Mary Anne Eberts OC (born January 18, 1947) is a Canadian constitutional lawyer and a former University of Toronto Faculty of Law faculty member. She is a founding member of the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF)
Eberts was born in St. Thomas, Ontario. Eberts was educated at University of Western Ontario and Harvard Law School. [1]
Eberts taught law at the University of Toronto (U of T) for six years [2] before joining a Bay Street law firm where she became a partner. [3] She eventually opened her own law practice in 1980, from where she appeared as counsel in the Supreme Court of Canada, Courts of Appeal, and Superior Courts in Ontario. [4] She was influential in the creation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Section 15. [5] She published "Equality Rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms" in 1985. [6] Eberts eventually returned to U of T as an adjunct professor in 1987 to teach constitutional law. [2]
In 1991, Eberts became a litigation counsel to the Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC). [3] Eberts represented Beth Symes, another founding LEAF member, in Symes v. Canada, [1993] 4 S.C.R. 695. [7] Whereas all legal cases have adversaries by definition, legal scholars have argued that the language of opposition in the Symes case is revealing—that, although “these men spoke in the rhetoric of institutional constraints, class, and fairness”, their language “still reeks of strategy and self-interest.” [8]
In 1993, Eberts received an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, from Concordia University. [5] She was subsequently elected a bencher of the Law Society of Ontario from 1995 until 1999. [9] In 1996, she was a recipient of the Governor General's Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case. [10] She was also a founding member of the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF). [11] In 2001, Eberts represented survivors of the Chinese head tax in Canada seeking compensation. [12]
In 2004, she was appointed the Gordon F. Henderson Chair in Human Rights at the University of Ottawa and later became the Ariel Sallows Chair in Human Rights at the University of Saskatchewan College of Law from 2011 until 2012. [3] After her endowed chair term ended, Eberts joined Hensel Barristers as counsel. [1] Two years later, she joined the faculty at Osgoode Hall Law School as a McMurty Fellow. [13] In 2017, Eberts was elected an Officer of the Order of Canada. [14]
Louise Arbour, is a Canadian lawyer, prosecutor and jurist.
The Supreme Court of Canada 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 each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts. The Supreme Court is bijural, hearing cases from two major legal traditions and bilingual, hearing cases in both official languages of Canada.
Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is part of the Constitution of Canada. It is commonly known as the notwithstanding clause. Sometimes referred to as the override power, it allows Parliament or provincial legislatures to temporarily override sections 2 and 7–15 of the Charter.
Osgoode Hall Law School, commonly shortened to Osgoode, is the law school of York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is home to the Law Commission of Ontario, the Journal of Law and Social Policy, and the Osgoode Hall Law Journal. A variety of LL.M. and Ph.D. degrees in law are available.
The Law Society of Ontario is the law society responsible for the self-regulation of lawyers and paralegals in the Canadian province of Ontario. Founded in 1797 as the Law Society of Upper Canada, its name was changed by statute in 2018.
Bora Laskin was a Canadian jurist who served as the 14th chief justice of Canada from 1973 to 1984. Laskin was appointed a puisne justice of the Supreme Court in 1970, and served on the Ontario Court of Appeal from 1965 to 1970. Before he was named to the bench, Laskin worked as a lawyer and in academia.
Herbert Allan Borden Leal, was a Canadian civil servant and academic. He was Deputy Attorney General of Ontario, dean of Osgoode Hall Law School, and chancellor of McMaster University.
Alan N. Young is Professor Emeritus of law at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Young retired July 2018. Prior to starting his teaching career at Osgoode in 1986, Young clerked for Chief Justice Bora Laskin of the Supreme Court of Canada and worked as a criminal lawyer in Toronto.
Beth Symes,, Queen's University alumna is a Canadian lawyer who fought the Canada Revenue Agency all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada in an unsuccessful attempt to deduct childcare expenses she incurred in order to earn income as a partner in her law firm.
Marilou McPhedran is a Canadian lawyer, human rights advocate and politician. Since October 2016, McPhedran is a member of the Senate of Canada.
Janet E. Minor is a former Treasurer of the Law Society of Upper Canada.
Women in law describes the role played by women in the legal profession and related occupations, which includes lawyers, paralegals, prosecutors, judges, legal scholars, law professors and law school deans.
Women work in the legal profession and related occupations throughout Canada, as lawyers, prosecutors, judges, legal scholars, law professors and law school deans. In Canada, while 37.1% of lawyers are women, "50% ...said they felt their [law] firms were doing "poorly" or "very poorly" in their provision of flexible work arrangements". It was also reported that, in 2006 in Ontario, "racialized women accounted for 16% of all lawyers under 30" and that only 1% of lawyers were Aboriginal.
Paul B. Schabas is a judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
M. David Lepofsky is a Canadian academic, retired lawyer, disability advocate. Blind for much of his life, Lepofsky was named one of Canada's most influential lawyers in 2010.
Avvy Yao-Yao Go is a Canadian lawyer and judge. She is known for her work advocating on behalf of immigrant and racialized communities in Canada. In 2014 she was appointed to the Order of Ontario. In August 2021, Go was appointed to the Federal Court.
Malliha Wilson is a Tamil Canadian lawyer who served as an Assistant Deputy Attorney General of the Government of Ontario from April 2008 to November 2016.
John Borrows is a Canadian academic and jurist. He is a full Professor of Law and the Loveland Chair in Indigenous Law at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. He is known as a leading authority on Canadian Indigenous law and constitutional law and has been cited by the Supreme Court of Canada. John Borrows is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Mary Frances Southin is a retired Canadian judge. She was the first woman to become a Queen's Counsel in British Columbia, to be elected a Bencher of the Law Society of British Columbia, and to be a head of a law society in the Commonwealth. She was a Justice of the British Columbia Court of Appeal from 1988 to 2006.
Michelle O'Bonsawin is a Canadian jurist serving as a puisne justice on the Supreme Court of Canada since September 1, 2022. Before her appointment to the Supreme Court, she served as a judge on the Ontario Superior Court of Justice from 2017 to 2022. O'Bonsawin is the first Indigenous Canadian to serve as a Supreme Court justice.