Thomas Albert Cromwell (born May 5, 1952) is a
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
jurist and former
Puisne Justice
A puisne judge or puisne justice (; from french: puisné or ; , 'since, later' + , 'born', i.e. 'junior') is a dated term for an ordinary judge or a judge of lesser rank of a particular court. Use
The term is used almost exclusively in common law ...
on the
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; french: Cour suprême du Canada, CSC) is the Supreme court, highest court in the Court system of Canada, judicial system of Canada. It comprises List of Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, nine justices, wh ...
. After eleven years on the
Nova Scotia Court of Appeal
The Court of Appeal for Nova Scotia (Nova Scotia Court of Appeal or NSCA) is the highest appeal court in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. There are currently 8 judicial seats including one assigned to the Chief Justice of Nova Scotia. At any gi ...
, Cromwell was nominated to succeed
Michel Bastarache
J. E. Michel Bastarache (born 1947) is a Canadian lawyer, businessman, and retired puisne justice on the Supreme Court of Canada.
Early life and education
Born in Quebec City on June 10, 1947, Bastarache earned his Bachelor of Arts degree ...
and occupy the seat traditionally reserved for Atlantic provinces on the
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; french: Cour suprême du Canada, CSC) is the Supreme court, highest court in the Court system of Canada, judicial system of Canada. It comprises List of Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, nine justices, wh ...
by Prime Minister
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...
and assumed office on December 22, 2008.
Cromwell retired in September 2016, and was succeeded by
Malcolm Rowe
Malcolm H. Rowe (born 1953) is a Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. Rowe is the first judge from Newfoundland and Labrador to sit on the Supreme Court.
Early life and education
Rowe was born in 1953 in St. John’s, Newfoundland an ...
.
Known as a centrist on Canada's highest court, his reasoning as a provincial appellate judge in ''
R v Marshall; R v Bernard'' was adopted by unanimous decision in the landmark
Aboriginal title
Aboriginal title is a common law doctrine that the land rights of indigenous peoples to customary tenure persist after the assumption of sovereignty under settler colonialism. The requirements of proof for the recognition of aboriginal title, ...
case of ''
Tsilhqot'in Nation v British Columbia'' in 2014 during his tenure.
Early life and education
Cromwell was born in
Kingston, Ontario
Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north-eastern end of Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River (south end of the Rideau Canal). The city is midway between Toro ...
.
He attended
Queen's University where he earned a Bachelor of Music degree in 1973 and a law degree in 1976. He then earned a
Bachelor of Civil Law
Bachelor of Civil Law (abbreviated BCL, or B.C.L.; la, Baccalaureus Civilis Legis) is the name of various degrees in law conferred by English-language universities. The BCL originated as a postgraduate degree in the universities of Oxford and Camb ...
degree at
Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College (in full: The Rector and Scholars of Exeter College in the University of Oxford) is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth-oldest college of the un ...
in 1977. He also earned an ARCT Diploma from the
Royal Conservatory of Music
The Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM), branded as The Royal Conservatory, is a non-profit music education institution and performance venue headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1886 by Edward Fisher (musician), Edward ...
in 1974.
Career
He practised law in Kingston from 1979 to 1982 and was a sessional lecturer in
civil procedure
Civil procedure is the body of law that sets out the rules and standards that courts follow when adjudicating civil lawsuits (as opposed to procedures in criminal law matters). These rules govern how a lawsuit or case may be commenced; what ki ...
at the
Queen's Law School from 1980 to 1982. He was a professor of law at
Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the fou ...
from 1982 to 1992 and again from 1995 to 1997.
Between these two periods he was Executive Legal Officer in the chambers of then-
Chief Justice of Canada
The chief justice of Canada (french: juge en chef du Canada) is the presiding judge of the nine-member Supreme Court of Canada, the highest judicial body in Canada. As such, the chief justice is the highest-ranking judge of the Canadian court sy ...
Antonio Lamer
Joseph Antonio Charles Lamer (July 8, 1933 – November 24, 2007) was a Canadian lawyer, jurist and the 16th Chief Justice of Canada.
Career
Lamer practised in partnership at the firm of Cutler, Lamer, Bellemare and Associates and was a full p ...
.
In 1997,
Jean Chrétien
Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien (; born January 11, 1934) is a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 20th prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003.
Born and raised in Shawinigan Falls, Quebec, Chrétien is a law graduate from Uni ...
appointed him to the
Nova Scotia Court of Appeal
The Court of Appeal for Nova Scotia (Nova Scotia Court of Appeal or NSCA) is the highest appeal court in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. There are currently 8 judicial seats including one assigned to the Chief Justice of Nova Scotia. At any gi ...
as a direct appointment (meaning he did not serve on a lower court). In that role, Cromwell decided in favour of recognizing the claimant's
Aboriginal title
Aboriginal title is a common law doctrine that the land rights of indigenous peoples to customary tenure persist after the assumption of sovereignty under settler colonialism. The requirements of proof for the recognition of aboriginal title, ...
in ''
R v Marshall; R v Bernard'', but his reasoning was overturned by the Supreme Court.
When announcing the nomination to the Supreme Court of Canada, Harper stated that Cromwell would not be appointed to the bench until he had answered questions from an ''ad hoc'' all-party committee of the House of Commons. However, this process was bypassed when Cromwell was officially appointed; Prime Minister Harper had expressed concern that waiting for the committee to meet would hobble the court in executing "its vital constitutional mandate effectively." However, Parliament wound up meeting only very seldom after Cromwell's initial nomination, mainly because of a federal election called by Harper for October 14, and then the subsequent proroguing of Parliament on December 4, until its scheduled resumption on January 26, 2009.
While on the Supreme Court, Cromwell joined the rest of the court in a unanimous decision in ''
Tsilhqot'in Nation v British Columbia'' to recognize the existence of Aboriginal title for the
Tsilhqot'in. The decision that drew in large part from his previously rejected Nova Scotia Court of Appeal ruling in ''R v Marshall; R v Bernard,'' vindicating his earlier judgement.
Cromwell wrote the minority opinion in
''R v Jordan'', criticizing the majority's decision to impose strict time limits of 18 months in
provincial court
The provincial and territorial courts in Canada are local trial "inferior" or "lower" courts of limited jurisdiction established in each of the provinces and territories of Canada. These courts typically hear criminal, civil (or “small claims†...
and 30 months in
superior court
In common law systems, a superior court is a court of general jurisdiction over civil and criminal legal cases. A superior court is "superior" in relation to a court with limited jurisdiction (see small claims court), which is restricted to civil ...
after which a case would be
stayed for "presumptively unreasonable" delay except in exceptional circumstances. Cromwell argued that what was unreasonable was specific to each individual case, and the numbers decided by the majority without much discussion, would lead to more stays than necessary.
Justice Cromwell retired from the Supreme Court of Canada on September 1, 2016, at the age of 64, fulfilling a personal intention to resign around age 65.
Throughout his eight-year service on the Supreme Court, Cromwell authored around a hundred decisions and earned a reputation as a centrist, neither left or right, activist or deferent.
After his departure from the Supreme Court, Chief Justice
Beverley McLachlin
Beverley Marian McLachlin (born September 7, 1943) is a Canadian jurist and author who served as the 17th chief justice of Canada from 2000 to 2017. She is the longest-serving chief justice in Canadian history and the first woman to hold the p ...
asked him to remain as the chair of the
Canadian Forum on Civil Justice
The Canadian Forum on Civil Justice (CFCJ) is a national non-profit organization that has been dedicated to advancing Civil justice reforms, civil justice reform through research and advocacy since 1998. CFCJ strives to make the civil justice syst ...
's action committee addressing issues related to access to justice for civil and family matters.
Cromwell's departure from the Supreme Court before the mandatory retirement of 75 hurried plans by the government of Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau
Justin Pierre James Trudeau ( , ; born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who is the 23rd and current prime minister of Canada. He has served as the prime minister of Canada since 2015 and as the leader of the Liberal Party since 2 ...
to create an independent nominee advisory board chaired by former prime minister
Kim Campbell
Avril Phaedra Douglas "Kim" Campbell (born March 10, 1947) is a Canadian politician, diplomat, lawyer, and writer who served as the 19th prime minister of Canada from June 25 to November 4, 1993. Campbell is the first and so far only female p ...
.
In February 2017, Cromwell joined
Borden Ladner Gervais
Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (abbreviated as BLG) is a leading, full-service law firm in Canada. With almost two hundred years of history going back to the 1823 founding of McMaster Gervais, it now has offices in Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, Ottaw ...
as counsel.
On February 12, 2019, former
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
The minister of justice and attorney general of Canada () is a dual-role portfolio in the Canadian Cabinet.
The officeholder in the role of Minister of Justice () serves as the minister of the Crown responsible for the Department of Justice an ...
Jody Wilson-Raybould
Jody Wilson-Raybould (born March 23, 1971), also known by her initials JWR and by her Kwak’wala name Puglaas, is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the member of Parliament (MP) for the British Columbia (BC) riding of Van ...
retained Cromwell to advise her in the wake of her resignation from the federal cabinet.
In December 2020, Cromwell was commissioned by the
University of Toronto Faculty of Law
The University of Toronto Faculty of Law (U of T Law, UToronto Law) is the law school of the University of Toronto. The Faculty's admissions process is the most selective of law schools in Canada and is one of the most selective in North America. ...
to conduct an impartial investigation of the search process it had used to hire a new director for its International Human Rights Program. The report was commissioned after allegations that a sitting judge of the
Tax Court of Canada
The Tax Court of Canada (TCC; french: Cour canadienne de l'impôt), established in 1983 by the ''Tax Court of Canada Act'', is a federal superior court which deals with matters involving companies or individuals and tax issues with the Government ...
, David Spiro, had improperly interfered with the search process. On March 15, 2021 Cromwell released his report. The Report has drawn criticism from legal scholars and academics as to its accuracy, scope, and potential conflict of interest issues. The scandal and subsequent Report has led to the
Canadian Association of University Teachers
The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT; french: Association canadienne des professeures et professeurs d'université, ACPPU) is a federation of independent associations and trade unions representing approximately 70,000 teachers, l ...
censuring the University of Toronto.
See also
*
Reasons of the Supreme Court of Canada by Justice Cromwell
This is a list of all the reasons written by Thomas Cromwell during his tenure as puisne justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.
2009
* R v Streck 2009 SCC 2, 0091 S.C.R. 64
* R v Middleton, 2009 SCC 21 (Dissent)
* R v Van, 2009 SCC 22 (Dissent)
...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cromwell, Thomas
1952 births
Alumni of Exeter College, Oxford
Dalhousie University faculty
Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada
Judges in Nova Scotia
Living people
Queen's University at Kingston alumni
Queen's University at Kingston faculty
People from Kingston, Ontario
People from Halifax, Nova Scotia
Queen's University Faculty of Law alumni
Companions of the Order of Canada