Canadian Lawyer

BY PHILIP SLAYTON TOP COURT TALES Making a quick exit Why are Supreme Court of Canada judges leaving the bench well before they are forced to retire? relatively young and apparently healthy judges turned their back on one of the best jobs in the country. Compare the Supreme Court of Canada to its American equivalent. Appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States is for life. More than half the judges appointed to the U.S. court since its creation have died in office. The last to retire were Lewis Powell at age 80, John Paul Stevens at 90, Sandra Day O'Connor at 76, and David Souter at 70. Their average length of service on the court was almost 25 years. The aver- age length of service of the last four Canadian Supreme Court justices to retire was just over 10 years. Why the marked difference? There hasn't been much speculation four SCOTUS judges stayed on for another 15 years. Instead, they chose to leave early — very early. Michel Bastarache was 61 when he went in 2008. Louise Charron was 60 when she retired in August 2011. Marie Deschamps resigned this past summer at 59. The mandatory retirement age for a Supreme Court judge is 75. Being a Supreme Court judge is the job every Canadian lawyer T here's something odd going on at the Supreme Court of Canada. Three of the last four justices who retired could have wants — until, apparently, she gets it. To be fair, not every Supreme Court judge has made an early dash for the exits. Justice Ian Binnie waited until he was 72 before leaving last year. Justices Louis LeBel, Morris Fish, and Marshall Rothstein, all in their early 70s, are still at the court. These judges are bumping up against the mandatory retirement age. Soon there will be three more appoint- ments for the prime minister to make, perhaps bringing Stephen Harper's total appointments to a remarkable seven out of nine. But it's still striking that several 16 N O VEMBER / D ECEMBER 2012 www.CANADIAN Lawyermag.com or gossip about this strange state of affairs. Canadians, respectful of author- ity, don't ask too many questions about their venerable institutions. We dutifully accept there must be a reasonable expla- nation for what happens, even if we don't know what it is. But, just for a moment, let's have a little lese-majesty. What might explain the extraordinary attrition at the Supreme Court of Canada? One theory is very simple: the job is just too demanding, and after a few years many justices want out. The work- load is heavy and unrelenting. The legal problems the judges have to solve are complex and challenging. They live a lonely existence, spending many hours in their chambers by themselves, research- ing, thinking, and writing about the law. Pontificating academics and intemperate JAcqui oAkley

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