Death of Ex-Supreme Court of Canada Justice Charles Gonthier

The Honourable Mr. Justice Charles Doherty Gonthier, who sat on the Supreme Court of Canada from 1989 to 2003, passed away on July 16th.

He was 80.

Justice Gonthier was called to the Quebec Bar in 1952 after graduating from McGill Law.

He was named a judge of the Quebec Superior Court in 1974. During his tenure, he became president of the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice.

He was appointed to the Quebec Court of Appeal in 1988, and joined the Supreme Court of Canada the following year.

After retiring from the country's highest court, he became:

• Chair of the Board of McGill's Centre for International Sutainable Development Law
• Wainwright Senior Research Fellow at the same University
• Commissioner of the Communications Security Establishment, Canada's national cryptologic agency

Personal note: I met Justice Gonthier in February 2003 when he was on the panel judging the Gale Cup Moot national competition at Osgoode Hall in Toronto. My little sister was a member of the Université de Montréal team that won first prize, ahead of 15 other Canadian law school teams.