Four Seasons Hotel, Toronto
I am honoured to welcome you here for this evening’s celebration on behalf of the International Commission of Jurists (Canadian Section). The ICJ is a privileged co-venturer with the Advocates Society in this important event.
This evening has special meaning for the International Commission of Jurists which was founded in 1952 in Geneva to promote the understanding and observance of the rule of law as well as the promotion and legal protection of human rights throughout the world. Under this umbrella, the Canadian Section operates as an independent national section, interfacing with its international parent and other like-minded organizations. The rule of law is seen as a dynamic concept to be used to advance not only the classical civil and political rights of the individual, but also economic, social and cultural rights, and to promote social and development policies under which members of the community may realize their full potentiality.
Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada have a long history of involvement with the ICJ. Recently retired Madame Justice Claire L’Heureux-Dubé was elected President of the ICJ in Geneva in 1998 and served with distinction.
In addition to her twenty honourary degrees, Madame Justice Abella is a Council member of the International Commission of Jurists (Canadian Section) and in 2003 was recipient of the Peter Gruber Foundation’s International Justice Prize. This past summer in Winnipeg, she was the recipient of ICJ Canada’s Walter S. Tarnopolsky for her outstanding contributions to the field of Human Rights, which ICJ Canada presents every year at the CBA Annual Meeting. The award, I may say, was ably presented by the Honourable Justice Ian Binnie, also of the Supreme Court of Canada and an ICJ Commissioner, who is here tonight.
I recall vividly the impassioned and moving address Justice Abella delivered to the ICJ Annual Meeting in Winnipeg last summer, referencing the many ground-breaking achievements of Canadian jurists in the field of human rights, equality rights and social justice and to the real advances made in these areas by Canada generally in the past 50 years. But not to let the opportunity pass, Justice Abella dealt directly with the present and an international indifference to the alarming rise and persistence of a large-scale global injustices in the past decade that have occurred despite the lessons of the Nuremberg trials and the resulting proliferation of international laws, treaties and conventions designed to put an end to human rights abuses forever. I remember her words vividly, “We have been far too timid as an international community about insisting on the centrality of human rights enforcement as a civilizing global requirement. It is not just about having the right laws; it is about enforcing them. It is not just what you stand for; it is what you stand up for.”
Perhaps Justice Abella was perhaps talking about the focussed career of our other honouree, the Honourable Madame Justice Louise Charron. Whether in private practice, or in her work as a Crown, or as a legal academic at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, or as a Judge, she has always followed a “no-nonsense” approach to legal decision-making, astutely recognizing the rights of the individual in the face of oppressive power of the State. And during her time as a Judge of the Court of Appeal for Ontario, she also served as Deputy Judge to the Nunavut Court of Justice, thereby sending Canada’s compassionate justice system to one of the distant territories of our large country.
As one of 82 national sections of the ICJ, the Canadian Section, which was established in 1958, actively participates in ICJ missions and organizes lectures and panel discussions, including our major program at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Bar Association. In addition, ICJ Canada awards the Walter Tarnopolsky medal to commemorate Canadian initiatives in the field of Human Rights. Past recipients of the award have included prominent Canadians, including our current Minister of Justice Irwin Cotler. The deadline for applications this year is April 30 th and any Canadian residents who have made an outstanding contribution to domestic or international human rights may be nominated. If anyone is interested in pursuing this, please speak to me this evening or subsequently at my office.
Over the past few years the Canadian Section of the ICJ has also been active in promoting international exchanges with Judges and Lawyers from Eastern Europe, Africa and South Asia. During the three-year period commencing in the year 2000 for example, visits were exchanged between Canada and Croatia. During a series of intensive seminars, Croatian and Serbian delegates were introduced to the workings of the Canadian judicial system, with particular emphasis on the independence of the judiciary. In recent years, individual members of ICJ Canada have participated in missions, meetings and other assignments in Egypt, Tunisia, Kenya, Northern Ireland, East Timor, South Africa, China and Swaziland. Membership in ICJ Canada is open to Judges, Lawyers, Law Professors and Law Students, who are interested in supporting the objectives of the International Commission of Jurists that I have described.
Let me close tonight with an expression of warm personal feeling for our two distinguished honourees. It is comforting that our political system, with all its warts, partisanship and name-calling, should be able to produce high-calibre judicial appointees of the likes of Madame Justices Rosalie Silberman Abella and Louise Charron. Canada is well-served when merit counts for something in our judicial appointments.
Thank you for coming this evening to celebrate the appointment of our two honourees.