NEWS
10 Obiter Dicta
Women Judges in the Spotlight
Canadian Chapter of the International Association of Women
Judges Networking Event with Osgoode
chelsea caldwell › contributor
I
f you are a current student of the Law, Gender,
and Equality perspective option, or have perhaps had a conversation with myself in the past
week, then you may have participated in a passionate discussion about the sexism that plagues our
Canadian judiciary. Or perhaps you are a female student who was lucky enough to have recently attended
an event hosted on February 10, 2015 on campus,
between female Justices from the Canadian Chapter
of the International Association of Women Judges and
female students from Osgoode.
The Justices in attendance included Justice Lydia
Olah from the Superior Court of Justice, Justice
Maria Speyer and Justice Sally Marin of the Ontario
Court of Justice, and Justice Katherine Van Rensburg
of the Court of Appeal of Ontario. Student attendees of the event were enlightened by stories of the
Justices’ law school days and their climb up the legal
ladder. Also part of the discussion was the chilly climate in which female members of the judiciary have
been welcomed, which has clearly made it difficult for female judges to work on an equal basis with
male judges.
For simply being educated and assertive women
on the bench, judges such as Bertha Wilson, Rosie
Abella and Claire L’Heureux-Dube have been victimized by their male counterparts as well as by
members of the legal community, the media, and
the general Canadian public. Critics claim that
female judges’
personal opinions are given in
lieu of legal doctrine and principle within their
judgments. While
I believe personal history and experience shape a
judge’s opinion, I believe it is unfair for attacks to be
made on female judges pertaining to their decisions
on sexual assault cases and other legal issues that
have historically involved mainly female plaintiffs.
Using a thought process similar to the kind
involved in criticizing female judges, would it not be
fair to also criticize the male judges for their personal connections to cases? For example, might we
not take into account Justice Sopinka’s connection to
the Ukrainian community or perhaps former Chief
Justice Dickson’s long-time service in the military?
Further to this point, I was unaware of the extent
to which public defamation of such highly decorated
and powerful female judges has occurred. The female
Justices who were present at the recent Osgoode
n e t w o r k ing event, discussed the often
ignored gendered dynamics
that have enveloped the Supreme
Court of Canada Justices. Specifically, one Justice
discussed the uproar caused by judicial commentary in R v Ewanchuk and the public backlash that
Justice Claire L’Heureux-Dube faced regarding her
decision in the case. Once an admirer of the late
Eddie Greenspan, I am a little less starry-eyed due to
the public nature in which he chastised L’HeureuxDube’s critique of Justice John McClung’s ruling in
Ewanchuk.
While we may discuss the gendered dynamics of
the judiciary in private conversations with classmates or in classes with an already established gendered approach, I believe such material should be
covered in 1L’s Ethical Lawyering course. Discussions
of gendered biases on the judiciary would better shape
our understandings of the decisions that we read
and come to memorize over our years of education
and work within the law. In the legal context, is it
really fair to say that we can paint every female judge
with the same brush of cari