Canadian Lawyer

28 N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 8 w w w . c a n a d i a n l a w y e r m a g . c o m incredible amount of work to it, and very quickly, especially on jury trials, found his vocation as a judge." That intellectual curiosity and interest that brought him to criminal law as a judge "bodes well for the work of the Supreme Court," he adds. As a sitting judge in the Quebec Superior Court's criminal chamber, Wagner was not only keen to learn and to understand the criminal evidence but also to understand the "why," says Bourque. "My feeling was when he analyzed an issue, he was always coming back to equity. Justice has to be done. Fairness." Wagner was not so much attached to a strict interpretation of the rules, she says, as he was to what was underlying those rules — namely, the principle of fairness. During his years in private practice, Wagner also became a prominent leader of the bar. A member of the Canadian Bar Asso- ciation from 1980 until his appointment to the bench in 2004, he sat on several committees of the Bar of Montréal and the Barreau du Québec. Elected in 1998 to the council of the Bar of Montréal — one of the largest bar associations in the world and the second largest French-speaking barreau — he chaired its ad hoc committee on Quebec law libraries, and in 2001-2002, he served as its bâton- nier or head. Wagner transformed the Montreal bar in two ways, says Kasirer; first, as a driving force behind the creation of the Centre d'accès à l'information juridique, formed in 2002 while Wagner was bâton- nier, which brought Quebec's court libraries into the modern era by enabling lawyers and judges to access all types of legal information electronically, including remotely, through the centres. The courthouse in Montreal had an ancient library, beautiful and rich, but it was a passive tool that sat up on the 17th floor, says Kasirer. Wagner saw the advent of technology and the importance of legal information being fully accessible online, across the prov- ince, Kasirer adds. "Not only would every lawyer and their client be better served, but it would help the whole judicial system . . . This to me was a sign of his commitment to access to justice." Second, he says, during his year as bâtonnier, Wagner embarked on "a listening tour," visiting law firms large and small. "He sat down with the lawyers, and just let them talk. He took notes [and engaged in] active listening . . . that was kind of his trademark as a leader. "If you transpose that to his role as chief justice, one expects that he's not going to be a chief justice who . . . has a top-down approach. He's listening; and he's already going across the country, including to regions he may not have known as well." Access to justice and the courts As chief justice of Canada, Wagner has prioritized and advocated for a more accessible and transparent court and judicial system. In a speech he gave to the seventh Annual Pro Bono Conference in Vancouver in early October, he commented on the ongoing barriers to access to justice including financial constraints on litigants, a lack of knowledge of the law and of what tools and services are available and, perhaps, a lack of confidence that the system will come to a just result. "Even today, the main chal- lenge [to the judicial system in Canada] is the access to justice," the chief justice tells Canadian Lawyer. People may be surprised to learn that 30 to 35 per cent of cases filed to the Supreme Court of Canada are filed by self- represented applicants, he says. "You will find that many of these applicants have the money to hire a lawyer, but they don't trust the function anymore. To me, that's very troublesome. The judicial system, and its stakeholders, must be able to convince people to have faith in the system. We must explain who we are and why we do what we do." Two of Wagner's initiatives since assuming the office of chief jus- tice in December have been to release synopses of Supreme Court judgments written in lay language or "Cases in Brief " on the court's website, and, more recently, audio recordings of the court's hear- ings, in addition to the televised live proceedings of the hearings on the site. The Supreme Court also has active Twitter and Facebook accounts and, in February 2019, it will issue its first annual report. So far, Wagner says, the response to the Cases in Brief has been very positive and, although initially designed for members of the public without a great understanding of the law, they have also proven popular with members of the legal profession. All of these initiatives are commendable to Iacobucci, a former chairman of the Supreme Court's media committee, who believes that Canada's was the first high court in the world to have televised hearings. Its purpose was to make the administration of justice more accessible, he says, adding that he will never forget a letter the Supreme Court received from a farmer from north Saskatchewan who wrote to say he had always wanted to be a lawyer but had had to work the land for his family to survive. Watching the televised Supreme Court hearings, the farmer wrote to express his gratitude for being able "to look at the civility of the court" and gain a greater insight into how courts and the law worked and the administration of justice was carried out. "You don't need many letters like that to convince" one of the value of a more open court, Iacobucci says. And reminiscent of his "listening tour" when he was bâtonnier of the Montreal bar, Wagner announced in June that the Supreme Court will visit a different city in Canada each year to hold its annual retreat, which will include meeting with the local judiciary, law faculty and students, as well as representatives of Indigenous peoples. In September 2019, that will city will be Winnipeg — and the Supreme Court justices may even sit with local judges. "It's part of my idea that the court should be more open and accessible. It's one week to go to their place and give them the chance to look at what we do and how we do it," Wagner says, adding that he hopes the Supreme Court bench "will hear one or two cases in other parts of the country." The United Kingdom's Supreme Court has begun to sit in other cities, namely Edin- ELIZABETH RAYMER

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