Larlee, Margaret E.L.

ENCAENIA, MAY, 2002
MARGARET LARLEE
to be Doctor of Laws

When Justice Margaret Larlee was appointed in to the New Brunswick Court of Appeal in 1998, the media focused on the fact that she was the first woman ever appointed to the highest court in the province. Yet when she spoke at her installation, she spoke not about herself or about women in the judiciary, but rather about the importance of judicial independence. Society, she suggested, sometimes places unreasonable pressures on judges. She spoke in the aftermath of a somewhat bitter controversy over the role of a family court judge in a child custody matter.

As her career path shows, both the role of women within the court system and judicial independence matter greatly to Judge Larlee. Born in Harvey Station, she received her high school diploma from Fredericton High. As a scholarship student, she attended Mount Allison University for her BA in honours history, and the University of New Brunswick for her law degree. She was admitted to the New Brunswick Bar in 1974. For two years, she worked in Law Reform for the New Brunswick Department of Justice before moving to Campbellton to enter private law practice with her husband. It was in her Campbellton years that she learned what no school can ever teach: how to be a wife and mother and professional person without neglecting any of the three. She served as clerk of the Campbellton District Court of Queen's Bench and Judge and Registrar of Probate for Restigouche County while giving birth to three children. When in 1985, "the powers that be" turned to her to serve as Judge of the Court of Queen's Bench Family Division, they chose a woman for whom children and family and the law were already her ultimate interests. She served with distinction in Campbellton for ten years before accepting a transfer to Fredericton to sit in the Trial Division of Queen's Bench.

Most people know little about our courts, often only what they pick up from watching court dramas on television, most of them American. Not surprisingly, they come away with distorted notions about the law and the role of judges. What Judge Larlee has demonstrated in her career is that, as in most human endeavours, becoming a judge is a continual learning process. She is proficient in both English and French, and she works at it. She favours training sessions for judges, believing that they must understand the social context in which they make their decisions. She regularly attends courses for judges on family, criminal, and civil law topics, and she travels to the United States and to Europe to broaden her knowledge of other jurisdictions and differing perspectives. She has been an active member of the Continuing Legal Education Committee of the New Brunswick branch of the Canadian Bar Association, and she enjoys guest lecturing and judging moot courts. For Margaret Larlee, one's education never ends.

But in acknowledging that judges, like everyone else, always have more to learn, she rightly insists that they must be allowed to do so without undue pressure from the society they serve. "The pressures come from a society that wants the courts to solve its problems," she said as she took her place in the Court of Appeal. Surely this is a concern that others besides judges share. Her job, as for all judges, is to make fair and reasoned decisions based on the law and the merits of the case before her, not to resolve all of society's ills nor settle disputes in accordance with popular whim or fancy. As the great English legal scholar Sir Edward Coke put it, a judge cannot be both an advocate and a judge.

On the other hand, a judge can be herself and, like Judge Larlee, bring the wealth of her interest, education, and experience to the task before her. "I will bring to the bench the perspective of a mother of three children," she once said. Asked bluntly whether or not she was a feminist, she replied: "It is not for me to label myself." If on the other hand being a feminist means wanting women to have equal rights, then, says she, "I guess I am." Our court system, we might add, is the better for it.

What is so refreshing and impressive in Judge Larlee's approach is that, in calling for respect to the independence of judges, she does not detach herself from society. Indeed, her approach is just the opposite. She wants to understand the social context of what she does, bringing the best of her experience - including her experience as a woman and as a mother - to her judgments. Typically, she also seeks the association of other women judges to learn how they handle the special pressures that come with their role.

We in New Brunswick are lucky to have Margaret Larlee's perspective on our highest court. One might be tempted to ask why it took so long for a woman to be appointed. We may at least hope that others will soon join her. Meanwhile, let us celebrate the outstanding achievements of a woman whose commitment to children's rights, human rights, continuing education, and judicial independence has clearly set the standard for those who will surely follow.

From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 4