Who was Bertha Wilson?

Bertha Wilson (September 18, 1923 to April 28, 2007) was the first female Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, appointed by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau on March 4, 1982 and serving from March 30, 1982 to January 4, 1991. Wilson wrote influential decisions including R. v. Morgentaler (January 28, 1988, striking down federal abortion restrictions under section 7 of the Charter), R. v. Lavallée (May 3, 1990, recognising battered woman syndrome as a defence to murder in cases of self-defence by abused women), and Edmonton Journal v. Alberta (June 8, 1989, free expression). Wilson was a major figure in the early Supreme Court of Canada interpretation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Wilson was born Bertha Wernham in Kirkcaldy, Scotland and studied at the University of Aberdeen (MA, 1944) and the Training College for Teachers (Diploma in Education, 1945). She married John Wilson, a minister, in 1945 and they emigrated to Canada in 1949 when he received a posting at Renfrew, Ontario. After moving to Halifax in 1953 and Macduff (UK) in 1957, the Wilsons settled in Toronto in 1959. Bertha Wilson enrolled in law school at Dalhousie University at age 34 (LLB, 1957) and was called to the Nova Scotia bar in 1958.

Wilson practised at the Toronto firm Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt from 1959, becoming a partner in 1968 (the firm's first female partner, and one of the first female partners at any major Canadian law firm). She practised primarily in commercial, family, and tax law. She was appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal on December 16, 1975 (the first woman appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal). In her six years on the Ontario Court of Appeal she wrote about 100 reasons.

Wilson's appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada came less than two weeks before the Charter of Rights and Freedoms came into force on April 17, 1982. She thus became one of the Court's central early Charter interpreters. R. v. Morgentaler (the 1988 abortion decision) was her most famous opinion: she joined the 5-2 majority striking down the criminal abortion restrictions, with her concurring reasons emphasising women's individual liberty under section 7 of the Charter. R. v. Lavallée (May 3, 1990) was a unanimous decision in which Wilson wrote that battered woman syndrome could justify a self-defence claim. She also wrote important reasons in Operation Dismantle v. The Queen (1985, on justiciability), Singh v. Minister of Employment and Immigration (1985, refugee rights), and many other cases. Wilson retired from the Supreme Court of Canada on January 4, 1991 at age 67, two years before the mandatory retirement age of 75. She subsequently chaired the federal Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (commissioned 1991, until her 1993 resignation). Wilson received honorary doctorates from many universities and was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1992. She died in Ottawa in 2007.