Бора Ласкин: Главный судья Канады (1973-1984)

Chief Justice of Canada from 1973 to 1984

Bora Laskin (October 5, 1912 – March 26, 1984) was a Canadian jurist who served as the 14th chief justice of Canada from 1973 to 1984. Laskin was appointed a puisne justice of the Supreme Court in 1970, and served on the Ontario Court of Appeal from 1965 to 1970. Before he was named to the bench, Laskin worked as a lawyer and in academia.

Laskin was born in Fort William, Ontario (now Thunder Bay), the son of Max Laskin and Bluma Zingel. His brother, Saul Laskin, went on to become the first mayor of Thunder Bay. His other brother, Charles, was a shirt designer and manufacturer. Laskin married Peggy Tenenbaum. The couple had two children: John I. Laskin, who followed in his father's footsteps and became a judge at the Ontario Court of Appeal, and Barbara Laskin Plumptre. His grandson (the son of his daughter) carries on his name. His nephew John B. Laskin is a judge of the Federal Court of Appeal, having previously been a faculty member of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and a prominent commercial litigator in Toronto.

Laskin was educated as a lawyer at Osgoode Hall Law School. He initially studied at the University of Toronto, earning a Bachelor of Arts in 1933. He received the degrees of Master of Arts in 1935 and earned a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Toronto in 1936. While at the University of Toronto, he was a member of Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity. In 1937, he received a Master of Laws from Harvard Law School. He earned a gold medal at both the University of Toronto Law School and at Harvard Law School.

Despite his superior academic record, Laskin, who was Jewish, was unable to find work at any law firm of note, because of the anti Semitism that pervaded the English Canadian legal profession at the time.

Laskin's career on the bench began in 1965 with his appointment to the Ontario Court of Appeal. While on the Court of Appeal, Laskin gave a decision in a divorce case, upholding the constitutional authority of the federal Parliament to include the right to spousal support under the Divorce Act. Laskin held that spousal support was ancillary to Parliament's constitutional jurisdiction over divorce under the Constitution Act. When the Supreme Court of Canada considered the same issue three years later, it unanimously reached the same conclusion, citing Laskin's decision from the Ontario Court of Appeal.

On March 19, 1970, he was appointed on the advice of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to the Supreme Court of Canada, becoming the first Jewish justice to sit on that court. Again on the advice of Trudeau, Laskin was appointed Chief Justice on December 27, 1973. He held that position until his death in 1984. Laskin's appointment as Chief Justice generated some controversy. He was the second most junior justice on the court, having served for only three years. The long standing tradition was that on the retirement of the chief justice, the senior puisne justice on the court would be appointed. Since the establishment of the Supreme Court in 1875, this practice had been followed except on two occasions, in 1906 and 1924, when the senior puisne justices had been passed over. By that tradition, the appointment as Chief Justice would have gone to Justice Ronald Martland, who had been on the court for fifteen years. When Prime Minister Trudeau appointed Laskin, it was said that Justice Martland had been given very little notice that he would be passed over, and was upset by it. Minister of Finance John Turner was rumoured to be furious at the departure from the traditions of the court.

Laskin was a liberal jurist who often found himself on the minority side of decisions. His specialty was labour law and constitutional law and he had a reputation as a civil libertarian. On matters of federalism under the Constitution Act, 1867, Laskin has been considered the most aggressive supporter of the federal powers of any justice since Confederation. This made for a stark contrast with fellow Justice Jean Beetz, who was known as one of the strongest supporters of provincial powers under the Constitution. In his earlier years on the Supreme Court, Laskin was frequently in dissent. During the 1970s, Laskin frequently joined with justices Wishart Spence and Brian Dickson on cases involving civil liberties, often in dissent from the more conservative majority on the court. The grouping was colloquially referred to as the "LSD connection." The outcome of the case was highly controversial. It triggered reforms to matrimonial laws across the country, adopting Laskin's view of property equality between husband and wife. Years later, Laskin said that the position he took in this case was the likely cause of his promotion to Chief Justice over the more senior Ronald Martland.

Laskin presided over a number of landmark constitutional cases, most notably the 1981 Patriation Reference, which considered Pierre Trudeau's attempt to have the federal government unilaterally patriate the Constitution of Canada without the consent of the provinces. The case was a consolidated appeal of three provincial references, from Quebec, Manitoba and Newfoundland. By a 7 2 division, a majority of the court held that Parliament had the legal authority to act unilaterally. However, by a division of 6 3, the court also held that unilateral federal action would violate a constitutional convention that had emerged since Confederation, requiring substantial provincial agreement on constitutional amendments. Laskin was one of the judges in the majority on the issue of Parliament's legal authority to act unilaterally, but was one of the three dissenting judges who would have held that there was no constitutional convention restricting Parliament's power to act unilaterally. As a result of the decision in the Patriation Reference, Trudeau decided to begin a new round of negotiations with the provinces, which resulted in the patriation of the Constitution from Britain being agreed to by all provinces save Quebec. Historian Frederic Bastien suggests that Laskin may have violated the constitutional separation of powers by discussing the deliberations of the court with politicians, casting doubt on the legitimacy of the decision. However, surviving participants in the Reference process do not think that the allegations, even if true, undercut the validity of the court's decision. Other scholars said that the patriation process violated judicial independence.

Laskin was in poor health the last few years of his life, and died in office on March 26, 1984, at the age of 71 from pneumonia. Two weeks before his death, on March 13, 1984, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada. Prime Minister Trudeau offered a state funeral, but the family declined because Laskin "liked things very simple." Instead, Laskin lay in state in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court building, prior to a simple funeral ceremony in Ottawa and interment at Holy Blossom Memorial Park in Toronto. His brother Saul Laskin was later buried beside him.

Lakehead University, in Laskin's hometown of Thunder Bay, honoured him in several ways. The Bora Laskin Building, used primarily by the Faculty of Education. The Bora Laskin Faculty of Law, established 2013. The Laskin Moot was named in his honour. The main library of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law is named for Laskin. The Bora Laskin Law Society in Ottawa was named in his honour in 2011. Elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1964, giving him the right to the post nominal letters "FRSC".