The Right Honourable Richard Wagner, P.C., Chief Justice of Canada
The Right Honourable Richard Wagner is the 18th Chief Justice of Canada. In this role, he presides over the Canadian Judicial Council, National Judicial Institute and chairs the Advisory Council for the Order of Canada. Chief Justice Wagner was president of the Association des Cours Constitutionelles Francophones from 2019 to 2022. The Chief Justice also fulfilled his duty to serve as administrator of the Government of Canada from January 23 to July 26, 2021.
Born and raised in Montreal, Chief Justice Wagner earned his Bachelor of Social Science and Licentiate in Laws at the University of Ottawa. He returned to his home town to practice law from 1980 to 2004. His areas of specialization included professional liability, commercial litigation and class action lawsuits.
Chief Justice Wagner was appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Quebec in 2004 and was named to the Quebec Court of Appeal in 2011. On October 5, 2012, he was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada. He was sworn in as Chief Justice of Canada on December 18, 2017.
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The Honourable Justice Andromache Karakatsanis
Justice Andromache Karakatsanis was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in October 2011. She had been appointed a judge of the Court of Appeal for Ontario in March 2010 and a judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in December 2002.
Justice Karakatsanis is a graduate of the University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall Law School.
Following her call to the Bar in 1982, Andromache Karakatsanis served as a law clerk to the Ontario Court of Appeal. In private practice, she practised criminal, civil and family litigation in Toronto for several years. She then served in the Ontario Public Service for 15 years in a number of senior positions.
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The Honourable Justice Nicolas Kasirer
Justice Nicholas Kasirer graduated from McGill University in 1985 with a Bachelor of Civil Law and a Bachelor of Laws, following a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto. In 1986, he completed a postgraduate Diplôme d’études approfondies in International Law at Université Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne). After clerking for the Honourable Jean Beetz of the Supreme Court of Canada, he became a member of the Barreau du Québec in 1987.
From 1989 to 2009, Justice Kasirer was a professor at McGill University’s Faculty of Law, where he taught in several fields, including the law of obligations, property law, family law, and wills and estates law in both civil and common law.
In 2009, he was appointed Justice of the Court of Appeal of Quebec. During the last 10 years, he has rendered many judgments in various fields, such as private law, criminal law, and public law, including constitutional law.
The Honourable Nicholas Kasirer was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada on September 16, 2019.
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