The Honourable Charles Doherty Gonthier
Mr. Justice Gonthier, B.A., B.C.L. Born in Montréal, Quebec, August 1, 1928. Son of Georges Gonthier and Kathleen Doherty. Educated at École Garneau, Ottawa; Collège Stanislas, Montréal (baccalauréat Paris); B.C.L., McGill University, 1951 (first class honours); Hon. LL.D., McGill University, 1990. D.H.C., Université de Montréal, 2002. DU, Ottawa University, 2003. Married in 1961 to Mariette Morin, M.D., M.Sc., F.R.C.S.(C), F.A.C.O.G. Children: Georges, François, Pierre, Jean-Charles and Yves. Called to the Bar of Quebec, 1952. Practised law in Montréal with Hackett, Mulvena & Laverty, 1952-57; with Hugessen, Macklaier, Chisholm, Smith & Davis, later known as Laing, Weldon, Courtois, Clarkson, Parsons, Gonthier & Tétrault, 1957-74. Appointed Q.C., 1971. Member of the Board of the Montréal Legal Aid Bureau, 1959-69. President of Junior Bar of Montréal, 1960-61. President of Junior Bar Section of the Canadian Bar Association, 1961-62. Member of the Board of Montréal Bar, 1961-62. Secretary of the Quebec Division of the Canadian Bar Association, 1963-64. Member of the Committee on Building Contracts of the Quebec Civil Code Revision Office, 1969-72. Member of the Committee on Discipline of the Bar of Quebec, 1973-74. President of the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice, 1986-87. President of the Canadian Judges Conference, 1988-89. Chairman of the Commission for National Judges of the First World Conference on the Independence of Justice in Montréal, 1983. President of l'Association des anciens du Collège Stanislas, 1954-55. Secretary of the Montréal Branch of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs, 1957-58. Chairman of the Board of Collège Stanislas, 1984-90. Honorary Secretary of the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, 1961-76. Member of the Board of Directors of the McCord Museum of Canadian History, 1976-89. Knight of l'Ordre des palmes académiques - France, 1988. Fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers (hon.), 1996. Fellow, Canadian Bar Association, 2003. Lifetime member, Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice. Bar of Montreal Medal, 2003. Appointed to the Quebec Superior Court on October 17, 1974, to the Quebec Court of Appeal on May 24, 1988 and to the Supreme Court of Canada on February 1, 1989. Justice Gonthier retired from the Court on August 1, 2003, and was counsel in the firm McCarthy Tétrault (Montreal). He was Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law at the Law Faculty of McGill University of which he was Wainwright Senior Research Fellow. He was appointed Commissioner of the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), Canada's national cryptologic agency, effective August 1, 2006. He was appointed Companion of the Order of Canada (C.C.) on May 3, 2007. Justice Gonthier died on July 17, 2009, at the age of 80.
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