005.
Ms. Moreau, in her
candidate application, said she had heard trials in both English and French and felt her “greatest contribution to the law and the pursuit of justice in Canada was to improve access to justice in both official languages in government institutions and the courts.”
The justice noted that she was the member of a minority language and cultural group in addition to being a woman.
“Women accounted for barely a quarter of my Law class at the University of Alberta. They also were in the minority in criminal law practice and held only about a quarter of the positions as judges of the Court of Queen’s Bench. I had to constantly prove my professional abilities to be accepted in this field,” she wrote.
The House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights will hold a special hearing on the nomination of Justice Moreau on Nov. 2.
The Canadian Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
