Born on September 7th, 1943, in a small town east of the Canadian Rockies, Beverley McLachlin was the eldest of five children. Her family lived on a remote ranch in Pincher Creek, where McLachlin spent much of her time pulling her own weight doing chores, reading, and exploring the surrounding wilderness on horseback. Back then, McLachlin described herself as an “ordinary girl”, but she was far from it. Years down the line, McLachlin would grow up to leave an immeasurable legacy on the Canadian legal system, and the feminist movement as a whole. She has gone on to serve as an inspiration not only for young women who aspire to careers in the legal field, but also to women at large within the Canadian justice system and beyond.
McLachlin first earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy and Languages from the University of Alberta in 1965, and had begun preparing to start her Masters in pursuit of her lifelong dream to forge a career as a University Professor. However, her plans soon took an unexpected turn. With a mind cut out for the analytical challenges of law, McLachlin wrote a letter addressed to the University of Alberta’s law school, asking them “What is involved in the study of law?”. Instead of an answer, McLachlin received a letter of acceptance to the University of Alberta Law School’s class of 1968. Wilbur Bowker, Dean of the law school at the time, had admitted McLachlin as one of just seven women in the incoming class of sixty-five students. Three years later at her graduation, she was awarded the gold medallist of her law class,which is given to the student with the highest academic standing. At this same convocation, McLachlin also received her Masters Degree in Philosophy.
After being called to the Bar of Alberta in 1969, McLachlin went on to work as a practicing lawyer for the next seven years. But gender bias against women in the legal profession was still prevalent, and women had to work much harder than their male counterparts to become successful lawyers. Eventually, after moving to Vancouver and being admitted to the Bar of British Columbia in 1971, McLachlin joined the leading law firm Bull Housser & Tupper. In 1974, McLachlin began teaching evidence and contracts at the University of British Columbia, all while continuing her work at Bull Housser & Tupper..
In 1980, McLachlin achieved yet another significant milestone in her career by becoming a Judge in a Vancouver County Court, and in 1981 she was appointed to the Supreme Court of British Columbia; but McLachlin was far from done. In 1985, Beverley McLachlin began to make history when she became the first female appointed to the province’s highest court, the British Columbia Court of Appeal. Three years later in 1988, McLachlin accepted the position of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia. Just one year after her return to British Columbia’s superior court, McLachlin received a call from Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, offering her a spot on the Supreme Court of Canada following the retirement of Justice William McIntyre. “When I was appointed, Bertha Wilson leaned over and whispered to me, ‘Three down, six to go.'”, said McLachlin to a standing-room-only crowd in the Dalhousie University Schulich School of Law’s Room 105 on March 21st 2018.
It was January 7th of the year 2000 when McLachlin was sworn in as the Supreme Court of Canada’s Chief Justice, a position she held until 2017, rendering her not only the first female to hold the position, but also the longest serving Chief Justice in Canadian history.
McLachlin’s tenure on the Supreme Court is remembered by her active involvement in some of the decisions that brought about transformative changes in the lives of Canadians, and through the countless women inspired by her unforgettable legal career. Presented below are concise summaries of two of her most noteworthy involvements in the Canadian legal system.
Rodgriguez. v. British Columbia, 1993 & Carter v. Canada, 2015
Rodriguez. v. British Columbia was a challenge to the assisted suicide prohibition outlined in the Criminal Code of Canada. In a 5-4 majority decision, the Supreme Court upheld the prohibition at this time, citing that by making assisted suicide permisable by law, there was a greater potential for abuse of the more vulnerable individuals in society. McLachlin was among the dissent, stating her belief that based on the wording of the criminal code as it then stood, the prohibition against assisted suicide was arbitrary. The way the law had been written allowed for a physically able person to commit suicide for any reason without it being considered a criminal act, but a physically disabled person could not commit the same act of suicide for the exact same reasons with assistance.
In 2015, another challenge to the assisted suicide prohibition reached the Supreme Court, with McLachlin being the only justice who heard the Rodriguez case still serving on the court. In Carter v. Canada, multiple parties including the family of Kay Carter, who suffered from spinal stenosis and Gloria Taylor, a woman suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly referred to as “ALS”, challenged the existing prohibition on the grounds that both section 14 and 241(b) (which prohibited assisted death) of the Criminal Code violated section 7 (which guarantees the right to life, liberty and security of the person) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Carter v. Canada case resulted in the decriminalization of physician-assisted suicide, and was shortly followed by the Medical Assistance in Dying Act – giving legally-eligible patients in Canada the choice to “die with dignity” in certain circumstances if they so choose.
“Here, Parliament has put into force a legislative scheme which makes suicide lawful but assisted suicide unlawful. The effect of this distinction is to deny to some people the choice of ending their lives solely because they are physically unable to do so, preventing them from exercising the autonomy over their bodies available to other people.” – Claire L’Heureux‑Dubé and Beverley McLachlin dissenting in Rodriguez. v. British Columbia.
“It is a crime in Canada to assist another person in ending her own life. As a result, people who are grievously and irremediably ill cannot seek a physician’s assistance in dying and may be condemned to a life of severe and intolerable suffering. A person facing this prospect has two options: she can take her own life prematurely, often by violent or dangerous means, or she can suffer until she dies from natural causes. The choice is cruel.” – The Court, in their unanimous decision to allow the appeal in Carter v. Canada.
The Civil Marriage Act, 2005
In July 2005, Canada became the world’s fourth nation to legalize same-sex marriage across all jurisdictions when Bill C-38, the Civil Marriage Act, received Royal Assent. It was Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin that signed the bill into law after having stepped up to serve as Canada’s administrator in 2005 while Governor General Adrienne Clarkson was undergoing a surgical procedure.
In 2017, McLachlin announced that she would be retiring from the Supreme Court of Canada at age seventy-four, just nine months prior to reaching the mandatory retirement age of seventy-five. Her successor in the role of the court’s Chief Justice was Richard Wagner, Canada’s 18th and current individual to hold the position, and her successor as a Justice of the Supreme Court was Sheilah Martin – another powerful woman in the Canadian legal system who has been recognized by the Distinguished Service Award for Legal Scholarship, the Law Society of Alberta’s Certificate of Merit, and the YWCA’s Advancement of Women Award.
McLachlin was nominated to become a non-permanent member of the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong in 2018, making her the first Canadian to serve as a foreign judge from a common-law district outside of Hong Kong. Her appointment was approved in July 2018, accompanied by Brenda Hale, who served as another non-permanent judge hailing from Britain. In 2021, McLachlin was reappointed to the court for another three year term, which she is currently serving.
“Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin’s trailblazing influence on Canadian law will echo for generations.” – Justin Trudeau