Creation and Beginnings of the Court
Current and Former Chief Justices
Current and Former Puisne Judges
About the Court
Judges of the Court
The Honourable Mr. Justice William Ian Corneil Binnie
![[Photo - William Ian Corneil Binnie]](/web/20061029064030im_/http://www.scc-csc.gc.ca/_images/display/binnie-150.jpg)
Mr. Justice Binnie, B.A., LL.B., LL.M., LL.D. Born in Montreal, Quebec, April 14, 1939. Son of James Corneil and Phyllis (Mackenzie) Binnie. Educated at McGill University, B.A., 1960; Cambridge University, LL.B., 1963, LL.M., 1988 (first Canadian elected President of the Cambridge Union Society); University of Toronto, LL.B., 1965. Hon. LL.D., Law Society of Upper Canada, 2001; Hon. LL.D., McGill University 2001. Married to Susan Strickland on May 28, 1965. Children: Daniel, Matthew, Alexandra and Max. Called to the English Bar, 1966. Bar of Ontario, 1967. Admitted to practice before the International Court of Justice, 1984. Bar of the Yukon Territory, 1986. Occasional calls to the Bars of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Newfoundland. Created Q.C. (Ontario), 1979. Practised litigation at Wright & McTaggart and successor firms until 1982. Legal Counsel to Government of Tanzania, 1970-71. Associate Deputy Minister of Justice for Canada, 1982-86. A Senior Partner, McCarthy Tétrault, 1986-98. Of counsel for Canada against the United States in the Gulf of Maine dispute before the International Court of Justice, 1984. Appointed Special Parliamentary Counsel to the Joint Senate and House of Commons Committee examining the Meech Lake Accord, 1990. Of counsel for Canada against France in the St. Pierre and Miquelon maritime boundary dispute, 1991. Appeared as counsel before the Supreme Court of Canada in many leading constitutional, civil and occasional criminal cases. Advisor to the Government of Newfoundland respecting constitutional amendments to the Terms of Union. Part-time lecturer on Aboriginal Rights at Osgoode Hall Law School, 1975-79. Elected Commissioner, International Commission of Jurists, April 2003. Lecturer at the Upper Canada Law Society, the Canadian Bar Association, The Advocates’ Society and other professional associations. Author of numerous publications. Elected Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, 1993. Member of the Middle Temple Inns of Court (England). Appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada, January 8, 1998.
