1992 Fredericton Convocation
Wilson, Bertha
Doctor of Civil Law (D.C.L.)
Orator: Patterson, Stephen E.
Citation:
CONVOCATION, OCTOBER, 1992
BERTHA WILSON
to be Doctor of Civil Law
However unique Bertha Wilson's life has been, it began the way a good many other great Canadian lives began - in Scotland. She was born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, was educated through university and teachers' college in Aberdeen, and married before immigrating to Canada at the age of 26. And again, like so many other Canadians of Scottish background, her deep attachment to the "land of brown heath and shaggy wood" remains at the core of her being. She herself has written: "I have never quite been able to understand the emotional springs that give rise to the love and pride I hold for both the land of my birth and the country of my adoption, how easy it has been for me to become a Canadian and feel completely at home in both French and English Canada. Perhaps it is because there is a mysterious element of Scottishness in the Canadian psyche itself, as Lord Tweedsmuir declared: 'Canada in one sense is simply Scotland writ large.'"
Her Canadian career of course turned on her decision to study law. She attended Dalhousie Law School and then practiced in Toronto for a number of years before her appointment to the Ontario Court of Appeal. Along the way, she lent her talents to numerous associations and causes such as the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, the United Church of Canada, and the Toronto School of Theology among others. We know her best, however, as Madame Justice Bertha Wilson of the Supreme Court of Canada, to which she was appointed in 1982, serving until her retirement in 1991.
Behind this extraordinary rise to national prominence stands a remarkable woman with a restless probing intellect and a set of moral principles which have served her like a sheet anchor. One expects that these principles have deep roots, yet it was in her role as a justice of the Supreme Court that her thoughts crystalized and assumed the unity which anyone who reads her work must acknowledge. Already deeply interested in the rights of women, the shape of the modern family, and the protection of children, she saw the opportunity in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to give legal shape to principles and to make the Court a willing partner in the struggle for human equality in this country. It was her belief that it was the responsibility of the Court to help Canadians to a higher level of constitutionalism through judicial interpretation. To do this, she found she had to question other approaches to judicial decision-making. For her, it was not enough to know the facts of a case, not enough to subject facts to the cold light of reason, inadequate to review legislation by asking what was the original intent of the legislators who framed an act. Instead, she called for the scrutiny of the context of a case, recognizing as the great American jurist Louis Brandeis once did, that social conditions and endemic inequalities can have as much to do with a case as the fine print of legal text and legislators' intent. She likes to quote Lord MacMillan who said: "The lawyer does well from time to time to lift his eyes from his desk and look out of the window on the wider world beyond." It was also Lord MacMillan who urged that the judge should "temper the cold light of reason with the warmer tints of imagination and sympathy." These have been watchwords for Madame Justice Wilson.
In 1990, she delivered a lecture entitled "Will Women Judges Really Make a Difference?" Her answer was carefully drawn yet unequivocal: women have a perspective that is different from men's and that perspective has a place on the bench. "Human kind is dual and must be represented in its dual form," she believed: "If women lawyers and women judges through their differing perspective on life can bring a new humanity to bear on the decision-making process, perhaps they will make a difference. Perhaps they will succeed in infusing the law with an understanding of what it means to be fully human." We might well add that Madame Justice Wilson's career itself has substantiated her claim. This woman judge did make a difference, and the honours she has received from universities and other institutions across Canada and beyond stand as testimony to the high regard in which she is held everywhere that the law is seen as a partner in the elevation of the human condition.
In our celebration of the teaching of law in the University of New Brunswick, we are honoured by the presence of this distinguished Canadian jurist, and proud that from this day forward, we may include her among the graduates of this University.
Insignissime Praeses, Amplissima Cancellaria, tota Universitas, praesento vobis
BERTRAM WILSON
ut atmittatur, honoris causa, ad gradum Doctoris in Jure Civili, in hac Universitate.
From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 3
BERTHA WILSON
to be Doctor of Civil Law
However unique Bertha Wilson's life has been, it began the way a good many other great Canadian lives began - in Scotland. She was born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, was educated through university and teachers' college in Aberdeen, and married before immigrating to Canada at the age of 26. And again, like so many other Canadians of Scottish background, her deep attachment to the "land of brown heath and shaggy wood" remains at the core of her being. She herself has written: "I have never quite been able to understand the emotional springs that give rise to the love and pride I hold for both the land of my birth and the country of my adoption, how easy it has been for me to become a Canadian and feel completely at home in both French and English Canada. Perhaps it is because there is a mysterious element of Scottishness in the Canadian psyche itself, as Lord Tweedsmuir declared: 'Canada in one sense is simply Scotland writ large.'"
Her Canadian career of course turned on her decision to study law. She attended Dalhousie Law School and then practiced in Toronto for a number of years before her appointment to the Ontario Court of Appeal. Along the way, she lent her talents to numerous associations and causes such as the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, the United Church of Canada, and the Toronto School of Theology among others. We know her best, however, as Madame Justice Bertha Wilson of the Supreme Court of Canada, to which she was appointed in 1982, serving until her retirement in 1991.
Behind this extraordinary rise to national prominence stands a remarkable woman with a restless probing intellect and a set of moral principles which have served her like a sheet anchor. One expects that these principles have deep roots, yet it was in her role as a justice of the Supreme Court that her thoughts crystalized and assumed the unity which anyone who reads her work must acknowledge. Already deeply interested in the rights of women, the shape of the modern family, and the protection of children, she saw the opportunity in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to give legal shape to principles and to make the Court a willing partner in the struggle for human equality in this country. It was her belief that it was the responsibility of the Court to help Canadians to a higher level of constitutionalism through judicial interpretation. To do this, she found she had to question other approaches to judicial decision-making. For her, it was not enough to know the facts of a case, not enough to subject facts to the cold light of reason, inadequate to review legislation by asking what was the original intent of the legislators who framed an act. Instead, she called for the scrutiny of the context of a case, recognizing as the great American jurist Louis Brandeis once did, that social conditions and endemic inequalities can have as much to do with a case as the fine print of legal text and legislators' intent. She likes to quote Lord MacMillan who said: "The lawyer does well from time to time to lift his eyes from his desk and look out of the window on the wider world beyond." It was also Lord MacMillan who urged that the judge should "temper the cold light of reason with the warmer tints of imagination and sympathy." These have been watchwords for Madame Justice Wilson.
In 1990, she delivered a lecture entitled "Will Women Judges Really Make a Difference?" Her answer was carefully drawn yet unequivocal: women have a perspective that is different from men's and that perspective has a place on the bench. "Human kind is dual and must be represented in its dual form," she believed: "If women lawyers and women judges through their differing perspective on life can bring a new humanity to bear on the decision-making process, perhaps they will make a difference. Perhaps they will succeed in infusing the law with an understanding of what it means to be fully human." We might well add that Madame Justice Wilson's career itself has substantiated her claim. This woman judge did make a difference, and the honours she has received from universities and other institutions across Canada and beyond stand as testimony to the high regard in which she is held everywhere that the law is seen as a partner in the elevation of the human condition.
In our celebration of the teaching of law in the University of New Brunswick, we are honoured by the presence of this distinguished Canadian jurist, and proud that from this day forward, we may include her among the graduates of this University.
Insignissime Praeses, Amplissima Cancellaria, tota Universitas, praesento vobis
BERTRAM WILSON
ut atmittatur, honoris causa, ad gradum Doctoris in Jure Civili, in hac Universitate.
From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 3
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