Bertha Wilson

Some judges seem on a path to greatness from their early years. There often appears a direct route that leads from their early lives to their later triumphs. But there are others whose journey to greatness is more circuitous and unexpected. Their early years exhibit little that suggests that they will get the opportunity to achieve the ultimate standing that they come to occupy in society. They do not go looking for greatness. Nor is it reluctantly forced upon them. It is more the case that, simply by doing what they would normally do and being true to themselves, they stumble on greatness. Their particular talents only get a chance to be noticed and come to be appreciated when there is a propitious confluence of character and circumstance – cometh the hour and the place; cometh the woman. Bertha Wilson is one of those judges. In the tables of great judges, she is one of those wonderful examples who confound almost all stereotypes of what it takes to be a great judge. Very much an outlier in most aspects of her life, it was only fitting that she also became one of the most feted and unique of Canadian judges. Who she was became an important dimension of what she did and, as importantly, how she was received. She did not go looking for any special place in history, but history came looking for her. And, as was the case with her American contemporaries, Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and her English successor, Brenda Hale, history found an original who made a big difference to the world of judging and those who were affected by her decisions.