Chief Justice Mary Moreau, ‘79 LLB, nominated to Supreme Court of Canada

Chief Justice Mary Moreau, an alumna of the University of Alberta Faculty of Law, has been nominated to the Supreme Court of Canada.

“The Faculty of Law is very proud to see our esteemed alumna Justice Mary Moreau honoured with this nomination,” says Dean Barbara Billingsley.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the nomination on October 26.

Moreau graduated with the Class of 1979. After studying law at the U of A, she practised criminal, constitutional and family law in Edmonton. She litigated landmark cases that established the right to a criminal jury trial in French in Alberta and affirmed the right of francophone Albertans to manage and control their own schools.

Moreau was appointed as a justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta in 1994, as a deputy judge of the Supreme Court of the Yukon Territory in 1996 and as a deputy judge of the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories in 2005.

She made history in October 2017 when she became the first woman appointed to lead the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench.

She was conferred with an honorary doctor of laws degree by the U of A in 2019 in recognition of her exemplary service to Alberta.