Brian Dickson

Robert George Brian Dickson , PC , CC (born May 25, 1916 in Yorkton , Saskatchewan , † October 17, 1998 in Ottawa ; mostly called Brian Dickson ) was a Canadian judge . He was a member of the Supreme Court of Canada from 1973 to 1990 and was its Chairman ( Chief Justice ) from 1984 .

biography

Dickson's family, affected by the effects of the Dust Bowl , moved to Winnipeg in their teenage years . There he studied law at the University of Manitoba . In 1938 he graduated and initially worked for the life insurance company Great-West Life . Two years later he was admitted to the bar and volunteered for military service in World War II . During Operation Overlord he was accidentally shot at by his own troops near Falaise in August 1944 (" friendly fire "), whereupon his right leg had to be amputated.

On his return to Winnipeg in 1945, Dickson joined the law firm of Aikins, Loftus, MacAulay, Turner, Thompson & Tritschler and became a successful lawyer for commercial law . He also taught at the University of Manitoba from 1948 to 1954. In 1963 he was appointed to the Manitoba Provincial Supreme Court . Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau appointed him Judge to the Supreme Court of Canada on March 26, 1973 . On April 18, 1984, three weeks after Bora Laskin's death , Prime Minister Brian Mulroney was appointed Chief Justice . After the introduction of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982, Dickson was instrumental in setting the first standards of interpretation in the field of business law. He resigned on June 30, 1990.

See also

• List of justices at the Supreme Court of Canada

literature

• Kent Roach, Robert Sharpe: Brian Dickson: A Judge's Journey . University of Toronto Press, Toronto 2002, ISBN 0-8020-8952-6 .

Web links

• Supreme Court of Canada - Portrait (English)