- Bertha Wilson
Infobox Judge
name = Bertha Wilson
imagesize =
caption =
office = Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
termstart =March 4 1982
termend =January 4 1991
nominator =
appointer =
predecessor =Ronald Martland
successor =Frank Iacobucci
birthdate =September 18 1923
birthplace =Kirkcaldy ,Scotland
deathdate = death date and age|2007|4|28|1923|9|18
deathplace =Ottawa, Ontario
spouse = Rev. John WilsonBertha Wernham Wilson, CC (
September 18 1923 ,Kirkcaldy, Fife ,Scotland –April 28 2007 ,Ottawa, Ontario ,Canada ) was a Canadian jurist and the first womanPuisne Justice of theSupreme Court of Canada .Early life
Born in
Kirkcaldy, Fife ,Scotland , the daughter of Archibald Wernham and Christina Noble, she received a Master of Arts degree fromUniversity of Aberdeen in 1944. In 1949 Wilson emigrated to Canada with her husband, the Reverend John Wilson, whom she had married in 1945.Professional career
She received a
Bachelor of Laws degree from Dalhousie University and was called to theNova Scotia Bar in 1957. She moved toToronto in 1959, was called to the Ontario Bar and joined the firm ofOsler, Hoskin & Harcourt . She became a partner in 1968.She was the first woman appointed to the
Ontario Court of Appeal in 1975. In 1982, she became the first woman appointed to theSupreme Court of Canada , by then Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Wilson retired from the court in 1991 and was made a Companion of theOrder of Canada and a Fellow of theRoyal Society of Canada that same year.Wilson's Supreme Court rulings include:
R. v. Morgentaler in 1988 (abortion procedures), R. v Lavallée in 1990 (battered-wife syndrome as self-defense),Operation Dismantle v. The Queen in 1985 (judicial review), the minority decision inR. v. Stevens (1988) which was adopted later inR. v. Hess; R. v. Nguyen in 1990 ("mens rea" and statutory rape),Kosmopolous v. Constitution Insurance Co. of Canada (piercing "corporate veil"), the dissenting opinion inMcKinney v. University of Guelph in 1990 (mandatory retirement),Andrews v. Law Society of British Columbia in 1989 (equality rights test), and Sobeys Stores v. Yeomans and Labour Standards Tribunal (NS) in 1989 (interpretive authority of tribunals), among many other foundational cases interpreting theCharter of Rights and Freedoms that was enacted the year she was appointed to the Supreme Court.From 1991 to 1996, she was a Commissioner of the
Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples .Wilson died in an
Ottawa retirement home onApril 28 ,2007 of an unspecified "prolonged illness" [ [http://scc.lexum.umontreal.ca/en/news_release/2007/07-04-30/07-04-30.html Supreme Court of Canada press release announcing Bertha Wilson's death, April 30th, 2007] ] which some sources claim wasAlzheimer's disease . [ [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070430.wobit-wilson0430/BNStory/National Globe & Mail obituary, April 30th, 2007] ]References
ee also
* List of decisions by Justice Wilson
External links
*
* [http://www.scc-csc.gc.ca/aboutcourt/judges/wilson/index_e.asp Biography of Bertha Wilson] from the Supreme Court of Canada's website.
* [http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070430/wilson_obit_070430/20070430?hub=Canada First female Supreme Court judge dies at age 83]
*
* [http://canadiancerberus.blogspot.com/2007/04/bertha-wilson-september-18-1923-april.html Bertha Wilson (September 18, 1923 - April 28, 2007)] - obituary on Cerberus with additional linksPersondata
NAME= Wilson, Bertha
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
DATE OF BIRTH=September 18 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH=Kirkcaldy, Fife ,Scotland
DATE OF DEATH=April 28 2007
PLACE OF DEATH=Ottawa, Ontario ,Canada
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