Weiler, Karen
[Français]
The Honourable Karen M. Weiler was called to the Ontario Bar in 1969. She moved to Thunder Bay to practise law, becoming the only woman to practise law in northwestern Ontario at the time. She was also a lecturer of business law at Lakehead University (1970-72).
Returning to Toronto in 1972, she received her LLM in 1974 from her alma mater, Osgoode Hall Law School (LLB, 1967). Her thesis raised concerns about s.8 of The Training Schools Act, a provision which allowed so-called unmanageable children to be committed to a training school although they had not committed any criminal act, and was influential in the repeal of that provision.
She went on to serve as policy counsel at the Ministry of the Attorney General, becoming senior policy counsel responsible for important legislative reforms in family law, under then-Attorney General, The Honourable R. Roy McMurtry (1974-80). Her work led to a massive overhaul of family law in Ontario with the enactment of the Family Law Reform Act, the Children’s Law Reform Act and the Succession Law Reform Act.
Justice Weiler was appointed to the former District Court at the age of 35. She is the youngest person ever to be appointed to the federal judiciary (1980). Appointments to the High Court in 1989, and the Ontario Court of Appeal in 1992, soon followed, including appointment to the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada, in 1995.
Fluent in French and English, Justice Weiler presided over a number of motions and trials in French as a trial judge (1980-92). Since her appointment to the Court of Appeal for Ontario (1992), Justice Weiler has sat on the vast majority of appeals in the French language, including the case of Lalonde v. Commission de restructuration des services de santé (2001), 56 O.R. (3d) 577 (C.A.) (English version at 56 O.R. (3d) 505). She co-authored the decision which held that the Commission could not issue a directive reducing services in French from Montfort Hospital, particularly when the services were not available in French on a full-time basis elsewhere in the Ottawa-Carleton region, without justifying its decision to limit the services offered as reasonable and necessary as required by the French Languages Services Act (F.L.S.A.).
Justice Weiler chaired the first Courts’ Accessibility Committee, in 2005, under then-Chief Justice McMurtry, to study how to improve access to Ontario’s courts for people with disabilities. The committee’s subsequent report, Making Ontario’s Courts Fully Accessible to Persons with Disabilities (dubbed the “Weiler Report”) led to the establishment of a permanent committee to oversee its implementation.
In 2010, she initiated a volunteer amicus duty counsel program through Pro Bono Law Ontario (PBLO). The program assists unrepresented litigants with motions before the Court of Appeal.
In addition, Justice Weiler was instrumental in forging the partnership between Wellspring and PBLO that resulted in the Wellspring Cancer Support Foundation - Money Matters program that offers the Employment Law and Long Term Disability Legal Clinic. It is the only legal clinic in Canada specifically for people with cancer, who are often under financial and legal stress. They have the opportunity to sit down, one on one, with a specially trained volunteer lawyer who provides one-time legal advice about employment and long term disability law, including such things as disclosure of a disability, duty to accommodate legislation, understanding key contract provisions, and transitioning off long term disability benefits to return to work.
Recognizing the importance of challenging racial stereotypes, she co-chaired the Program Committee for the Combating Hatred in the 21st Century conference, in 2007. Since then, she has worked with community groups to challenge racial stereotyping during childhood and to develop innovative ways for children to talk about racism, discrimination and human rights.
On January 23, 2015, the Law Society of Upper Canada bestowed the degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa (LLD) upon the Honourable Karen M. Weiler at its Call to the Bar ceremony in Toronto. Justice Weiler then delivered the keynote address to the new lawyers.
Categories : Justice
Last Update : 2015-01-27
