Alberta francophone to be appointed next Supreme Court justice
Mary Moreau has served as Alberta's chief justice since 2017
Canada's next Supreme Court justice will be Mary Moreau, a French-speaking judge from Alberta, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Thursday.
"I am confident that her impressive judicial career and dedication to fairness and excellence will make Chief Justice Moreau an invaluable addition to our country's highest court," Trudeau said in a statement.
Her appointment keeps with the tradition that reserves at least two of the nine seats on the Supreme Court for judges from Western Canada. Trudeau has said he would maintain that tradition in replacing Brown, but that candidates must be bilingual.
Moreau has been the chief justice of the Court of King's Bench of Alberta since 2017. She was the first woman appointed to that position. She has served on the court since 1994.
Moreau has been actively involved in judicial education and ethics and was a member of the National Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics from 2014 to 2017.
As a lawyer, Moreau has focused on criminal law, constitutional law and civil litigation in Edmonton. She litigated numerous landmark cases involving minority language rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Moreau has presided over French and bilingual trials in Alberta and is a co-founder of the Association des juristes d'expression française de l'Alberta.
Justice Minister and Attorney General Arif Virani said Moreau was chosen because she has decades of experience presiding over complex cases.
"Sometimes the most important aspect of ensuring the confidence of Canadians in the administration of justice ... [is] determined by jurists like Mary Moreau, who [have] an ability to distil complex problems and explain them to Canadians," he told CBC News Thursday.
Virani also said Moreau's appointment means that for the first time, a majority of Supreme Court justices are women. It's "a tremendous legacy, it's never been done in Canadian history," he said.
Ian Holloway, dean of law at the University of Calgary, welcomed the appointment, saying Moreau is "a wonderful jurist who enjoys the respect of everyone who knows her."
"She works extremely hard, and she is unfailingly courteous to everyone who appears before her," he said. "Plus, she is a francophone, which will be a tremendous asset for her new job. So I'm delighted."
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith congratulated Moreau in a social media post, saying "she brings a wealth of expertise in constitutional, criminal and civil law with her long and distinguished history."
Replacing Russell Brown
The Edmonton-born Moreau replaces Russell Brown, who resigned in June following a claim of misconduct related to an incident at an U.S. resort. Brown denies the claim.
At the time of his retirement from the top court, Brown had been on leave for months after reports surfaced that he got into some sort of confrontation with patrons at a high-end Scottsdale-area resort in Arizona at the end of January.
While accounts of the incident differ, it has been established that there was some sort of fight between Brown and a man at the resort, Jon Crump, a U.S. Marine veteran who was there with a group of friends.
Crump alleges a drunken Brown was belligerent and harassed his drinking companions. He said Brown followed him and some in his group back to their hotel rooms. After a brief skirmish, Crump said he punched Brown after he wouldn't leave, before reporting him to the Canadian Judicial Council.
Brown has said Crump's version of events is false, and instead claims the former Marine inexplicably punched him in the head.
Brown said he had hoped the CJC review into the incident would be "dispensed with quickly and would not significantly impact the court's business." When it emerged the probe could extend well into 2024, Brown retired, ending the CJC probe into the incident.
Before Moreau takes her seat on the bench, members of the House of Commons justice and human rights committee will hold a hearing where Virani will provide details on why she was selected.
Moreau will then face a question and answer session where members of Parliament and senators who sit on the House and Senate Justice committees will probe Moreau's experience and views.
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