Russell Brown (judge)

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For other people named Russell Brown, see Russell Brown (disambiguation).
The Honourable

Russell Brown
Justice Russell Brown.jpg
Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
Assumed office
August 31, 2015
Nominated byStephen Harper
Appointed byDavid Johnston
Preceded byMarshall Rothstein
Personal details
Born (1965-09-15) September 15, 1965 (age 55)
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Spouse(s)
Heidi Brown
​
(m. 1994)​
Alma materUniversity of British Columbia (BA)
University of Victoria (LLB)
University of Toronto (LLM, SJD)

Russell S. Brown (born September 15, 1965)[1][2] is a Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Early life and education[]

Brown has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of British Columbia in 1987 and a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Victoria in 1994. He also has a Master of Laws degree in 2003 and a Doctor of Juridical Science degree both from the University of Toronto in 2006.

Career[]

Brown was admitted to the Bar of British Columbia in 1995 and to the Bar of Alberta in 2008. Before being appointed a judge he was associate counsel to Miller Thomson LLP and an Associate Professor and Associate Dean at the Faculty of Law, University of Alberta.[3] His main areas of practice were commercial law, medical negligence, public authority liability, insurance law and trusts and estates.

In 2013, he was appointed to the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta. A year later in March 2014, he was appointed to the Court of Appeal of Alberta.[3]

He has expressed his views on a number of topics in a University of Alberta law faculty blog, prior to his appointment to the bench. He called the Canada Health Act “an inappropriate [federal] intrusion into sacrosanct provincial swimming pools,” referred to third party election spending limits as "odious" and "restriction on private expenditure during elections" as "objectionable", described human rights commissions as "puritanical functionaries", [4] and described himself as a "conservative libertarian".[1]

Supreme Court of Canada[]

On August 31, 2015, Brown was nominated by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to sit on the Supreme Court of Canada.[3]

In June 2018, Brown wrote a high profile dissent with Suzanne Côté in the case of Law Society of British Columbia v. Trinity Western University.[5][6] He wrote that "in a liberal and pluralist society, the public interest is served, and not undermined, by the accommodation of difference. The unequal access resulting from the covenant is a function not of condonation of discrimination, but of accommodating religious freedom."[7]

In March 2021, the Supreme Court found that the federal government's carbon price regime is constitutional. Brown was one of three dissenting justices. He concluded that the federal government's carbon price law was unconstitutional because it interfered with areas of exclusive provincial jurisdiction.[8]

Following the carbon price decision, Sean Speer wrote in the National Post that Brown "has distinguished himself as a powerful critic of judicial overreach in general and progressive jurisprudence in particular. In so doing, he’s become an intellectual beachhead for a nascent conservative legal movement in the country." He went on to write that his dissents "lay out an alternative viewpoint about the role of courts, the division of powers between Ottawa and the provinces and the relationship between the individual and the state."[9]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b "Law school blog sheds light on Supreme Court's newest judge". Globe and Mail. July 31, 2015. Retrieved August 1, 2015.
  2. ^ "Supreme Court of Canada – Biography – Russell Brown". Supreme Court of Canada. 2016-03-01. Archived from the original on 2016-04-05. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Supreme Court of Canada – Biography – Russell Brown". Supreme Court of Canada. 2020-01-15. Retrieved 2021-03-25.
  4. ^ "New Supreme Court appointee blogged on Khadr, called Trudeau 'unspeakably awful,' hoped for Harper majority". National Post. July 31, 2015. Retrieved August 1, 2015.
  5. ^ Harris, Kathleen (June 15, 2018). "Trinity Western loses fight for Christian law school as court rules limits on religious freedom 'reasonable'". CBC News.
  6. ^ "Opinion: From the Roncarelli case to Trinity Western". montrealgazette. Retrieved 2021-05-16.
  7. ^ https://decisions.scc-csc.ca/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/17141/1/document.do
  8. ^ "The Supreme Court rules Canada's carbon price is constitutional. It's a big win for Justin Trudeau's climate plan". Toronto Star. 2021-03-25. Retrieved 2021-03-25.
  9. ^ "Sean Speer: The Supreme Court Justice who's not afraid to shake things up". nationalpost. Retrieved 2021-05-16.
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