Statement from the CBA President Stephen Rotstein on the Independent Advisory Board to help select the next Supreme Court Justice

  • May 17, 2022

The Canadian Bar Association welcomes the announcement that its nominee, Charlene Theodore, has been appointed to the Independent Advisory Board for Supreme Court of Canada Judicial Appointments.

Charlene Theodore is Chief Inclusion Officer at McCarthy Tétrault. She is a former president of the Ontario Bar Association, the first Black person and the 10th woman to serve in the role. She is also a former Director of the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers. She is a recipient of a 2017 Lexpert Zenith Award recognizing work in advancing the interests of women in the legal profession and society.

The CBA has called for the government to appoint more Black, Indigenous and People of Colour to bench, and to the judicial advisory committees that make recommendations for those appointments. Naming Charlene Theodore to the board that advises government on appointments to the country’s highest court is an important step toward the objective of a making the judiciary more representative of the people it serves.