Robert George Brian Dickson (May 25, 1916 – October 17, 1998) was a Canadian lawyer, military officer and judge. He was appointed a puisne justice of the

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; french: Cour suprême du Canada, CSC) is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to ...

on March 26, 1973, and subsequently appointed the 15th

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 ...

on April 18, 1984. He retired on June 30, 1990. Dickson's tenure as chief justice coincided with the first wave of cases under the new ''

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms The ''Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms'' (french: Charte canadienne des droits et libertés), often simply referred to as the ''Charter'' in Canada, is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada, forming the first part ...

'' which reached the Supreme Court from 1984 onwards. Dickson wrote several very influential judgments dealing with the ''Charter'' and laid the groundwork for the approach that the courts would take to the ''Charter''.

Early life and family

Dickson was born to Thomas Dickson and Sarah Elizabeth Gibson, in Yorkton,

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North ...

, in 1916, although the family lived at that time in

Wynyard Wynyard may refer to: Australia: *Wynyard, Sydney, the district of Sydney CBD around Wynyard railway station, Sydney *Wynyard Park, Sydney *Wynyard, Tasmania *County of Wynyard, in the Murrumbidgee–Tumut region of New South Wales Canada: *Wynya ...

.M.A. MacPherson, "About Brian, Bill and Me: Regina Collegiate", in DeLloyd J. Guth (ed.), ''Brian Dickson at the Supreme Court of Canada 1973-1990'' (Winnipeg: Canadian Legal History Project, 1998), pp. 1-8. His adolescence and young adulthood occurred during the Great Depression and the

Dust Bowl The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. The phenomenon was caused by a combination of both natural factors (severe drought) an ...

years, which hit the Canadian prairies particularly hard. Dickson's father was a bank manager, and the family was eventually transferred to Regina, the capital of Saskatchewan. Dickson attended high school at the Central Collegiate, where two of his classmates were William Lederman and Alexander "Sandy" MacPherson. All three would go into law, with Lederman becoming one of Canada's leading constitutional scholars and MacPherson becoming a justice of the Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench. In later years, Dickson would reminisce that "Bill was always first in our class, and Sandy and I were fighting for second and third". Sandy MacPherson's father was

M. A. MacPherson Murdoch Alexander MacPherson, (1891–1966) was a Canadian politician, Attorney-General of Saskatchewan under Conservative Premier James T.M. Anderson from 1929 to 1932. Early life and education Born at MacPherson House on Cape Breton Isl ...

, the attorney general for Saskatchewan. When the Legislature was sitting in the evenings, Dickson and Sandy MacPherson would come in the evenings to the Attorney General's office to do their homework, and then sit in the galleries of the Assembly and listen to the debates. Dickson said that his interest in the law was triggered by that experience. The Dickson family later moved to

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749 ...

, where Dickson attended the

University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.Ridley College in 1934. He was a member of the Zeta Psi fraternity. In 1938, Dickson graduated with a

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of ...

, earning the gold medal for his class.Clarence Shepard, "Treasured Memories: Law, Love and War", in DeLloyd J. Guth (ed.), ''Brian Dickson at the Supreme Court of Canada 1973-1990'' (Winnipeg: Canadian Legal History Project, 1998), pp. 9-14. His first permanent job was with the Great-West Life Assurance Company, where he worked in the investment section for two years. It was in Winnipeg as a young law student that Dickson met his future wife, Barbara Sellers. They married in Winnipeg in 1943, when Dickson was back from Europe to attend military staff training in Kingston.

Military career

Dickson was called to the bar in 1940, but before practising law, he enlisted in the Canadian armed forces for active service. He had joined the military reserve in 1939, on the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. In June 1940, he and his friend from law school, Clarence Shepard, signed up for active duty as second lieutenants with the Royal Canadian Artillery, joining the 38th Field Battery in Winnipeg. In August 1940, he volunteered for overseas service.Great Gunners: Col, The Right Honourable RGB Dickson PC, CC, KStJ, CD (1916-1998)
Lieutenant Dickson sailed in February 1941 for Britain with the 3rd Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment. His abilities attracted notice and he was chosen for staff training, returning to Canada for a course in 1943, followed with a tour of duty in British Columbia as brigade major with the Royal Canadian Artillery. In 1944, Dickson volunteered to return to Europe as a captain. He was posted to the 2nd Canadian Army Group, Royal Canadian Artillery, and distinguished himself in

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

, being

mentioned in dispatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

. In August 1944, during the battle of Falaise Gap, Dickson was hit by friendly fire and severely wounded, leading to the amputation of his right leg. By coincidence, two of his friends, Bill Lederman and Clarence Shepard, were both serving in the area and witnessed the attack. They later remembered the frantic attempts to have the attack called off, not knowing at the time Dickson was in the target area. He was discharged from the army in April 1945. Years later, when he came to Ottawa, Dickson renewed his ties to the military. In 1983, he accepted the honorary lieutenant-colonelship of the

30th Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery , colors = The guns of ''The Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery'' themselves , colors_label = Colours , march = * Slow march: ''Royal Artillery Slow March'' * Quick march (dismo ...

, and was its honorary colonel from 1988 to 1992.

Legal career

Dickson returned to Winnipeg in 1945 at the end of the war, joining the law firm of Aikins, Loftus, MacAulay, Turner, Thompson & Tritschler. He became a successful corporate lawyer,Robert Yalden, "Before the Bench: Brian Dickson as Corporate Lawyer," in DeLloyd J. Guth (ed.), ''Brian Dickson at the Supreme Court of Canada 1973-1990'' (Winnipeg: Canadian Legal History Project, 1998), pp. 15-34. and also lectured at the Faculty of Law of the University of Manitoba for six years, until 1954. In 1963, he was on a volunteer committee of the Canadian Bar Association ("CBA") which assisted the Manitoba government in preparing a new ''Companies Act''. Two other volunteers on the committee were Lorne Campbell and

Irwin Dorfman Irwin Dorfman, , (March 27, 1908 – November 9, 1993) was a Canadian lawyer from Winnipeg, Manitoba, eventually becoming senior counsel with the firm of Thompson Dorfman Sweatman. In addition to a busy legal practice in the areas of taxation ...

, both of whom would later serve as national president of the CBA.

Community involvement

In 1950, Dickson volunteered to be head of the Manitoba Red Cross, on the suggestion of a partner who told him it would only involve a few meetings per year. Instead, Dickson took the position just in time for the 1950 Red River flood, with the Red reaching the highest level since 1861. Winnipeg itself was inundated, 4 of 11 bridges were destroyed, and over 100,000 people had to be evacuated. Dickson took charge of the relief effort by the Red Cross, not seeing his law office for six weeks. Under his direction, the Red Cross mobilised 4,000 volunteers, evacuated thousands and provided support to the people working on the dykes. He later admitted he ran the Red Cross volunteers like an army. Dickson also served as

chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

(legal advisor) for the Anglican Diocese of Rupert's Land.

Judicial career

In 1963, Dickson was appointed to the Court of Queen's Bench of Manitoba and in 1967 was elevated to the Manitoba Court of Appeal. He was appointed a puisne justice of the

on March 26, 1973. On April 18, 1984, he was elevated to

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 ...

over the more senior Roland Ritchie, who was one year away from mandatory retirement at age 75 and was in ill health. During his early years on the Supreme Court, Dickson frequently joined with Justice Laskin and Justice Spence on cases involving civil liberties, often in dissent from the more conservative majority on the Court. The grouping was colloquially referred to as the "LSD connection".Ian Binnie,
Tribute to Bora Laskin
". Having come from a corporate law background, Dickson often contributed to the judgments in that field. He also developed a reputation as an important authority on

constitutional law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as the basic rights of citizens and, in fed ...

, originally relating to law of

Canadian federalism Canadian federalism () involves the current nature and historical development of the federal system in Canada. Canada is a federation with eleven components: the national Government of Canada and ten Provinces and territories of Canada, p ...

and later, the groundwork for the new ''

''. Dickson participated in the 1981 '' Patriation Reference'', which considered Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's attempt to have the federal government unilaterally patriate the

Constitution of Canada The Constitution of Canada (french: Constitution du Canada) is the supreme law in Canada. It outlines Canada's system of government and the civil and human rights of those who are citizens of Canada and non-citizens in Canada. Its contents a ...

without the consent of the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

s. By a 7–2 division, a majority of the Court held that Parliament had the legal authority to act unilaterally. However, by a division of 6–3, the Court also held that unilateral federal action would violate a

constitutional convention Constitutional convention may refer to: * Constitutional convention (political custom), an informal and uncodified procedural agreement *Constitutional convention (political meeting), a meeting of delegates to adopt a new constitution or revise an e ...

that had emerged since

Confederation A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a union of sovereign groups or states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

, requiring substantial provincial agreement on constitutional amendments. Dickson, along with the three judges from Quebec, was in the majority on both issues: he agreed that Parliament had the legal authority to act unilaterally, but also agreed that a constitutional convention required a substantive degree of provincial agreement for major constitutional amendments. With the introduction of the ''Charter'' in 1982, Dickson made many major contributions to the early standards of interpretation. Among his most famous decisions was that of '' R v Oakes'', where he proposed the analytical framework for section 1 of the Charter now known as the "''Oakes'' test". In '' R v Big M Drug Mart Ltd'', he gave a broad interpretation to the guarantee of freedom of religion set out in section 2 of the ''Charter'', and in '' R v Morgentaler'', he found that the restrictions on abortions set out in the ''

Criminal Code A criminal code (or penal code) is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that migh ...

'' violated a woman's security of person, contrary to section 7 of the ''Charter''.

Later life and death

Dickson served on the Supreme Court for 17 years before retiring on June 30, 1990. He died on October 17, 1998, at age 82.

Honours

In 1990, Dickson was made a Companion of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the c ...

. In addition to his military service and his ground-breaking judgments on the ''Charter'', the citation mentions his Red Cross volunteerism and service in other humanitarian causes. Th
Brian Dickson Law Library
at the University of Ottawa is named for him. The library's reading room contains a full reproduction of his home office, artifacts and personal items representing his life.

References

External links

Supreme Court of Canada - Biography - Robert George Brian Dickson

Order of Canada Citation: Brian Dickson
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dickson, Brian 1916 births 1998 deaths Canadian Anglicans Canadian military personnel from Saskatchewan Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery personnel Canadian people of Northern Ireland descent Chief justices of Canada Companions of the Order of Canada Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada People from Winnipeg People from Yorkton University of Manitoba alumni Ridley College alumni Robson Hall alumni Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery officers Canadian Army personnel of World War II