Suzanne Côté (born September 21, 1958) is a

puisne justice Puisne judge and puisne justice () are terms for an ordinary judge or a judge of lesser rank of a particular court. The term comes from a combination of the two French words, (since, later) and (born) which have been combined as or ; meaning ...

of the

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; , ) 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 between 40 and 75 litigants eac ...

. She was nominated 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. He is to date the only prime minister to have come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ser ...

to replace retiring Justice Louis LeBel. Before her appointment to the Supreme Court, she was a partner at

Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP is a Canadian-based law firm founded in 1862. Osler is considered one of the Seven Sisters (law firms), a historical collection of seven law firms with offices in Toronto, Ontario. History The firm was founded in ...

LLP A limited liability partnership (LLP) is a partnership in which some or all partners (depending on the jurisdiction) have limited liabilities. It therefore can exhibit aspects of both partnerships and corporations. In an LLP, each partner is n ...

and previously Stikeman Elliott LLP in

Montréal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

. She is the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court directly from private practice.

Early life and education

Côté had wanted to be a lawyer since age 11. While her mother wanted her to become a teacher, as a child Suzanne enjoyed reading about high-profile legal cases. Côté did her legal studies at the Faculté de droit de l'Université Laval.

Career

While a student, Côté worked at a small law firm in Gaspé. She bought half of her employer's practice. Côté was called to the

Bar of Quebec The Bar of Quebec () is the regulatory body for the practice of advocates in the Canadian province of Quebec and one of two legal regulatory bodies in the province. It was founded on May 30, 1849, as the Bar of Lower Canada (). History The begi ...

in 1981. She went on to become a partner at Stikeman Elliott

, and later

LLP. At Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt, she oversaw the firm's Montreal office litigation group while her own practice area centred around complex civil and commercial cases. Her clients in private practice included Jean Pelletier, who once served as chief of staff to Prime Minister Jean Chretien, and

Imperial Tobacco Imperial Brands plc (originally the Imperial Tobacco Company of Great Britain & Ireland, and subsequently Imperial Tobacco Group plc) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational tobacco company headquartered in Bristol, England. It is ...

. She defended Imperial Tobacco in a 2012 class-action lawsuit by arguing that the public had been aware of the negative effects of smoking since the 1960s. Côté has taught courses at

Université de Montréal The Université de Montréal (; UdeM; ) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce on M ...

, the

Université du Québec à Rimouski The Université du Québec à Rimouski (; commonly referred to as UQAR) is a public university located in Rimouski, Quebec, Canada, with a campus in Lévis. Since its establishment in 1969, Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR) has grante ...

, and at the Bar of Quebec.

Supreme Court of Canada

She was nominated to the

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

to replace retiring justice Louis LeBel. She was appointed a puisne justice on December 1, 2014. She is the first woman appointed directly from private practice. In June 2018, Côté wrote a concurrence when the majority found that the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal's determination that the

Indian Act The ''Indian Act'' () is a Canadian Act of Parliament that concerns registered Indians, their bands, and the system of Indian reserves. First passed in 1876 and still in force with amendments, it is the primary document that defines how t ...

did not violate the

Canadian Human Rights Act The ''Canadian Human Rights Act'' () is a statute passed by the Parliament of Canada in 1977 with the express goal of extending the law to ensure equal opportunity to individuals who may be victims of discriminatory practices based on a set of ...

was reasonable due to

judicial deference Judicial deference is the condition of a court yielding or submitting its judgment to that of another legitimate party, such as the executive branch in the case of national defense. It is most commonly found in countries, such as the United Kingd ...

, in which she argued instead that the Tribunal's decision was correct. In June 2020, Côté dissented alone when the majority found that an

arbitration clause In contract law, an arbitration clause is a clause in a contract that requires the parties to resolve their disputes through an arbitration process. Although such a clause may or may not specify that arbitration occur within a specific jurisdict ...

in a

standard form contract A standard form contract (sometimes referred to as a ''contract of adhesion,'' a ''leonine contract'', a ''take-it-or-leave-it contract'', or a '' boilerplate contract'') is a contract between two parties, where the terms and conditions of the co ...

was void for

unconscionability Unconscionability (sometimes known as unconscionable dealing/conduct in Australia) is a doctrine in contract law that describes terms that are so extremely unjust, or overwhelmingly one-sided in favor of the party who has the superior bargaining ...

in ''

Uber Technologies Inc v Heller ''Uber Technologies Inc v Heller'', 2020 SCC 16, is a 2020 decision of the Supreme Court of Canada. The Court held 8–1 that an arbitration clause in a contract the plaintiff David Heller had signed with Uber was Unconscionability, unconscionable ...

''. In March 2021, the Supreme Court found that the federal government's carbon price regime is

constitutional A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

. Côté was one of three dissenting justices. In her decision, she agreed carbon pricing is a matter of “national concern,” but disagreed that the federal law was constitutional as written.

Personal life

Côté is married to Gerald R. Tremblay, who is a lawyer practicing in the province of Quebec.

References

External links