WHAT WAS YOUR PATH INTO LAW AND ONTO THE BENCH?

Mine was a circuitous route. My life growing up was centred around music: I studied in France and at the Royal Conservatory of Music and spent summers at the jeunesses musicales, Centre d’arts Orford in Québec. I earned a performance degree in piano and the silver medal in voice from the Conservatory before entering university. 

I attended l’Université de Montreal, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in “interpretation chant”, or a performance voice before moving to Italy to further pursue music. This was a wonderful time immersing myself in sounds, the exploration of musical expression, and performing with others in operas and concerts.

But as a performer, I spent almost no time writing papers, problem-solving, doing intellectual exercises, or writing exams. So it was both a challenge and an opportunity to expand my horizons. I consider myself very lucky to been given the chance to pursue new challenges.

I graduated from Queen’s law school, a small school with a warm heart, where I was introduced to legal concepts and ideas. In practice, I focussed on media and entertainment, intellectual property, international trade law and international arbitrations and a few cases involving French language rights. I practised in both English and French. My work as a lawyer helped me develop the analytic skills and teamwork that have served me well on the Bench.

I was lucky to have had many people along the way to help me, encourage me, and provide me with opportunities to grow and learn.

WHAT EXPERIENCE IN YOUR LEGAL CAREER BEST PREPARED YOU FOR WORK ON THE BENCH?

Writing, writing, and more writing, being in a courtroom seeing the importance of civility at work to the exploration of ideas and learning to work in teams were all important skills that I honed as a lawyer, developed, and continue to develop on the Bench. 

As a mother, spouse, and lawyer, I also realized how important it was to listen, reflect, and be prepared to change my mind or see things in a different light. To understand that context and perspective matters. These are things I try to remind myself of on a regular basis.

WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR COUNSEL WHO APPEAR BEFORE YOU?

I have a few pieces of advice:

1. There is no substitute for preparation:  It will help you feel confident, be better able to respond to questions from the Bench, and help you sift through to volumes of information to develop a clear theory of your case and put your arguments into perspective.
2. Remember your audience: You are there to help the court understand the issues you raise, the relief you are seeking and why the court can and should grant the relief sought.
3. Civility matters: It enhances respect for the profession you are so lucky to belong to, it is easier to persuade when you are civil, and it enables your audience to focus on your argument without getting distracted by quarrels between counsel.
4. We are all here to serve the public: Everything we do and everything we say can affect the public’s perception of our justice system.

WHAT DO YOU WISH THE PUBLIC KNEW ABOUT THE JUSTICE SYSTEM?

In an increasingly fractured world, with all of the challenges we face, I wish the public understood how important our justice system is to achieve fairness, maintaining freedom and individual rights, protecting the public, and ensuring the survival of our precious democracy.  

I also wish that French-speaking minorities outside of Quebec were more aware of and sought to exercise their rights to bilingual or French-language proceedings.