Chief Justice of Canada

The chief justice of Canada (Template:Langx) is the presiding judge of the nine-member Supreme Court of Canada, the highest judicial body in Canada. As such, the chief justice is the highest-ranking judge of the Canadian court system. The Supreme Court Act makes the chief justice, a Crown in Council appointment, meaning the Crown acting on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice. The chief justice serves until they resign, turn 75 years old, die, or are removed from office for cause. By tradition, a new chief justice is chosen from among the court's incumbent puisne justices.

The chief justice has significant influence in the procedural rules of the Court, presides when oral arguments are held, and leads the discussion of cases among the justices. The chief justice is also deputy governor general, ex-officio chairman of the Canadian Judicial Council, and heads the committee that selects recipients of the Order of Canada. Additionally, a chief justice also assumes the role of Administrator of Canada and exercises the viceregal duties of the governor general upon the death, resignation or incapacitation of the governor general.

Richard Wagner has served as the current chief justice of Canada since 2017. Since the Supreme Court was established in 1875, 18 people have served as chief justice. The court's first chief justice was William Buell Richards; Beverley McLachlin is the longest serving Canadian chief justice (Template:Ayd), and was the first woman to hold the position.

History

On October 8, 1875, General William O'Grady Haly administered the oath of office to Chief Justice William Buell Richards. A month later on November 8, the five puisne justices took their oath of office.Template:Sfn In January 1879, Chief Justice William Buell Richards resigned following pressure from his longtime friend, Prime Minister John A. Macdonald,Template:Sfn likely due to Richards' deteriorating health.Template:Sfn On January 11, 1879, William Johnstone Ritchie was appointed chief justice by Macdonald.

On September 25, 1892, Chief Justice William Johnstone Ritchie died after a relapse of bronchitis at the age of 78.Template:Sfn Early rumors indicated that Prime Minister John Abbott may appoint Justice Minister John Sparrow David Thompson.Template:Sfn The opinion that the chief justice should not default to the longest-serving member of the court was prevalent, and prominent Conservative senator James Robert Gowan, who was a chief party advisor on legal matters, opposed this strongly.Template:Sfn Senator Gowan wrote Justice Minister Thompson suggesting Justice Strong be allowed to retire and the appointment be delayed, and indicated he had little faith in Strong's work ethic.Template:Sfn However, three weeks after becoming prime minister, Thompson appointed Strong as the court's third chief justice.Template:Sfn

In April 1896, Parliament under the Conservative government of Prime Minister Mackenzie Bowell amended the Supreme and Exchequer Courts Act to create the title of "Chief Justice of Canada".Template:Sfn<ref name="59VicC14" group="ps">Template:Cite canlaw</ref> Prior to the amendment, the title was just "chief justice".Template:Sfn<ref name="sceca1875_s3" group="ps">Template:Cite canlaw</ref>

Appointment

The chief justice is appointed by the Governor in Council under the Supreme Court Act on the advice of the prime minister.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> The appointment is subject to the Supreme Court Act, which governs the administration and appointment of judges of the court. By this component of the Constitution of Canada, Judges appointed to the court must be "a judge of a superior court of a province or a barrister or advocate of at least ten years standing at the bar of a province."

Tradition dictates that the chief justice be appointed from among the court's puisne judges; in the history of the Court, only two were not: William Buell Richards, and Charles Fitzpatrick.Template:Sfn It is also customary that a new chief justice be chosen alternately from among: the three justices who by law must be from Quebec (with its civil law system), and the other six justices from the rest of Canada (representing the common law tradition). Since 1933, this tradition has only been broken once, when Brian Dickson of Manitoba was named to succeed Bora Laskin of Ontario in 1984.

Duties

The chief justice's central duty is to preside at hearings before the Supreme Court.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref> The chief justice presides from the centre chair. If the chief justice is absent, the senior puisne judge presides.<ref name=":1" />

Judicial Council

The chief justice chairs the Canadian Judicial Council, which is composed of all chief justices and associate chief justices of superior courts in Canada. This body, established in 1971 by the Judges Act, organizes seminars for federally appointed judges, coordinates the discussion of issues of concern to the judiciary, and conducts inquiries, either on public complaint or at the request of a federal or provincial minister of justice or attorney general, into the conduct of any federally appointed judge.

Other duties

The chief justice is sworn as a member of the Privy Council prior to taking the judicial oath of office.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The chief justice also sits on the advisory council of Canada's highest civilian order, the Order of Canada. In practice however, the chief justice abstains from voting on a candidate's removal from the order, presumably because this process has so far only applied to individuals convicted in a lower court of a criminal offence, and could create a conflict of interest for the chief justice if that individual appealed their conviction to the Supreme Court.

Under the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act, each province has a three-person commission responsible for modifying that province's federal ridings. The chair of each such commission is appointed by the chief justice of that province; if no appointment is made by the provincial chief justice, the responsibility falls to the chief justice of Canada.<ref group="ps">Template:Cite web</ref>

Administrator of Canada

The Constitution Act, 1867 provides that there can be an "Administrator for the Time being carrying on the Government of Canada."<ref group="ps">Constitution Act, 1867, s. 10.</ref> The Letters Patent, 1947 respecting the Office of Governor General provide that, should the governor general die, become incapacitated, or be absent from the country for a period of more than one month, the chief justice or, if that office is vacant, the senior puisne justice, of the Supreme Court would become Administrator of Canada and exercise all the powers and duties of the governor general.<ref group="ps">Letters Patent Constituting the Office of Governor General of Canada, s. 8.</ref> This has happened on four occasions: chief justices Lyman Duff and Robert Taschereau each did so, in 1940 and 1967 respectively, following the death of the incumbent governor general, as did Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin when the Governor General underwent surgery in 2005. With the resignation of Julie Payette in January 2021, Richard Wagner served as Administrator until the appointment of Mary Simon as governor general in July of the same year.<ref>Ashley Burke, "Payette stepping down as governor general after blistering report on Rideau Hall work environment". CBC News, January 21, 2021.</ref><ref>Catharine Tunney, "Mary Simon officially becomes Canada's first Inuk Governor General". CBC News, July 26, 2021.</ref>

The chief justice and the other justices of the court serve as deputies of the governor general for the purpose of giving Royal Assent to bills passed by Parliament, signing official documents or receiving credentials of newly appointed high commissioners and ambassadors.

Current chief justice

The current chief justice is Richard Wagner, who took office on December 18, 2017, succeeding Beverley McLachlin. Born in Montreal on April 2, 1957, Wagner had been a puisne Supreme Court justice for Template:Ayd at the time of his elevation to chief justice. He previously sat on the Quebec Court of Appeal.

List of chief justices

Since the Supreme Court was established in 1875, the following 18 persons have served as Chief Justice:<ref name=CFCJs>Template:Cite web</ref>

Image	Name (Province)	Order and termTemplate:Efn-ua		Length of term	Appointed on advice of	Date of birth	Date of death
	Template:Sortname (Ontario)	Template:Sort	September 30, 1875 – January 10, 1879	Template:Ayd	Mackenzie	Template:Dts	Template:Dts
	Template:Sortname (New Brunswick)	Template:Sort	January 11, 1879 – September 25, 1892	Template:Ayd	Macdonald	Template:Dts	Template:DtsTemplate:Efn-ua
	Template:Sortname (Ontario)	Template:Sort	December 13, 1892 – November 17, 1902	Template:Ayd	Thompson	Template:Dts	Template:Dts
	Template:Sortname (Quebec)	Template:Sort	November 21, 1902 – May 1, 1906	Template:Ayd	Laurier	Template:Dts	Template:Dts
	Template:SortnameTemplate:Efn-ua (Quebec)	Template:Sort	June 4, 1906 – October 20, 1918	Template:Ayd	Laurier	Template:Dts	Template:Dts
	Template:Sortname (Prince Edward Island)	Template:Sort	October 23, 1918 – May 1, 1924	Template:Ayd	Borden	Template:Dts	Template:DtsTemplate:Efn-ua
	Template:Sortname (Ontario)	Template:Sort	Template:Nowrap February 27, 1933	Template:Ayd	King	Template:Dts	Template:Dts
	Template:Sortname (British Columbia)	Template:Sort	March 17, 1933 – January 6, 1944Template:Efn-ua	Template:Ayd	Bennett	Template:Dts	Template:Dts
	Template:Sortname (Quebec)	Template:Sort	January 8, 1944 – June 21, 1954	Template:Ayd	King	Template:Dts	Template:Dts
	Template:Sortname (Ontario)	Template:Sort	July 1, 1954 – February 2, 1963	Template:Ayd	St. Laurent	Template:Dts	Template:DtsTemplate:Efn-ua
	Template:Sortname (Quebec)	Template:Sort	April 22, 1963 – Template:Nowrap	Template:Ayd	Pearson	Template:Dts	Template:Dts
	Template:Sortname (Ontario)	Template:Sort	September 1, 1967 – March 22, 1970	Template:Ayd	Pearson	Template:Dts	Template:Dts
	Template:Sortname (Quebec)	Template:Sort	March 23, 1970 – December 22, 1973	Template:Ayd	P. Trudeau	Template:Dts	Template:Dts
	Template:Sortname (Ontario)	Template:Sort	December 27, 1973 – March 26, 1984	Template:Ayd	P. Trudeau	Template:Dts	Template:DtsTemplate:Efn-ua
	Template:Sortname (Manitoba)	Template:Sort	April 18, 1984 – June 29, 1990	Template:Ayd	P. Trudeau	Template:Dts	Template:Dts
	Template:Sortname (Quebec)	Template:Sort	July 1, 1990 – January 6, 2000	Template:Ayd	Mulroney	Template:Dts	Template:Dts
	Template:Sortname (British Columbia)	Template:Sort	January 7, 2000 – December 14, 2017Template:Efn-ua	Template:Ayd	Chrétien	Template:Dts	2025-12-11(living)
	Template:Sortname (Quebec)	Template:Sort	December 18, 2017 – IncumbentTemplate:Efn-ua	Template:AydTemplate:Efn-ua	J. Trudeau	Template:Dts	2025-12-11(living)

This graphical timeline depicts the length of each justice's tenure as chief justice:<ref name=CFCJs/>

<timeline> ImageSize = width:1050 height:auto barincrement:19 PlotArea = top:10 bottom:20 right:140 left:14 AlignBars = late DateFormat = x.y Period = from:1875.00 till:{{#expr:{{#time:Y}}+{{#time:m}}/12}} TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal

Colors =

 id:bg         value:white
 id:grayline   value:rgb(0.894,0.882,0.871)
 id:blackline  value:rgb(0.212,0.192,0.173)
 id:goldline   value:rgb(0.945,0.675,0.231) #f1ac3b
 id:ltblueline value:rgb(0.867,0.933,1)
 id:RED        value:rgb(0.910,0.067,0.076) #e8112d

ScaleMajor = gridcolor:grayline unit:year increment:5 start:1875 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:1875 Define $now = {{#expr:{{#time:Y}}+{{#time:m}}/12}}

BarData =

 barset:ChiefJusticesLine
 barset:ChiefJustices
 #barset:blankline

PlotData=

width:1 align:right fontsize:S shift:(-1,-4) anchor:from fontsize:8 color:black

barset:ChiefJusticesLine 
from:1875.00 till:$now

width:4 align:left fontsize:S shift:(5,-4) anchor:till fontsize:10
barset:ChiefJustices
from:1875.67 till:1879.00 color:RED text:"William Buell Richards"
from:1879.00 till:1892.67 color:RED text:"William Johnstone Ritchie"
from:1892.92 till:1902.83 color:RED text:"Samuel Henry Strong"
from:1902.83 till:1906.33 color:RED text:"Henri Elzéar Taschereau"
from:1906.41 till:1918.75 color:RED text:"Charles Fitzpatrick"
from:1918.75 till:1924.33 color:RED text:"Louis Henry Davies"
from:1924.67 till:1933.09 color:RED text:"Francis Alexander Anglin"
from:1933.16 till:1944.00 color:RED text:"Lyman Duff"
from:1944.00 till:1954.41 color:RED text:"Thibaudeau Rinfret"
from:1954.50 till:1963.09 color:RED text:"Patrick Kerwin"
from:1963.25 till:1967.67 color:RED text:"Robert Taschereau"
from:1967.67 till:1970.16 color:RED text:"John Robert Cartwright"
from:1970.16 till:1973.92 color:RED text:"Gérald Fauteux"
from:1973.92 till:1984.16 color:RED text:"Bora Laskin"
from:1984.28 till:1990.50 color:RED text:"Brian Dickson"
from:1990.50 till:2000.02 color:RED text:"Antonio Lamer"
from:2000.02 till:2017.94 color:RED text:"Beverley McLachlin"
from:2017.94 till:$now color:RED text:"Richard Wagner"

Linedata=

at:1875.67 width:0.5 color:goldline # William Buell Richards
at:1879.00 width:0.4 color:goldline # William Johnstone Ritchie
at:1892.92 width:0.3 color:goldline # "Samuel Henry Strong
at:1902.83 width:0.2 color:goldline # Henri Elzéar Taschereau
at:1906.41 width:0.1 color:goldline # Charles Fitzpatrick
at:1918.75 width:0.1 color:goldline # Louis Henry Davies
at:1924.67 width:0.1 color:goldline # Francis Alexander Anglin
at:1933.16 width:0.1 color:goldline # Lyman Duff
at:1944.00 width:0.1 color:goldline # Thibaudeau Rinfret
at:1954.50 width:0.1 color:goldline # Patrick Kerwin
at:1963.25 width:0.1 color:goldline # Robert Taschereau
at:1967.67 width:0.1 color:goldline # John Robert Cartwright
at:1970.16 width:0.1 color:goldline # Gérald Fauteux
at:1973.92 width:0.1 color:goldline # Bora Laskin
at:1984.28 width:0.1 color:goldline # Brian Dickson
at:1990.50 width:0.1 color:goldline # Antonio Lamer
at:2000.02 width:0.1 color:goldline # Beverley McLachlin
at:2017.94 width:0.1 color:goldline # Richard Wagner

</timeline>

References

Works centering on the history of the Supreme Court of Canada

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Further reading

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