September 7 - Happy Birthday to Canadian Supreme Court Trailblazers!

Key Points

nPosted on September 7, 2019

I love the robes worn by Canada’s Supreme
Court justices. Very jolly, aren’t they?

nDon’t you find it surprising that two different “first female jurists” from Canada’s Supreme Court were born on the same day (but on different years, of course)?

nI mean, only nine women have ever been appointed to the nation’s highest court, so far. And there are 365 days in the year (most years). And two of these nine women happened to be born on the same day? Wow!

n Claire L’Heureux-Dubé – born on this date in 1927 – served as a justice on the Supreme Court of Canada. She was the first woman from Quebec and the second woman from all of Canada appointed to this position.
n

Beverly Marian McLachlin – born on this date in 1943 – served as the Chief Justice of Canada. She was the first
nwoman to hold that position. Also, she was the longest serving Chief Justice in Canadian history.

nThe lesson here is, if you are a Canadian female born on September 7, you should consider going into the law – because you may have a better than average chance of rising to the highest level of judgeships!

n(Just joking, of course!)

nCanada’s Supreme Court originally had six justices (one of whom is the Chief Justice), but it was expanded to seven and then nine. By law, three of the nine justices are held by judges from Quebec. By tradition, three of the remaining judges are from Ontario, two are from the four western provinces, and one is from the Atlantic provinces. I guess that means that, by tradition, Supreme Court justices can’t be from the large-but-largely-empty territories?

The Supreme Court of Canada is located in the nation’s
capital, Ottawa.

nBy the way, the United States currently has three Supreme Court justices that are women, and it has had four female justices all together. It has never had a female Chief Justice – not yet, at least! – but as far as HUGE popularity goes, Ruth Bader Ginsburg is tops in many people’s books!

nSo popular, there is a seriously LOT of Ruther Bader Ginsburg merch available: