Bora Laskin resource

Heritage Minutes Teacher's Resource

Bora Laskin

Introduction:

The Heritage Minutes collection is a bilingual series of history focused short films, produced by Historica Canada. Each 60-second short film depicts a significant person, event or story in Canadian history. Historica Canada offers programs that you can use to explore, learn and reflect on our history, and what it means to be Canadian. This resource is aligned with current Canadian curricula and has been produced for use in middle and high school classrooms. The Heritage Minute: Bora Laskin and the activity below are meant to encourage students to think thoughtfully and critically about the history of the country they inhabit and its impact on their lives today.

Click the link to watch the Heritage Minute: Bora Laskin

The Supreme Court of Canada building (courtesy of Jeangagnon, via Wikimedia Commons)

Bora Laskin:

Born in Fort William (now Thunder Bay), Ontario on 5 October 1912, Bora Laskin was a graduate of the University of Toronto and of Harvard Law School. Although he excelled in his studies, Laskin struggled to find work once he was called to the bar, due in part to rampant antisemitism in Toronto at the time. In 1940, he obtained employment teaching law at the University of Toronto. His notable academic work was widely noticed and praised, and in 1965, he was appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal. In 1970, Laskin was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada, and three years later was named Chief Justice. This decision broke with the tradition of appointing the longest serving judge as Chief Justice. Known as “the Great Dissenter,” Laskin often disagreed with his more traditional peers. His decisions helped shape what would become the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982. Laskin’s career is memorable for the many notable cases in which he took part, and because he was the first Jewish Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Online resources: The Canadian Encyclopedia Bora Laskin Article Supreme Court of Canada Article Antisemitism in Canada Article

Introduction to the Justice System in Canada Guide

Heritage Minutes Teacher's Resource Bora Laskin

Cases:

Murdoch v. Murdoch (1973). Laskin was the sole dissenting judge. The majority of the court decided that Irene Murdoch was not owed any part of the ranch she ran with her husband. The Murdoch case was championed by Canadian feminists and eventually led to reforms in matrimonial property law. Attorney General of Canada v. Lavell (1974). Laskin dissented against majority court opinion, which upheld an existing ruling that Indigenous women lost their status if they married non Indigenous men. Calder v. British Columbia (AG) (1973). The case reviewed the existence of Aboriginal title claimed over lands historically occupied by the Nisga’a peoples of northwestern British Columbia. The Supreme Court of Canada recognized that Aboriginal title existed in Canadian law, but the Nisga’a ultimately lost the case.

Activity:

We are often unaware of the impact court decisions have on individual lives and society in general. Many present rights and protections are the result of someone appealing to the Supreme Court of Canada. At the same time, not all appeals to the Supreme Court have positive outcomes; some of the most famous cases are those where a lower court’s decision was upheld. Bora Laskin earned the nickname “the Great Dissenter” because of his often influential dissents from the majority. 1. From the list included, choose a Supreme Court Case in which Bora Laskin dissented, or pick another from your own research. 2. In a presentation to the class, cover the following points: a. Explain why you chose that particular case. b. Even though the appeal failed, what kind of precedent did it set? c. What impact has it had on the community, Canada, life, law, etc., and did it have any global significance?

The court room of the Supreme Court of Canada (courtesy Jamie McCaffrey, via Wikimedia Commons)

Bora Laskin (courtesy Supreme Court of Canada)