Martin reflected on her high court career before hearing her final case on Friday
On Friday morning, moments before she began hearing oral arguments as a Supreme Court of Canada justice for the last time, Justice Sheilah Martin reflected on the very first time she walked into the courthouse when she was serving as pro bono counsel for an intervenor many years earlier.
“I… was mesmerized by its beauty and solemnity,” she said. “This is a place where you come to do your very best and most noble work.”
Long after, in the first year after she was appointed a high court justice in 2017, Martin found herself walking down the hall of the same courthouse and looking into a lit courtroom. The justice said she burst into tears, thinking, “What am I doing here?
“Perhaps my colleagues had the same thought.”
Martin delivered her remarks ahead of the high court’s hearing in a criminal matter, Bilinski v. His Majesty the King (Alberta). Martin and Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice Richard Wagner individually spoke before the hearing to mark two occasions: Martin’s final hearing before her retirement on May 30, and the SCC’s final hearing in its historic courthouse before it undergoes a years-long renovation.
Candidates to replace Martin will be selected by the Independent Advisory Board for Supreme Court of Canada Judicial Appointments. Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the members of the advisory board on Tuesday.
The non-partisan body will produce a shortlist of candidates from Western and Northern Canada for the prime minister to review. The candidate he selects will then face questioning from federal legislators.
Supreme Court of Canada justices must retire when they turn 75. Martin’s retirement date next week falls a day before her 70th birthday, prompting her to clarify that her “health is excellent.”
“My decision to leave the court and the judiciary was not an easy one,” Martin said. “But it’s the right decision for me at this time.”
Martin thanked her colleagues and the high court’s staff, joking that working with her colleagues was like “having eight spouses… in an arranged marriage.”
“This is a hard working group whose dedication to this country is inspiring, ever present, and worthy of public confidence,” she added.
In his remarks, Wagner noted that Martin was the first justice he had sworn in as chief justice.
“At your welcome ceremony, I spoke of your wealth of experience as an educator, a lawyer, and a judge, and your commitment to equal justice for all Canadians,” Wagner told Martin. “Your contributions will be remembered by all who have appeared before you or served alongside you in your work, particularly in criminal law and on the Charter.”
Later, Martin referred back to the moment she was sworn in. “I promised to don my Supreme Court of Canada robes, moved by a commitment to law, service, loving kindness, by reference to my reverence for this institution and the respect for my colleagues,” the justice said.
“I remove my robes today knowing how hard I worked,” she said, her voice breaking, “to try to realize that promise.”
