The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada. It was established by the Parliament of Canada through the Supreme and Exchequer Court Act of 1875. Since 1949, the Court has been the final court of appeal in the Canadian justice system. Originally composed of six justices, the Court was expanded to seven justices by the creation of an additional puisne justice position in 1927, and then to nine justices by the creation of two more puisne justice positions in 1949. The justices are appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister. When a chief justice leaves office, the vacancy is traditionally filled by elevating an incumbent puisne justice to the position, which requires a separate appointment process. The first six justices of the Court were all appointed in 1875 by Governor Generalthe Earl of Dufferin, on the advice of Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie. Of the nine justices, three positions are required by law to be held by judges who are either judges of the superior courts of Quebec, or members of the Bar of Quebec, at the time of their appointment. Traditionally, three of the remaining judges are appointed from Ontario, two from the four western provinces, and one from the Atlantic provinces. The judges from these provinces, other than Quebec, must have been a judge of a superior court, or a member of the bar of one of those provinces for ten or more years prior to the appointment. Since the Supreme Court was created in 1875, 88 persons have served on the Court. The length of overall service on the Court for the 79 non-incumbent justices ranges from Sir Lyman Duff's, to the 232-day tenure of John Douglas Armour. The length of service for the nine incumbent justices ranges from Rosalie Abella's to Sheilah Martin's. Justices hold office during good behaviour, but are removable by the Governor General on address of the Canadian Senate and House of Commons. Since 1927, justices may sit on the bench until they reach the mandatory retirement age of 75. Because the legislation did not contain a grandfather clause it immediately applied to any judge who was already over age 75 at the time it came into force. As a result, Justice John Idington, aged 86, was forced to retire from the Court.
Justices
In the table below, the index numbers in the far left column denote the order in which the justices were appointed as a Supreme Court puisne justice. Also, a shaded row——denotes a current justice. Additionally, while many of the justices' positions prior to appointment are simply listed as "lawyer", many had part-time positions, such as teaching, or acted as counsel to various levels of government. The justices of the Supreme Court are:
Timeline of justices
This graphical timeline depicts the progression of the justices on the Supreme Court. Information regarding each justice's predecessors, successors and fellow justices, as well as their tenure on the court can be gleaned from it. There are no formal names or numbers for the individual seats of the puisne justices, which are listed in the table below simply by number.
Justices' birthplaces
Justices' legal backgrounds
Of the 89 justices to have served on the court, just over half, 48, had previously served on provincial appellate courts, although not all of these were serving in that capacity immediately prior to their appointment. Three served on the appellate division of the Federal Court of Canada: Frank Iacobucci as Chief Justice of the Court, and Gerald Le Dain and Marshall Rothstein as appellate justices. Twenty-eight justices were named to the Supreme Court directly from the bar without having previously served as judges, including one Chief Justice. Of those, eleven had served or were serving in various federal government capacities, including member of Parliament, cabinet minister, or deputy minister, prior to their appointment. A further eleven served on provincial superiortrial courts. Of the 30 justices appointed since 1980, only three had no prior judicial experience: John Sopinka, Ian Binnie and Suzanne Côté.
