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FEATURE CROSS EXAMINED 6 www.canadianlawyermag.com JUDGING, TEACHING, ADVOCATING: MARTIN'S LEGAL PATH Supreme Court of Canada Justice Sheilah Martin reflects on legal education, decision-making, and who belongs in the profession JUSTICE SHEILAH Martin has served on the Supreme Court of Canada since 2017, following appointments to the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench and the Alberta Court of Appeal. Trained in both civil and common law, she built her career across academia, private practice, and the judiciary, focusing on constitutional law, criminal justice, and equality rights. "If the system can make mistakes, we need to try harder in the system," Justice Martin tells Canadian Lawyer. That early realization – sparked by reading about Steven Truscott's wrongful conviction – became the driving force behind her legal path. A pursuit of something better defined her trajectory across law schools, courtrooms, and, ultimately, the country's highest court. Martin notes her interest in law was rooted not in ambition but in a desire to improve a flawed system. "The justice system that we create has to be better than the people that create it," she says. As a student at McGill University, she trained in both legal traditions, but it was teaching that first captured her interest: "I loved teaching. I loved being with young minds that were inquiring and questioning and were highly critical." That passion for education later intersected with practice. After serving as dean at the University of Calgary Faculty of Law from 1991 to 1996, Martin entered private practice – not to advance her title but to deepen her understanding of law in action. Her first case as counsel brought her straight to the Supreme Court in an intervention concerning the medical treatment of a pregnant woman under state custody. "That was the first time I came to the Supreme Court," she says. Her practice spanned constitutional and criminal matters, including interventions on sexual assault legislation, the federal fire- arms reference case, and pro bono work for women's rights organizations. She says the law always returned to the human element. A judicial appointment wasn't something Martin initially imagined. "I got increasingly more fascinated by the judicial craft," she says, noting her growing involvement in judicial education. A mentor's encouragement led her to apply. In 2005, she joined the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench. The shift from advocate to adjudicator was stark. "As a lawyer, I made arguments. But as a judge, I had to make decisions," she says. "You're trying to exercise judgment and wisdom and asking yourself with great humility all the time, 'What if I'm wrong?'" Martin's judicial experience expanded across the North, where she served in Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. "I had a fabulous wealth of experience in terms of understanding how justice looks in very different places in the vast country that we have," she says. In 2016, she was elevated to the Alberta Court of Appeal, and the following year she was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada. "You're trying to exercise judgment and wisdom and asking yourself with great humility all the time, 'What if I'm wrong?'"