Girard, Philip, (Bora Laskin: Bringing Law to Life [hc, University of Toronto Press for the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, 2005] 978-0802090447 [In any account of twentieth-century Canadian law, Bora Laskin (1912-1984) looms large. Born in northern Ontario to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, Laskin became a prominent human rights activist, university professor, and labour arbitrator before embarking on his 'accidental career' as a judge on the Ontario Court of Appeal (1965) and later Chief Justice of Canada (1973-1984). Throughout his professional career, he used the law to make Canada a better place for workers, racial and ethnic minorities, and the disadvantaged. As a judge, he sought to make the judiciary more responsive to modern Canadian expectations of justice and fundamental rights.
Section 6.4
Prominent Canadian Jewish Lawyers and Judges
6.4.1 Chief Justice Bora Laskin
In Bora Laskin: Bringing Law to Life, Philip Girard chronicles the life of a man who, at all points of his life, was a fighter for a better Canada: he fought antisemitism, corporate capital, omnipotent university boards, the Law Society of Upper Canada, and his own judicial colleagues in an effort to modernize institutions and re-shape Canadian law. Girard exploits a wealth of previously untapped archival sources to provide, in vivid detail, a critical assessment of a restless man on an important mission. -Amazon]
Jonas, George, (Greenspan: The Case for the Defence [hc, Macmillan of Canada, 1987] 978-0771594953 [Major portrait of Edward “Eddie” Greenspan, Canada's most celebrated Jewish criminal defense lawyer. Greenspan belongs in the same lineage as Nizer, Leibowitz and Dershowitz: the highly visible Jewish courtroom advocate, sometimes representing extremely unpopular or notorious defendants.]
6.4.2 Justice Rosalie Abella
MacDonnell, Vanessa A., Stephen Bindman, and Gerald Chan, [eds]. (Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella: A Life of Firsts [pb. Irwin Law, 2025] 978-1552216712 [Justice Abella was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 2004, making history as the first Jewish woman appointed to Canada’s top court. Born in a displaced persons camp in Stuttgart, Germany, she had a storied career before joining Canada’s top court as a practicing lawyer, a family court judge, law reformer (Chair of the Ontario Law Reform Commission), labour adjudicator, law professor, appeal court justice, and commission of inquiry head (her 1984 federal Royal Commission on Equality in Employment created the term and concept of "employment equity.") She was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 1997, to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2007, and to the American Philosophical Society in 2018. In 2020, she was awarded the Knight Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit by the President of Germany. She is a graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Music, has judged the Giller Literary Prize, moderated a Prime Ministerial Leader’s Debate, and spellbound audiences around the globe with her oratory. – Amazon] The book is a comprehensive multidisciplinary anthology exploring her early life, labor law contributions, and global human rights impact.] See in particular the following essay in the collection: Cameron, Jamie. "Her Fundamentals: Justice Abella and Section 2(b) of the Charter."
Agocs, Carol, editor, (Employment Equity in Canada: The Legacy of the Abella Report [hc, University of Toronto Press, 2014] 978-1442647565 [pb, U. of Toronto Press, 2014] 978-1442615625 [In the mid-1980s, the Abella Commission on Equality in Employment and the federal Employment Equity Act made Canada a policy leader in addressing systemic discrimination in the workplace. More than twenty-five years later, Employment Equity in Canada assembles a distinguished group of experts to examine the state of employment equity in Canada today.
Examining the evidence of nearly thirty years, the contributors – both scholars and practitioners of employment policy – evaluate the history and influence of the Abella Report, the impact of Canada’s employment equity legislation on equality in the workplace, and the future of substantive equality in an environment where the Canadian government is increasingly hostile to intervention in the workplace. They compare Canada’s legal and policy choices to those of the United States and to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and examine ways in which the concept of employment equity might be expanded to embrace other vulnerable communities. Their observations will be essential reading for those seeking to understand the past, present, and future of Canadian employment and equity policy.- Amazon]
Justice Harry Batshaw (1902–1984) was the first Jewish person appointed to a superior court bench in Canada, serving on the Quebec Superior Court from 1950 onward. Because he primarily wrote legal decisions, worked within international committees, and gave public addresses, most materials published by or about him are captured in legal histories, specialized collections, or archive papers rather than mainstream commercial books.
The published references and archival bibliographies for Judge Harry Batshaw are detailed below.
6.4.3 Works/Papers Written by Judge Harry Batshaw
Batshaw, Harry. "The Jew in the Judiciary," Canadian Jewish Historical Society address (published/presented February 28, 1968). Batshaw, Harry. "Human Rights Committee Report / International Law Association Activities." Featured in Editions de l'Institut de Sociologie de l'Universite Libre de Bruxelles (Reviewed in International Affairs, Vol. 46, No. 4, 1970, p. 801). [1]
Batshaw, Harry (Justice), Legal Judgment in Emilien Morin v. Bellarmin Gregoire, S.C. Joliette, No. 19,539 (January 4, 1967). Reproduced in "Unreported Judgments," McGill Law Journal, Vol. 13, No. 3 (1967): 503. [1, 2]
Batshaw, Harry (Justice), Legal Judgment in Globe Parking Ltd., S.C.M. No. 494,952 (May 13, 1963). Reproduced in "Unreported Judgments," McGill Law Journal, Vol. 15, No. 1 (1969): 103. [1, 2]
Primary Archival Collections & Published Bibliographies
Harry Batshaw Fonds (1923–1973). Reference No. R4396-0-5-E / MG31-E33. Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa. [Consists of 15 cm of textual records, including three comprehensive scrapbooks of legal clippings, speeches on the judiciary, and correspondence with Nobel Peace Prize laureate René Cassin regarding the Alliance Israélite Universelle.
John Peters Humphrey Fonds (1964–1966). Reference No. MG4127, File 467. McGill University Archives, Montreal. [Contains explicit correspondence with and draft reports by Harry Batshaw in his capacity as Superior Court Judge and Chairman of the International Committee on Human Rights.]
Books and Articles About Judge Harry Batshaw
Betcherman, Lita-Rose, [Ernest Lapointe: Mackenzie King's Great Quebec Lieutenant [hc, U. of Toronto Press, 2002] : Mackenzie King's Great Quebec Lieutenant [Used as a historical source for the political lobbying efforts leading up to Batshaw’s breakthrough 1950 appointment.
Burelle, Julien, "St-Laurent, Judging, Justice, and the Death Penalty in the Shadow of the Cold War." Osgoode Hall Law Journal, Vol. 60, No. 1 (2023). [Focuses heavily on Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent's calculation behind appointing Batshaw to appease Montreal's Jewish community following diplomatic friction regarding Israel's UN admission.
Kay, Zachariah, Canada & Palestine: The Politics of Non-Commitment Jerusalem: Israel Universities Press, 1978, p. 119 (details Batshaw's aggressive lobbying as vice-president of the United Zionist Council).
Nigro, Mario and Clare Mauro, "The Jewish Immigrant Experience and the Practice of Law in Montreal, 1830–1990." McGill Law Journal, Vol. 44 (1999): 999 at 1016 [details the history of The Lord Reading Law Society pushing for Batshaw’s breakthrough appointment].
Walker, David, "Jews and the Criminalization of Hate Speech in Canada." Osgoode Hall Law Journal, Vol. 59, No. 1 (2022). [Outlines Batshaw's representation of the United Nations Association and his leadership within early Canadian civil rights campaigns.]
Harvey, Cameron, ed., (Chief Justice Samuel Freedman: A Great Canadian Judge: A Collection of the Reasons for Judgment of the Honourable Samuel Freedman, Justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench of Manitoba (1952–60), Justice of the Court of Appeal of Manitoba (1960–83), and Chief Justice of Manitoba (1971–83), With a biographical note by Vivian Rachlis. Winnipeg: The Law Society of Manitoba, 1983] 978-0969130703 [The book is principally a selection of Freedman's judicial opinions, rather than a conventional biography. It also includes the Rachlis biography, illustrations/portraits and appendices. A later Manitoba legal-history source describes it as containing a list of Freedman's judgments and summaries of roughly 70 decisions. Freedman (1908–1993) was an important Jewish Canadian jurist, and the volume is particularly useful because it combines biographical material with primary-source evidence of his actual work as a judge. His career ran from the Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench (1952–60), to the Court of Appeal (1960–83), and Chief Justice of Manitoba (1971–83). He was also notably involved in Winnipeg Jewish communal life, including B'nai B'rith and the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University. – Google/AI]
6.4.4 Morris Fish
Morris J. Fish (1938– ) provides the unusual trajectory criminal defence lawyer → Quebec Court of Appeal → Supreme Court of Canada. He practised in Montreal from 1964 to 1989, becoming a partner in Cohen, Leithman, Kaufman, Yarosky & Fish and successor firms, and taught criminal evidence/procedure and advanced criminal law at McGill.
Dugré, Mélanie, “The Honourable Morris J. Fish, Q.C.: The Judge with the Golden Pen.” Barreau de Montréal, https://www.barreaudemontreal.qc.ca/en/honourable-morris-j-fish-cr/ [An unusually good substantial biographical profile based heavily on Fish's own recollections. It covers his Montreal upbringing, McGill, journalism for the Montreal Star, entry into criminal practice, Yarosky and the firm, teaching, commissions of inquiry and his judicial career. Particularly useful for understanding Fish as a practising criminal defence lawyer before becoming a judge.]
Fish, Morris J., “The Effect of Alcohol on the Canadian Constitution … Seriously.” McGill Law Journal / Revue de droit de McGill 57, no. 1 (2011): 189–202. [Published version of Fish's F. R. Scott Lecture. It is partly humorous but substantively discusses alcohol, federalism, criminal law and constitutional doctrine, as well as Fish's memories of F. R. Scott.]
Fish, Morris J., “The Art of the Advocate: From Cicero to Erskine to Martin.” The Honourable Charles L. Dubin Lecture on Advocacy, Osgoode Hall, Toronto, October 4, 2012.
[Fish discusses great advocacy and devotes substantial attention to G. Arthur Martin and Charles Dubin, including criminal-defence ethics and courtroom technique. He describes Dubin as one of Canada's finest advocates.]
Charles Leonard Dubin (1921–2008) was a formidable criminal and civil trial lawyer before becoming a judge, and the Law Society describes him as one of the first Jewish judges in Ontario and the first Jewish Chief Justice of Ontario.
The outstanding source is:
Kates, Christine J. N., interviewer. Oral History Interview with the Honourable Charles Dubin. Toronto: Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, 2006. 72 pp. Transcript and recordings, Osgoode Society Oral History Programme. [Dubin talks about antisemitism in the legal profession, his early criminal practice, murder trials, major cases, the development of criminal law and leading advocates such as Arthur Martin.]
Friedland, Martin L., (My Life in Crime and Other Academic Adventures [hc, U. of |Toronto Press, 2007, 2nd rev. ed.] 978-0802097903 [pb, U. of Toronto Press, 2015] 978-1442629776 [Friedland articled at Kimber & Dubin and gives a wonderfully vivid first-hand portrait of Dubin, whom he describes as one of the most brilliant lawyers ever to practise in Ontario. Particularly valuable because Friedland also describes the division between Jewish and non-Jewish legal social networks in Toronto at the time. – Google/AI]
Two useful obituaries/profiles are:
Martin, Sandra, “Judge Who Probed Use of Drugs in Sports Was ‘a Complete Man of the Law,’” The Globe and Mail, October 28, 2008.
Tyler, Tracey, “Charles Dubin, 87: Legal Giant Became National Icon,” Toronto Star, October 27, 2008.
The book contains a section on the “Dubin–McMurtry Courts” and discusses Dubin's judicial personality and leadership of the Court.
6.4.5 Raphaël H. Schachter
Raphaël H. Schachter (b. 1940 in Sherbrooke, Quebec) - called to the Quebec bar in 1968, served as both provincial and federal Crown counsel, and subsequently specialized exclusively in criminal, penal and competition-related penal law. He became Q.C. in 1986 and a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers in 1994.
Schachter, Raphaël H., “Taking the Law Into Your Own Hands: Child Abduction and the Defence of Necessity”, Windsor: Faculty of Law, University of Windsor. This is a standalone chapter on criminal-law ethics in Edward L. Greenspan, ed., Counsel for the Defence: The Bernard Cohn Memorial Lectures in Criminal Law. Toronto: Irwin Law, 2005, pp. 149–156. ISBN 978-1459313583
Another documented lecture is:
Schachter, Raphaël H., “How Does a Criminal Lawyer Defend a Client that He Knows is Guilty.” Québec/Jewish Law Symposium, Montreal, 2010.
The lecture was delivered at a Chabad of Westmount legal symposium chaired by former Quebec justice minister and Superior Court Justice Herbert Marx. Significantly, Harvey Yarosky was another speaker.
Useful biographical pieces:
Lavery. “Another Lavery Partner Has Been Awarded the Title of Avocat émérite (Ad. E.).” June 6, 2011.
A concise but valuable professional biography.
Lavery. “The Faculty of Law of the Université de Montréal Creates the Raphaël Schachter, Q.C., Scholarship Fund.” April 14, 2011.
Useful because the scholarship specifically supports criminal-law work, including initiatives concerning miscarriages of justice.
6.4.6 Harvey Yarosky
Harvey W. Yarosky (1934–2022) graduated from McGill Law School and was admitted to the Quebec Bar in 1962. His principal fields were criminal law, administrative law, constitutional/civil-rights law, competition/antitrust law and white-collar crime. He became Queen's Counsel (Q.C./c.r.) and a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
He taught criminal law at the Université de Montréal (1970–71), University of Ottawa (1970–72), and McGill University (1971–77 and later). He held numerous positions in the Montreal, Quebec and Canadian bar associations, including chairmanships concerned with the administration of criminal justice. He practised in partnership and close friendship with Morris Fish together for decades. His publications included:
Yarosky, Harvey, “The Criminal Liability of Corporations,” McGill Law Journal 10, no. 2 (1964): 142–157. [This is his principal scholarly article. The Supreme Court of Canada later cited it in the important corporate-criminal-liability case Canadian Dredge & Dock Co. v. The Queen. He was not merely a courtroom defence lawyer but contributed to the academic development of Canadian corporate criminal responsibility.
Yarosky, Harvey W.. (“The Criminal Lawyer and Professional Ethics,” in Droit pénal—Orientations nouvelles, 163–177. Cowansville, Québec: Les Éditions Yvon Blais, 1987.
Formation permanente du Barreau du Québec. Droit pénal—Orientations nouvelles. Cowansville, Québec: Les Éditions Yvon Blais Inc., 1987. 302 pp. ISBN 2-89073-640-7. [It presents the thinking of an eminent Montreal defence lawyer on the ethical obligations of criminal counsel.
Yarosky, Harvey W., “Right to Silence.” Apparently published by the Barreau du Québec / Éditions Yvon Blais in 1990.
Yarosky, Harvey W., (Coroner's Report following an Inquest into the Death of Mr. Marcellus François) Québec: Bureau du coroner, 27 April 1992. [François, an unarmed 24-year-old Black man, had been mistakenly identified as a suspect and fatally shot during a Montreal police operation. Yarosky's inquiry sharply criticized police conduct and racism. Contemporary reporting described his conclusion that ingrained racism within the force had contributed to the killing. The inquiry lasted more than 21 days, heard 46 witnesses and received 106 exhibits. It led to calls for broader examination of Montreal police practices; a subsequent Quebec inspection under retired judge Albert Malouf followed. Yarosky thus weighed in directly on police accountability, racism and reform of law enforcement.]
Grad, Kenneth, “Jews and the Criminalization of Hate Speech in Canada,” Osgoode Hall Law Journal 59, no. 3 (2022) [ Grad discusses the origins of Canada's hate-propaganda legislation and specifically identifies Yarosky as a young criminal lawyer, former student of Maxwell Cohen, and Cohen's executive assistant on the federal Special Committee on Hate Propaganda. Even better, Grad conducted an interview with Harvey Yarosky on November 30, 2020, which he cites in the article. Background: In 1965 the federal government established the Special Committee on Hate Propaganda in Canada, chaired by Maxwell Cohen. Its membership included Saul Hayes of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Mark MacGuigan and others; Yarosky became Cohen's executive assistant. The committee's 1965 report was instrumental in the eventual adoption of Canada's Criminal Code provisions against advocacy of genocide and hate propaganda. ]
In sum, Yarosky’s career combined the following elements: Jewish legal communal life; elite criminal defence; development of Canadian criminal law; and oversight/reform of law enforcement. His Cohen Committee work and the Marcellus François coroner's report make the last two connections especially strong.
Sydney Lewis Robins (1923–2014):
Kates, Christine J. N., interviewer, Interviews with Sydney Robins. Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History Oral History Programme, April–July 1997. Transcript, 457 pp.; 12 audio cassettes, approximately 690 minutes. Archives of Ontario, C 81-1-0-132. [This covers his childhood as the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, University of Toronto, Osgoode, Harvard, teaching, litigation practice, Law Society career, judicial appointments and important cases.]
Batten, Jack, (Learned Friends: A Tribute to Fifty Remarkable Ontario Advocates, 1950–2000. Toronto: Irwin Law, 2005, pp. 60–61. The Law Society specifically cites Batten's portrait of Robins as a source on his career.
The archival collection is: Law Society of Upper Canada Archives [now Law Society of Ontario Archives]. Sydney Robins fonds, PF188. 1944–1948, 1960, 1973–2006. It contains press clippings, speeches, correspondence and photographs.
The Law Society's biographical entry is also quite useful. Robins practised corporate, commercial and labour litigation; became the first Jewish Treasurer of the Law Society of Upper Canada (1971–74); was appointed to the Supreme Court of Ontario in 1976 and Ontario Court of Appeal in 1981.
Marshall E. Rothstein (1940– )
Kelly, Lisa M., and Ivo Entchev, eds., (Judicious Restraint: The Life and Law of Justice Marshall E. Rothstein [pb, LexisNexis Canada, 2016] ISBN 978-0433490654 [an edited scholarly assessment of Rothstein's judicial philosophy and contribution to Canadian law. Chapters cover administrative law, labour law, intellectual property, taxation, Charter adjudication and competition law. Of particular interest are chapters including:
Fenrick, Michael, Jodi Martin, and Daniel Rosenbluth, “Parliamentary Supremacy and the Rule of Law: Reflections on Justice Rothstein's Administrative Law Jurisprudence in an Age of Deference.”
6.4.7 Marshall Rothstein
Sossin, Lorne, “The Humility of Administrative Law: Marshall Rothstein's Prudent Vision.”
Vaver, David, “The Intellectual Property Opinions of Mr. Justice Rothstein.”
Klinck, Jennifer, “Fostering Legitimacy: Justice Rothstein's Principled Resolve and Restraint in Charter Adjudication.”
Rothstein himself published:
Rothstein, Marshall, “The Role of Dissenting and Concurring Reasons in the Supreme Court of Canada's Charter Jurisprudence,” National Journal of Constitutional Law 27 (2010): 1 ff.
Rothstein, Marshall, “Mr. Justice Marshall Rothstein, Supreme Court of Canada, Address to the American Bar Association, Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice,” Administrative Law Review 63, no. 4: 961 ff. [A substantive discussion of justiciability and judicial review of executive action in Canadian law.]
Malyk, Lauren, “Marshall Rothstein Casts an Eye to Supreme Court Docket, Including Standard of Review,” Canadian Lawyer, 2018. [A lengthy interview in which Rothstein discusses his philosophy of administrative-law review, his Supreme Court appointment and his earlier legal career.]
6.4.8 Chief Justice Alan B. Gold
Alan B. Gold (1917–2005) was Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Quebec from 1983 to 1992, but his importance goes considerably beyond judging: he was a major Canadian labour arbitrator, mediator and conciliator, and was called upon in exceptionally difficult public disputes, most famously during the 1990 Oka Crisis. He was also quite explicit in interviews about his experience as a Jewish lawyer in Montreal.
Gold, Alan B., “Lawyers and Judges Are Just a Family for Better or for Worse,” in Bryan M. Knight and Rachel Alkallay, Voices of Canadian Jews: Thirty-Six Accomplished Men and Women Speak Out on Politics, Patriotism, Religion and Sex, Montreal: The Chessnut Press, 1988, pp. 63 ff. ISBN 978-0919848023. [ - an extended first-person/interview contribution by Gold dealing with his career and his experience as a Jewish lawyer and judge in Quebec. Later scholarship quotes it extensively. Gold discusses admission to law school, the position of Jews in the Montreal legal profession, and discrimination against Jewish lawyers by the established English law firms.]
Gold, Alan B., “Fireside Chat: ‘Ever Paddling Madly Underneath,’” in Arbitration 1996: Proceedings of the Forty-Ninth Annual Meeting, National Academy of Arbitrators. Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Affairs / National Academy of Arbitrators, 1996, pp. 342 ff. [Chapter 13, “Reminiscences.”] – [Gold is here looking back over his own career as arbitrator, mediator and judge. Frances Bairstow introduces him, specifically noting the unusual fact that even after reaching the office of Chief Justice he continued to involve himself in exceptionally difficult labour and public disputes: the Montreal docks, postal disputes, Indigenous-government negotiations and Quebec electoral controversies. Gold then gives an autobiographical “fireside chat.”]
Major published material about Gold
Pathy, Alexander C., (Waterfront Blues: Labour Strife at the Port of Montreal, 1960–1978. [hc, U. of Toronto Press, 2004] 978-0802089809 [the most substantial book treatment of Gold's actual work. Pathy recounts Gold's role in attempting to stabilize the extremely contentious Montreal waterfront labour situation. Gold was appointed chairman of the federal conciliation board in March 1968 and remained a crucial mediator/arbitrator for years. It gives an unusually vivid portrait of him: at one point the longshoremen regarded him almost as their protector or “father”; during the bitter 1975 dispute, however, they hanged Gold in effigy. The book therefore provides something much more substantial than ceremonial biography—it shows his mediation methods under severe pressure. – ChatGPT]
Nigro, Mario, and Clare Mauro, “The Jewish Immigrant Experience and the Practice of Law in Montreal, 1830 to 1990,” McGill Law Journal / Revue de droit de McGill 44 (1999): 999–1023. [This isn't a biography of Gold, but he is one of its important firsthand sources. The authors use his recollections to document the barriers facing Jewish lawyers in Montreal, including the unwillingness of major Anglo-Montreal firms to employ Jewish articling students and lawyers. It also places Gold in the broader historical progression of Jews entering Quebec's legal establishment. For comparison, Harry Batshaw became Quebec's first Jewish Superior Court judge in 1950; Gold's own judicial career began in 1961.]
National Academy of Arbitrators, “Alan B. Gold,” in “In Memoriam,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Arbitrators (2005 proceedings; published 2006), pp. ix–x. [
“Jewish Judge Named Chief Justice.” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, August 17, 1983. [A particularly useful contemporary Jewish source on Gold's appointment. It identifies him as a prominent labour mediator and arbitrator and reports Trudeau's appointment of him as Chief Justice of the Quebec Superior Court. It also summarizes his earlier career as Provincial Court chief judge and government/civil-service arbitrator.]
All these sources together reveal something important about Gold's place in Canadian Jewish legal history. He was not simply a Jewish judge who happened eventually to become Chief Justice. His career illustrates the transformation of the Montreal Jewish bar from a profession in which Jewish lawyers were largely excluded from the major establishment firms into one in which a Jewish lawyer could become Quebec's senior trial-court judge and then be entrusted by governments, unions, employers and Indigenous parties with extraordinarily sensitive disputes. – Chat GPT]
Herbert Marx (1932–2020), who served as the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Quebec from 1985 to 1988, was a prominent legal scholar, politician, and Superior Court judge. He wrote extensively on constitutional law, human rights, and the intersection of law and poverty.
Marx, Herbert, (My Story. Montréal: Éditions Thémis, 2018 (180 pages). ISBN: 978-2894004111 [This autobiography covers his transition from a law professor to a politician, detailing his dramatic 1988 cabinet resignation over Quebec's language signage laws. A French version was published concurrently under the title Herbert Marx, mon histoire. ]
Chevrette, François, and Herbert Marx, (Droit constitutionnel : notes et jurisprudence. Montréal: Les Presses de l'Université de Montréal, 1982.
Cotler, Irwin, and Herbert Marx, eds., (The Law and the Poor in Canada) Montreal: Black Rose Books / Les Éditions Thémis, 1977. [This text evaluates systemic barriers and legal aid frameworks in Canada]
Marx, Herbert, and Jean Hétu, (Droit et pauvreté au Québec. Montréal: Les Éditions Thémis, 1974. [A foundational compilation examining provincial statutes, welfare systems, and case law impacting low-income citizens.]
Marx, Herbert, (Les grands arrêts de la jurisprudence constitutionnelle au Canada) Montréal: Les Presses de l'Université de Montréal, 1974.
Arnold, Janice, "New memoir shines light on Quebec's 1980s language crisis." The Canadian Jewish News, October 18, 2018. [An analytical piece reviewing Marx’s political paradoxes and his stand on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.]
Cherry, Paul, "Former justice minister Herbert Marx remembered as a principled man." Montreal Gazette, March 20, 2020.
Fitterman, Lisa, "Deeply principled jurist Herbert Marx was ‘the ultimate mensch on the bench’," The Globe and Mail, April 6, 2020. [An extensive obituary detailing his early life failing grade 9 at Baron Byng High School, his Harvard Law training, and his transition to the Quebec Superior Court.]
Jedwab, Jack, "Appreciation: Herbert Marx was a great Quebecer and Canadian." Montreal Gazette, March 20, 2020. [Focuses on his status as Quebec's first Jewish justice minister and his subsequent cross-cultural peace-building initiatives at McGill University.]
Cotler, Irwin (1940– ). Montreal-born Jewish Canadian constitutional and human-rights lawyer, McGill law professor, MP (1999–2015), and federal Minister of Justice and Attorney General (2003–06). (Disclosure: I have known and admired my fellow-Montrealer Irwin Cotler for most of my life – SS] A former president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Cotler brought a strongly Jewish and Holocaust-informed conception of tzedek (“justice”) to human-rights and justice advocacy. His Canadian criminal-justice impact included initiatives against hate crime and Internet hate, human trafficking legislation, prosecution of crimes against humanity and war crimes, attention to wrongful convictions, and judicial-appointment reform. Earlier, as counsel associated with the Canadian Jewish Congress, he was prominent in efforts to bring alleged Nazi war criminals living in Canada to justice.
Cotler, Irwin, “Bringing Nazi War Criminals in Canada to Justice: A Case Study,” Proceedings of the American Society of International Law Annual Meeting 91 (1997): 262–269. DOI: 10.1017/S0272503700065836. [Cotler examines Canada's legal response to alleged Nazi war criminals and the difficulties of prosecuting crimes committed abroad decades earlier. This connects his Jewish communal activity directly with Canadian criminal prosecution and international criminal law. Cotler had been chief counsel for the Canadian Jewish Congress in connection with the Deschênes Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals.]
Cotler, Irwin, “Jewish NGOs, Human Rights, and Public Advocacy: A Comparative Inquiry,” Jewish Political Studies Review 11, nos. 3–4 (Fall 1999): 61–95 [some bibliographies give 61–96]. [Cotler compares American and Canadian Jewish organizations' approaches to human rights, constitutional litigation, religious liberty and hate speech. He argues that the differing approaches reflect both different legal cultures and different Jewish institutional sensibilities. This is useful for showing that Cotler's legal career cannot really be separated from his conception of Jewish public responsibility through law.]
Cotler, Irwin, “The Human Rights Revolution and Counter-Revolution: Dance of the Dialectic,” University of New Brunswick Law Journal 44 (1995): 357 ff. [A broad statement of Cotler's philosophy of human rights and law. He explicitly places the postwar human-rights revolution in the shadow of the Holocaust. It helps explain the intellectual background behind his later activities as Justice Minister.]
Cotler, Irwin, “Towards a National Justice Initiative Against Racism & Hate,” Address at Saint Paul University, Ottawa, May 9, 2005. Department of Justice Canada. [This belongs very squarely in the crime/law-enforcement section. Cotler explains his government's 13-point National Justice Initiative Against Racism and Hate, including hate crimes, vandalism of religious institutions, hate propaganda, Internet hate, prosecution and restorative justice.]
Cotler, Irwin, “The Constitutional Revolution, the Courts, and the Pursuit of Justice,” Address to the Canadian Bar Association Canadian Legal Conference, Calgary, August 14, 2005. Ottawa: Department of Justice Canada, 2005. [Very useful for assessing what Cotler himself believed he had accomplished as Attorney General. Among other matters, he discusses his government's response to racism, hate speech and hate crime, the National Justice Initiative Against Racism and Hate, Internet hate, international criminal justice and mass atrocities.]
6.4.9 Irwin Cotler’s impact on Canadian criminal justice
Cotler was Minister of Justice and Attorney General from December 2003 to February 2006. Several of his initiatives touched criminal law or its enforcement directly. The federal government's retrospective account credits him with launching Canada's first National Justice Initiative Against Racism and Hate, initiating Canada's first legislation specifically combating trafficking in women and children, and initiating the first Canadian prosecution concerning the Rwandan genocide under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act.
He was also unusually active concerning wrongful convictions. Contemporary/retrospective institutional accounts credit him with quashing more wrongful convictions in a single year than any previous Justice Minister. That aspect makes him relevant to the administration of criminal justice in much the same way as a prosecutor or judge would be, even though Cotler himself was neither a police officer nor primarily a criminal prosecutor.
Another important strand is hate crime and antisemitism. Cotler's thinking about antisemitism eventually had consequences for how Canadian institutions—including law enforcement—conceptualized antisemitic incidents. The Government of Canada's later Canadian Handbook on the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism credits Cotler with an important role in the antecedents of the IHRA definition and explicitly discusses its possible use in police training, recognizing and recording hate incidents, police reports and investigations.
There is some controversy involved. Cotler's approach to the “new antisemitism” and the IHRA definition is contested by critics who argue that expansive definitions can blur the distinction between antisemitism and criticism of Israel. Cotler has staked out a principled position on the boundary between hate speech, protected political expression and criminal/legal intervention.
Human Rights Activism
Irwin Cotler’s international human-rights work is really the thread that connects his careers as a McGill law professor, lawyer, parliamentarian and Minister of Justice. Long before entering federal politics, he became known for taking up the cases of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, often combining legal representation with international political and public-pressure campaigns.
Among the best-known cases were Natan (Anatoly) Sharansky, the Soviet Jewish dissident whom Cotler sought to represent after Sharansky’s 1977 arrest; Soviet physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov; Argentine journalist Jacobo Timerman; Egyptian democracy advocate Saad Eddin Ibrahim; and Nelson Mandela and the anti-apartheid cause in South Africa. Cotler's 1981 South African visit became famous for his public challenge, “If Sharansky, Why Not Mandela?” He was detained after the speech and subsequently became a prominent Canadian advocate for Mandela and against apartheid.
A recurring Cotler method was what might be called internationalizing the political-prisoner case: treating an imprisoned dissident not simply as an individual client but as the focus of diplomatic, parliamentary, media and human-rights pressure. He has said that the Sharansky experience taught him that freeing a political prisoner often requires making continued imprisonment politically costly for the imprisoning government.
His concerns became correspondingly broad. He was an early advocate of the International Criminal Court, worked on accountability for the Rwandan genocide, campaigned over Darfur, human rights in Iran, the persecution of dissidents in Russia and China, and the adoption of Magnitsky-style sanctions against individual human-rights violators. As Justice Minister (2003–06), he made international justice a governmental priority and initiated Canada's first prosecution for the Rwandan genocide under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act.
After leaving Parliament
After retiring from Canadian politics in 2015, Cotler focused his activity on human rights. He founded the Montreal-based Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights and remains its International Chair. The Centre brings together lawyers, parliamentarians, academics, students and human-rights activists and concentrates particularly on political prisoners, combating authoritarianism and impunity, atrocity prevention, democratic renewal, women's rights and combating antisemitism.
The name reflects another longstanding Cotler cause: he chaired the International Commission of Inquiry into the Fate and Whereabouts of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who rescued thousands of Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust and disappeared after being taken into Soviet custody in 1945.
Through the Wallenberg Centre and independently, Cotler has continued the kind of individual political-prisoner advocacy he began with Sharansky. More recent clients or causes have included Iranian human-rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López, Swedish-Eritrean journalist Dawit Isaak, Chinese Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, Hong Kong democracy advocate Jimmy Lai, and Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza.
He has also served on the Organization of American States' Independent Panel of Legal Experts on Venezuela and the High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom. In 2020 the Canadian government appointed him Canada's first Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, extending his human-rights work into a formal international campaign against antisemitism and Holocaust distortion.
Thus Sharansky → Mandela → Wallenberg → today's political prisoners is a useful shorthand for Cotler's career. The underlying principle has remained remarkably consistent: use law, publicity, parliamentary action, diplomacy and international institutions together to turn an individual's persecution into an international human-rights issue.
In 2022, Tel Aviv University established the Irwin Cotler Institute for Democracy, Human Rights and Justice to carry forward Cotler's intellectual and human-rights legacy through research, publications and ongoing public advocacy. Cotler remains actively involved both in the Montreal-based Wallenberg Centre and in the Tel Aviv U. Institute named for him – an utterly remarkable human being! – ChatGPT]