Supreme Court of Canada distribution of Judges.
Is it true that seven of the nine Supreme Court of Canada Judges are
from Ontario and/or Quebec?

grthumongous --

The answer is "yes."  Here is a list of the current justices and their
places of birth or (in two cases where their place of birth is not
given) where they got their undergraduate degrees and clearly have
their roots.

Madam Chief Justice McLachlin -- Alberta
The Honourable Mr. Justice Michel Bastarache -- New Brunswick
The Honourable Mr. Justice John C. Major -- Ontario
The Honourable Mr. Justice William Ian Corneil Binnie -- Quebec
The Honourable Mr. Justice Louis LeBel - Quebec
The Honourable Madam Justice Marie Deschamps - Quebec
The Honourable Mr. Justice Morris J. Fish - Quebec
The Honourable Madam Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella - Ontario
The Honourable Madam Justice Louise Charron - Ontario

So there you have it. One each from New Brunswick and Alberta, three
from Ontario and four from Quebec.

Search strategy:

I thought (correctly, it turned out) that bios of the justices would
appear on a website devoted to the Supreme Court.  I found that
website with the following Google search:

"supreme court" canada
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&q=%22supreme+court%22+canada


This information seems to be exactly what you are looking for, and I
am happy to be able to give you a prompt response.  If anything is
unclear, please ask for clarification before rating the answer.


markj-ga

---

Clarification of Answer by markj-ga on 10 Dec 2004 04:44 PST

grthumongous --

Thanks for the five stars, the kind words and the generous tip, even
though I neglected to post a link to the Supreme Court's website.  
Here it is, better late than never:

Canada: Supreme Court: About the Judges
http://www.scc-csc.gc.ca/aboutcourt/judges/index_e.asp 

markj-ga

thanks markj for the morning eye-opener.  A diversity of experiences
from across Upper and Lower Canada.

I think it is important to note that three of the judges legally have
to be from Quebec (so that Quebec?s different legal code is
represented), and that tradition dictates that three come from
Ontario, two from the west and one from the Atlantic Provinces.

I don?t know why there are four from Quebec this time around.

For what it's worth:

Justice Major is normally counted as an Alberta (not an Ontario)
appointment since he lived in Alberta for over 30 years prior to his
appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada, and was serving as a judge
of the Alberta Court of Appeal when he was elevated to the Supreme
Court.

Justice Binnie is normally counted as an Ontario (not a Quebec)
appointment because he lived in Ontario for approx. 30 years prior to
his appointment to the Supreme Court and, at the time of his
appointment, was practising law at McCarthy Tetrault in Toronto.

Chief Justice McLachlin is normally counted as a B.C. (not an Alberta)
appointment because she lived in B.C. for 20 years prior to her
appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada. At the time of her
appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada, she was Chief Justice of
the British Columbia Supreme Court.

So the more conventional count is:
1 from Alberta
1 from B.C.
3 from Ontario
3 from Quebec
1 from N.B.