Court of Appeal for Ontario

The Court of Appeal for Ontario (frequently referred to as the Ontario Court of Appeal or ONCA) is the appellate court for the province of Ontario, Canada. The seat of the court is Osgoode Hall in downtown Toronto, also the seat of the Law Society of Ontario and the Divisional Court of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

Court of Appeal for Ontario
Established	1867
Jurisdiction	Ontario
Location	Osgoode Hall, Toronto
Authorized by	Courts of Justice Act
Appeals to	Supreme Court of Canada
Number of positions	23 (plus supernumeraries)
Website	ontariocourts.ca/coa
Chief Justice of Ontario
Currently	George Strathy
Since	June 13, 2014

Description

The Court is composed of 22 judicial seats,[1] in addition to one or more justices who sit supernumerary. They hear over 1,500 appeals each year, on issues of private law, constitutional law, criminal law, administrative law and other matters. The Supreme Court of Canada hears appeals from less than 3% of the decisions of the Court of Appeal for Ontario, therefore in a practical sense, the Court of Appeal is the last avenue of appeal for most litigants in Ontario.[2]

Among the Court of Appeal's most notable decisions was the 2003 ruling in Halpern v Canada (AG) that found defining marriage as between one man and one woman to violate Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, legalizing same-sex marriage in Ontario and making Canada the first jurisdiction in the world where same-sex marriage was legalized by a court ruling. Among many judges from the Court who have been elevated to the Supreme Court of Canada are Justices Rosalie Abella, Louise Arbour, Peter Cory, Louise Charron, Andromache Karakatsanis, Bora Laskin and Michael Moldaver, as well as Bertha Wilson, who was the first female justice on both the Court of Appeal for Ontario (1975) and the Supreme Court of Canada (1982).

The Court of Appeal derives its jurisdiction from Ontario's Courts of Justice Act.

Current judges

A courtroom at Osgoode Hall. Over the dais are the Royal Arms of the United Kingdom, which until 1931 were the Royal Arms for general purposes throughout the British Empire. The Statute of Westminster 1931 effectively elevated the Royal Arms of Canada to the position of the Queen's Royal Arms for general purposes across Canada, which is why the Royal Arms of Canada are now used by the court to represent the Canadian Crown.

Position	Name	Appointed	Nominated by	Position(s) Prior to Appointment*
Chief Justice	George Strathy[3]	13 June 2014 26 April 2013	Harper	Ontario Court of Appeal Superior Court of Justice (2007 to 2013)
Associate Chief Justice	Alexandra Hoy[4]	7 June 2013 2 December 2011	Harper	Ontario Court of Appeal Superior Court of Justice
Justice	Mary Lou Benotto[5]	8 November 2013	Harper	Superior Court of Justice (1996 to 2013) Family Court (2001 to 2005) Chapell Bushell Stewart (1978 to 2001)
Justice	David M Brown[6]	16 December 2014	Harper	Superior Court of Justice (2006 to 2014)
Justice	Steve A. Coroza[7]	6 April 2020	J. Trudeau	Superior Court of Justice (2013 to 2020) Ontario Court of Justice (2009 to 2013)
Justice	David H. Doherty	1 September 1990	Mulroney	Superior Court of Justice (1988 to 1990)
Justice	J. Michal Fairburn[8]	18 July 2017	J. Trudeau	Superior Court of Justice (December 16, 2014 to July 18, 2017) Stockwoods Ontario Crown Law Office
Justice	Alison Harvison Young	31 August 2018	J. Trudeau	Superior Court of Justice (2004 to 2018)
Justice	C. William Hourigan [9]	2 October 2013	Harper	Superior Court of Justice (2009 to 2013) Fasken Martineau LLP (1992 to 2009)
Justice	Grant Huscroft[10]	16 December 2014	Harper	Professor, Western Law School (2002 to 2014) University of Auckland (1992 to 2001)
Justice	Mahmud Jamal	24 June 2019	J. Trudeau	Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP
Justice	Peter Lauwers[11]	14 December 2012	Harper	Superior Court of Justice (2008 to 2012) Miller Thompson LLP
Justice	Ian Nordheimer [12]	15 September 2017	J. Trudeau	Superior Court of Justice (1999 to 2017) Counsel with Fraser & Beatty / Dentons LLP
Justice	Bradley Miller[13]	26 June 2015	Harper	Superior Court of Justice
Justice	David M. Paciocco[14]	7 April 2017	J. Trudeau	Ontario Court of Justice Professor at University of Ottawa
Justice	Lois Roberts [15]	5 May 2015	Harper	Superior Court of Justice (2008 to 2015) Genest Murray LLP (1988 to 2008) Cassels Brock (1987 to 1988)
Justice	Julie Thorburn	1 September 2019	J. Trudeau	Superior Court of Justice (2006 to 2019)
Justice	Gary T. Trotter[16][17]	20 October 2016	J. Trudeau	Superior Court of Justice (2008 to 2016) Ontario Court of Justice (2005 to 2008) Professor at Queen's University (2003 to 2016) Ontario Crown Counsel (1988 to 2000)
Justice	Michael Tulloch[18]	30 June 2012	Harper	Superior Court of Justice (2003 to 2012) Private practice
Justice	Katherine van Rensburg[9]	2 October 2013	Harper	Superior Court of Justice (2006 to 2013) Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP
Justice	David Watt[19]	12 October 2007	Harper	Superior Court of Justice
Justice	Benjamin Zarnett	9 November 2018	J. Trudeau	Goodmans LLP

Supernumerary Justices

Position	Name	Appointed	Nominated by	Position(s) Prior to Appointment*
Supernumerary Justice	Kathryn N. Feldman	11 June 1998	Chrétien	Superior Court of Justice (1990 to 1998)
Supernumerary Justice	Eileen E. Gillese	5 January 2002	Chrétien	Superior Court of Justice (1999 to 2002)
Supernumerary Justice	Russell G. Juriansz	12 March 2004	Martin	Superior Court of Justice
Supernumerary Justice	James C. MacPherson	25 May 1999	Chrétien	Superior Court of Justice
Supernumerary Justice	Gladys Pardu	8 November 2013	Harper	Superior Court of Justice (1991 to 2013) Pardu Macdonald (1976 to 1991)
Supernumerary Justice	Sarah Pepall	10 April 2012	Harper	Superior Court of Justice
Supernumerary Justice	Paul Rouleau[20]	15 April 2005	Martin	Superior Court of Justice (2002 to 2005) Heenan Blaikie
Supernumerary Justice	Janet M. Simmons	23 August 2000	Chrétien	Superior Court of Justice

Chief Justices of Ontario

Number	Name	Years
21	George R. Strathy	2014–present
20	Warren K. Winkler [21]	2007–2013
19	R. Roy McMurtry	1996–2007
18	Charles Leonard Dubin	1990–1996
17	William Goldwin Carrington Howland	1977–1990
16	Willard Zebedee Estey	1976–1977
15	George Alexander Gale	1967–1976
14	Dana Harris Porter	1958–1967
13	John Wellington Pickup	1952–1957
12	Robert Spelman Robertson	1938–1952
11	Newton Wesley Rowell	1936–1938
10	Sir William Mulock	1923–1936
9	Sir William Ralph Meredith	1912–1923
8	Sir Charles Moss	1902–1912
7	John Douglas Armour	1900–1902
6	Sir George William Burton	1897–1900
5	Sir John Hawkins Hagarty	1884–1897
4	John Godfrey Spragge	1881–1884
3	Thomas Moss	1878–1881
2	Robert Alexander Harrison[note 1]	1875–1878
1	Sir William Buell Richards[note 1]	1868–1875

Past judges

Name	Time in Office	Nominated by	Position(s) Prior to Appointment*
Edward W. Ducharme	2012 - 2013	Stephen Harper
Marc Rosenberg[22]	1995–2015	Jean Chretien
Stephen Goudge	1996–2014	Jean Chretien
Warren Winkler, Chief Justice	2007–2013
Dennis O'Connor	1998–2012	Jean Chretien
Michael Moldaver[22]	1995–2011	Jean Chretien
Andromache Karakatsanis	2010–2011
Marvin A. Catzman	1988–2007
Roy McMurtry	1996-2007 as Chief Justice
Louise Charron[22]	1995–2004	Jean Chretien
Rosalie Abella	1992–2004
Louise Arbour	1990–1999
Charles Dubin	1973–1996 (1992–1996 as Chief Justice)
William Goldwin Carrington Howland as Chief Justice	1977–1992
Walter Tarnopolsky	1985–1993
Peter Cory	1981–1989
Bert MacKinnon	1974–1987 as Associate Chief Justice
Bertha Wilson	1975–1982
Goldwyn Arthur Martin	1973–1988
Bora Laskin	1965–1970
Jean-Marc Labrosse	1990–2007
Roy Kellock	1942–1944
Henry Hague Davis	1933–1935
Newton Wesley Rowell as Chief Justice	1936–1937
Sir William Mulock as Chief Justice	1923–1936
John Douglas Armour	1887–1890 (as Chief Justice) (1901–1902)
John Hawkins Hagarty as Chief Justice	1884–1897
Thomas Moss as Chief Justice	1878–1880
Robert Alexander Harrison as Chief Justice	1875–1878

Chief Justices of Upper Canada (1792–1841)/Province of Canada (1841–1867)

Number	Name	Years
1	William Osgoode	1792–1794
2	John Elmsley	1796–1802
3	Henry Allcock	1802–1806
4	Thomas Scott	1806–1816
5	William Dummer Powell	1816–1825
6	Sir William Campbell	1825–1829
7	Sir John Beverley Robinson	1829–1862
8	William Henry Draper	1863–1867

See also

• Supreme Court of Canada

Notes

1. Of the Court of Queen's Bench

References

1. Canada, Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs. "Federal Judicial Appointments - Number of Federally Appointed Judges in Canada". www.fja.gc.ca.
2. "Court of Appeal for Ontario". Ontariocourts.on.ca. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
3. "ONTARIO JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS ANNOUNCED". 2013-04-26. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
4. "PM announces judicial appointments for British Columbia, Ontario and Saskatchewan". 2013-06-07.
5. "ONTARIO JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS ANNOUNCED". 2012-10-22.
6. "Ontario Judicial Appointments Announced". 2014-12-16.
7. "Ontario Judicial Appointments Announced". 2020-04-06.
8. "Government of Canada announces judicial appointments in the province of Ontario". 2017-07-18.
9. "ONTARIO JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS ANNOUNCED". Retrieved 1 August 2018.
10. "ONTARIO JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS ANNOUNCED". Retrieved 1 August 2018.
11. "OTTAWA, December 14, 2012 - Ontario Judicial Appointment Announced". 13 May 2013. Archived from the original on 13 May 2013.
12. "Government of Canada announces judicial appointment in the province of Ontario". www.newswire.ca.
13. Canada, Employment and Social Development (2015-06-26). "Ontario Judicial Appointments Announced - Canada.ca". www.canada.ca.
14. Canada, Department of Justice (2017-04-07). "Government of Canada announces judicial appointments in the province of Ontario - Canada.ca". www.canada.ca.
15. "Ontario Judicial Appointments Announced". 2015-05-05.
16. "Government of Canada announces judicial appointments in the province of Ontario". 2016-10-20. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
17. "Ontario Judicial Appointments Announced". 9 January 2012. Archived from the original on 9 January 2012.
18. "Ontario Judicial Appointments Announced". 2012-06-22. Retrieved 5 August 2018.
19. "ONTARIO JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS ANNOUNCED". Archived from the original on 2012-02-14.
20. "Ontario Judicial Appointment Announced". 28 March 2010. Archived from the original on 28 March 2010.
21. "Appointment of Chief Justice of Ontario announced". Archived from the original on 2010-03-18.
22. https://web.archive.org/web/20031111224659/http://www.justice.gc.ca:80/en/news/ja/1995/ONT15.html. Archived from the original on 2003-11-11. Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

• Court of Appeal for Ontario official site
• Ontario Courts website
• Plan to webcast Ontario appeal cases delayed

1. https://www.ola.org/en/members/current/opposition-critics