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A Chief Justice for the Charter

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The announcement of the death of Chief Justice Antonio Lamer is a significant passage. I can’t think of a single Supreme Court Justice who has had a more profound influence on the criminal law ((Arguably G. Arthur Martin, JA of the Ontario Court of Appeal may have had a more sustained impact on the day to day conduct of the criminal trial)).

Here are the tributes from the Prime Minister ((I can’t find a tribute from the current Chief Justice)), the Minister of Justice, the Globe, the Star, the CBC, the National Post.

Although Lamer had been (with Pat Hartt) a pioneer of law reform in the Seventies, I don’t recall him being especially keen on the application of technology to the practice, though the advent of video-conferencing did permit him to manage the Newfoundland prosecution system review, when his health wasn’t up to travel to the Rock.

And a fascinating cross-border discussion on Lamer’s impact is on the Wall Street Journal site.

Comments

  1. Owen
    November 27th, 2007 at 2:26 am

    There is a brief statement from the current Chief Justice in an SCC media release dated 2006-11-26.

  2. Simon C
    November 27th, 2007 at 11:41 am

    Or even 2007-11-26

  3. Owen
    November 27th, 2007 at 6:32 pm

    That does seem more likely, Simon. Sadly, I cannot seem to correct my comment.

  4. John G
    November 29th, 2007 at 8:04 pm

    I take it, then, that there is little sympathy here for the thesis that Lamer CJ managed to use his position and the Charter to insert into Canadian law the arguments that had failed for him as a defence lawyer in private practice (or as a law reformer)? Or is that a too Byfeldian/Mortonian analysis?

    I recall being disappointed by his reasons in R v Stewart (the one about the ‘theft’ of corporate information by a union activist), where he held that one could not steal information as such. Part of the disappointment was that the US Supreme Court had discussed about the same question in a pretty notorious case the same year, which I believe was cited to the SCC, but Lamer J, as he then was, did not mention it. (I have not checked my recollections on this and stand to have them improved…)

  5. Simon C
    November 30th, 2007 at 11:10 am

    I’m not sure that my post evinced approval of the Lamer thesis, only that he had had a profound impact on the work of policing and the conduct of the criminal trial.

    And Morton can’t have suggested that Lamer CJ invented the Charter only that he seized that opportunity with gusto.