Chief Justice of Canada Richard Wagner visits NUS Law

NUS Law welcomed the Chief Justice of Canada, The Right Honourable Richard Wagner, P.C., to the Faculty on 15 November 2022. He was accompanied by The Honourable Catherine Mandeville, Judge of the Superior Court of Québec. Chief Justice Wagner met with Faculty members and students from the Law Club for an interesting exchange of ideas and experiences. The visit was part of his itinerary during his time in Singapore on invitation by the Singapore Academy of Law (SAL) for its Annual Lecture on 17 November 2022 at the State Courts.

In the SAL Lecture titled Judicial Independence and the Modern World: A Canadian Perspective, Chief Justice Wagner examined judicial independence with a modern lens. He explored the evolution of judicial independence in Canada, compared and contrasted with different jurisdictions throughout the world, and examined, more broadly, why judicial independence is crucial to justice.

About The Right Honourable Richard Wagner, P.C., Chief Justice of Canada

The Right Honourable Richard Wagner, P.C., is the 18th Chief Justice of Canada. In this role, he presides over the Canadian Judicial Council, National Judicial Institute and chairs the Advisory Council for the Order of Canada. Chief Justice Wagner was president of the Association des Cours Constitutionnelles Francophones from 2019 to 2022. The Chief Justice also fulfilled his duty to serve as administrator of the Government of Canada from January 23 to July 26, 2021.

Born and raised in Montreal, Chief Justice Wagner earned his Bachelor of Social Science and Licentiate in Laws at the University of Ottawa. He returned to his home town to practise law from 1980 to 2004. His areas of specialisation included professional liability, commercial litigation, and class action lawsuits. As a litigator, the Chief Justice argued cases before every level of court in Quebec, quasi-judicial tribunals, as well as the Federal Court and the Supreme Court of Canada. Throughout his legal career, Chief Justice Wagner led initiatives to help lawyers constantly upgrade their skills and knowledge, such as the creation of the Centre d’accès à l’information juridique in 2002.

Chief Justice Wagner was appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Quebec in 2004 and was named to the Quebec Court of Appeal in 2011. On October 5, 2012, he was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada. He was named the Court’s Chief Justice on December 18, 2017. Read more here.