26 Facts About Bora Laskin

Bora Laskin was born in Fort William, Ontario, the son of Max Bora Laskin and Bluma Zingel.

Bora Laskin's other brother, Charles, was a shirt designer and manufacturer.

Bora Laskin's nephew John B Laskin is a judge of the Federal Court of Appeal, having previously been a faculty member of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and a prominent commercial litigator in Toronto.

Bora Laskin was educated as a lawyer at Osgoode Hall Law School.

Bora Laskin initially studied at the University of Toronto, earning a Bachelor of Arts in 1933.

Bora Laskin received the degrees of Master of Arts in 1935 and earned a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Toronto in 1936.

Bora Laskin earned a gold medal at both the University of Toronto Law School and at Harvard Law School.

Bora Laskin had trouble finding a lawyer who would serve as his principal, because non-Jewish lawyers would not accept Jewish students.

Bora Laskin taught at the University of Toronto until 1965.

Bora Laskin wrote Canadian Constitutional Law and other legal texts.

Bora Laskin's interests were in labour law, constitutional law, and human rights.

Bora Laskin was a founding member of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

Bora Laskin held that spousal support was ancillary to Parliament's constitutional jurisdiction over divorce under the Constitution Act.

Again on the advice of Trudeau, Bora Laskin was appointed Chief Justice on December 27,1973.

Bora Laskin held that position until his death in 1984.

Bora Laskin was the second-most junior justice on the court, having served for only three years.

When Prime Minister Trudeau appointed Bora Laskin, it was said that Justice Martland had been given very little notice that he would be passed over, and was upset by it.

Bora Laskin was a liberal jurist who often found himself on the minority side of decisions.

Bora Laskin's specialty was labour law and constitutional law and he had a reputation as a civil libertarian.

On matters of federalism under the Constitution Act, 1867, Bora Laskin has been considered the most aggressive supporter of the federal powers of any justice since Confederation.

Bora Laskin often took a position that was later adopted by a majority of the court.

Years later, Bora Laskin said that the position he took in this case was the likely cause of his promotion to Chief Justice over the more senior Ronald Martland.

Bora Laskin presided over a number of landmark constitutional cases, most notably the 1981 Patriation Reference, which considered Pierre Trudeau's attempt to have the federal government unilaterally patriate the Constitution of Canada without the consent of the provinces.

Bora Laskin was one of the judges in the majority on the issue of Parliament's legal authority to act unilaterally, but was one of the three dissenting judges who would have held that there was no constitutional convention restricting Parliament's power to act unilaterally.

Bora Laskin was in poor health the last few years of his life, and died in office on March 26,1984, at the age of 71 from pneumonia.

Bora Laskin received honorary degrees from many Canadian and international universities, these include:.