Historical records matching Bora Laskin
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About Bora Laskin
From wikitree.com:
Biography
Bora Laskin, PC, CC, FRSC was a Canadian jurist, who served on the Supreme Court of Canada for fourteen years, including a decade as the fourteenth Chief Justice of Canada.
Born in Fort William, Ontario, the son of Max Laskin and Bluma Zingel, Laskin was educated at the University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall Law School. From 1933 to 1936, he served his articles and continued to study at the University of Toronto. He received the degrees of MA in 1935 and LL.B in 1936. While at the University of Toronto, he was a member of Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity.[1] In 1937, he received an LL.M. from Harvard Law School.
Laskin married Peggy Tenenbaum,[3] and had two children: John, who followed in his father's footsteps and became a judge at the Court of Appeal for Ontario, and Barbara. His grandson (the son of his daughter) carries on his name. His nephew John B. Laskin is a prominent commercial lawyer in Toronto.
Despite his superior academic record, Bora Laskin, who was Jewish, was unable to find work at any law firm of note, because of the anti-Semitism that pervaded the English-Canadian legal profession at the time. As a result, his first job after graduating was writing headnotes (i.e., article synopses) for a legal journal. Ultimately, Laskin decided to pursue his career in academia.
From 1940 to 1965 he taught at the University of Toronto (except for the period 1945 - 1949 when he taught at Osgoode Hall Law School). For twenty-three years he served as associate editor of Dominion Law Reports and Canadian Criminal Cases. He also wrote Canadian Constitutional Law and many other legal texts.
His career on the bench began in 1965 with his appointment to the Court of Appeal for Ontario. On March 19, 1970 he was appointed by Pierre Trudeau to the Supreme Court, becoming the first Jewish justice to sit on that Court. He was appointed Chief Justice by Trudeau on December 27, 1973, a position he held until his death in 1984.
Laskin was a liberal jurist who often found himself on the minority side of decisions. His specialty was labour law and constitutional law and he had a reputation as a civil libertarian.
On March 13, 1984 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.
Laskin is buried at Holy Blossom Memorial Park alongside his brother Saul Laskin in Toronto.
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Bora Laskin's Timeline
| 1912 |
October 5, 1912
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Thunder Bay, Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada
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| 1984 |
March 26, 1984
Age 71
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Ottawa, Ottawa Division, ON, Canada
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| ???? |
Holy Blossom Memorial, Toronto, Toronto Division, Ontario, Canada
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