LEGAL ARCHIVES SOCIETY OF ALBERTA Architypes To understand the evolution of law and society in Alberta is to understand our past... Annual Newsletter Volume 23, Issue 1 Summer 2014 Court of Appeal of From the Vault Historical Dinner 2013 Meet LASA’s New Thank You! Commemorating Alberta LASA receives Recapping John Board Members LASA wishes to thank Lawyers and WWI Join LASA, the Calgary important acquisition Martland, Q.C. and his LASA introduces new all those who Edmonton lawyer Bar Association and from North of 60〫 life and career in law. Directors while saying volunteered for our Sydney Wood’s unique Justice Antonin Scalia Page 3-4 Good-Bye to long- fundraising casino call to the Alberta Bar. Page 2 to celebrate 100 years of serving Directors. event. Page 6 Alberta’s top court. Page 5 Page 5 Page 1 Justice Scalia was nominated to America’s top court by President Ronald Court of Reagan in September 1986. Before that he was a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Prior to his court nominations, he was the United States Assistant Attorney General under Appeal of Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Justice Scalia, author of a number of legal works, was educated at Georgetown and Harvard, and has Alberta taught law at the University of Chicago. Justice Scalia is one of the more conservative members of the court. He Celebrates opposes judicial activism and often argues that the Constitution is not a living document, and that it should be interpreted from the perspective of 100 Years those who wrote it. Moreover, from Justice Scalia’s point of view, the Constitution is not intended to facilitate change, but was drafted to impede change to the fundamental rights and responsibilities of American citizens. A number of events commemorating the Court’s 100 years are taking place throughout 2014. For A recent biography entitled Scalia: A Court of One, by Brian Allen Murphy, example, the Legal Archives Society of Alberta published a history of the lists three fundamental characteristics that drive Justice Scalia’s personality: Court entitled People Principle Progress: The Alberta Court of Appeal’s First 1) a delight in argument; 2) Roman Catholic view point; and 3) an insatiable Century 1914 to 2014 authored by David Mittelstadt. On April 10, 2014, a need for attention. commemorative dinner was hosted in Edmonton and featured the Hon. Beverly McLachlin, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada as the Considered one of his generation’s prominent legal thinkers, he has been keynote speaker. described as engaging, unapologetic, charming and funny. Interestingly, one of his closest friends on the court is Justice Ruth Bader Ginzberg, whose lega On October 22, 2014, the Legal Archives Society of Alberta and the Calgary views are quite opposite of his own. Bar Association will co-host a centennial gala at the Calgary Westin Hotel featuring keynote speaker, the Hon. Antonin Scalia, Associate Justice of the Please join the Legal Archives Society of Alberta and the Calgary Bar United States Supreme Court. Association in celebrating the centenary of Alberta’s highest court. Space is limited for what is sure to be a unique and memorable evening. Act now and register for the dinner by contacting the Legal Archives Society of Alberta. ♦ Volume 23, Issue 1 1 LEGAL ARCHIVES SOCIETY OF ALBERTA From the Vault also included scrapbooks, REMEMBERING LASA’S photographs, and other professional NORTHERN and political memorabilia XPOSURE relating to E the legal Accession # 2013-006 career of the J u d g e LASA RECEIVES Sissons. Prior to heading north, Judge Sissons spent many years practicing law in Grande IMPORTANT ARCHIVAL Prairie and Peace River where he was active in DONATION politics (serving as MP) and northern affairs. The papers are an excellent primary and OF SOURCE MATERIAL secondary resource material relating to northern justice. Photographs document the period and RELATED TO JUSTICE the NWT. Photo # 1-G-21-2 NORTH OF 60〫 The earlier period of northern justice, between 1905 and 1955, has been largely documented by LASA’s former president Graham Price, Q.C., in LASA was saddened to hear of the recent his 1986 Masters of Law thesis entitled “Remote passing of Calgary lawyer Robert D. Kerr. Bob Over the Justice: The Stipendiary Magistrate’s Court of was a supporter of LASA, volunteering for a years I have the Northwest Territories (1905-1955)”, a copy of number of casinos that help the Society raise had the which can be found in LASA’s reference library. program funding. opportunity In his thesis Graham Price analyzes the most to take part important legal institutions in the Northwest Born on February 6, 1930 in Moose Jaw, in a number Territories between 1905 and 1955. Stories of Saskatchewan, he grew up in Lethbridge and of Alberta the Territorial Court and post 1955 still remain to settled in Calgary. He studied law at the road trips to be told. The recent donation of Judge Sisson’s University of Alberta, and was called to the Accession # 2013-006 r e t r i e v e archival papers will undoubtedly contribute Alberta bar in 1955. He maintained his own a r c h i v a l much to that story. practice, and retired in 2010 at the age of 80. h o l d i n g s and promote LASA along the way. Few W i t h Bob met his wife, Arlene, during law school and collecting trips were as memorable as the one previous they were married in 1954. They have three taken in May 2013 to Diamond City, Alberta. donations children and five grandchildren. Bob and his Located close to Lethbridge in Southern Alberta, received wife were active in the Calgary community as we traveled through some of the most at LASA long-time square dances for the Calgary picturesque and archeologically significant f r o m Stampede. They performed for Queen Elizabeth prairie landscape in the world (home of J u s t i c e II on one of Her Majesty’s trips to Calgary. Alberta’s own version of Stonehenge consisting M o r r o w of a 5000-year old sun dial located 70 south east a n d Accession # 2013-006 Bob was very active outside his legal practice as of Calgary), and the quaint town of Vulcan. a long-time Boy Scout where he became a leader promising acquisitions forthcoming from The and received his 50-year recognition. He was As a result of the road trip, a donation of family Hon. Justice John Vertes, recently retired also an active member of the Al Azhar Shrine, photographs, artifacts and memorabilia has been Supreme Court Judge of the Northwest Sabre Patrol, Air Corps, Legion of Honor, received from Professer Laurence G. Hoye, son- Territories (NWT), LASA is well positioned as Greeters and Royal Order of Jesters #42. Bob in-law of the late Judge John H. Sissons, the first Canada’s premier destination for research on was an active Rotarian for 38 years. For a resident Judge of the Northwest Territories, 1955 northern justice. In 2012, LASA featured The number of years, Bob was the Chair of the - 1966. Professor Hoye, a retired mathematics Hon. John Vertes, Q.C. as a speaker at the Senior Lawyers Section of the Canadian Bar professor from the University of Lethbridge, was Annual Historical Dinner at Calgary’s Fairmont Association bringing senior lawyers together for married to Judge Sisson’s daughter Frances, and Palliser Hotel. His fascinating account of his 34 monthly discussions and speeches about was the joint receipient of weekly letters sent year tenure in the north (14 years as a lawyer; Alberta’s legal history. from Judge Sissons while serving in the north. followed by 20 years as Judge on the NWT In total, four banker boxes containing Supreme Court), yielded much information Bob remained physically active throughout his approximately 200 photographs spanning the about the evolution of northern affairs and life. As an avid runner, he competed in five period 1920-1975 and a valuable collection of changing way of life since Judge Sissons made marathons with a personal best of 3 hours, 40 weekly correspondence between Judge Sissons his foray to the north in 1955. ♦ minutes. ♦ and his daughter was obtained. The collection 2 Summer 2014 LEGAL ARCHIVES SOCIETY OF ALBERTA From a Childhood in te Supreme Court of Canada t Bennet Jones t te Wild Colonial Boys The 2013 Historical Dinner was held in Calgary on recalled his father laughing as he uttered, “serves “Judge Locke? This is Mrs. Smith from next door October 24 with guest speaker John G. Martland, them right.” and I’m phoning to tell you that your dog has been Q.C., chronicling his life in the legal community barking and keeping us awake! The Judge set his from childhood to retirement. John grew up in a John spent his youth in the Supreme Court building. alarm for 3:00 A.M. the next morning and telephone legal fraternity. His father, the Honourable Ronald Riding the elevators with the judges to their second his neighbour: ‘Mrs. Smith? This is Charles Locke, Martland, was a justice on the Supreme Court of floor offices, he got to know the judges in a and I just wanted you to know that…I don’t have a Canada. John went on to have his own successful different, more intimate, way. John recalled meeting dog’.” career as a Partner at Bennett Jones LLP. many of the judges that overlapped his father’s tenure at the Court, such as Chief Justice Robert John also got to know Chief Justice Bora Laskin, and John was a young boy when his father was Taschereau, whom John remembered meeting on recalled the following story: appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1957.