Former SCOC justice wins prize for memoir

While she may have been awarded a $25,000 prize for political writing on Wednesday, former Supreme Court justice Beverley McLachlin doesn’t see herself as a political person — at least not in the colloquial sense.

As Canada’s longest-serving chief justice, and the first woman to hold the position, McLachlin, born and raised in Pincher

Creek, felt it was her duty to steer clear of the parliamentary fray in order to uphold the principles of judicial independence.

Still, jurors for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize say McLachlin’s winning memoir, “Truth Be Told: My Journey Through Life and the Law,” is “essential reading for anyone interested in the intersection of law and politics in Canada.”

“I think political should be read, and probably is for this prize, in the broad sense of how we govern ourselves,” McLachlin said by phone from Gatineau, Que. “The judiciary is often the overlooked branch of governance, but it is an independent branch of governance,” she continued. “In a very broad political-science sense, it is part of what is essential to making our country work.”

The tension between law and politics is in the headlines as U.S. lawmakers lock horns over the fate of late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Supreme Court seat. McLachlin, who received appointments from both Liberal and Conservative politicians, said she couldn’t see such division playing out over a Canadian court pick.

“(In the U.S.), there is this deep division between right and left, and different values and different ideals, and some justices are seen to epitomize one side and the other,” she said. “We don’t have anything like that in Canada. You can’t point to a judge who would be a Liberal or Conservative in any real sense.”

In “Truth Be Told,” published by Simon & Schuster,

McLachlin recalls meeting Ginsburg in Gatineau as part of a cross-border judicial exchange in the early 2000s.

“Ruth Bader Ginsburg wasn’t just going to be content with chit chat,” McLachlin tells The Canadian Press. “She leaned over to me at the table and she said, ‘Now, what is the history of women’s rights in Canada?’”

McLachlin told Ginsburg about the Famous Five activists, who fought for women to be legally recognized as persons in Canada.

“She was just fascinated. That was her passion,” said McLachlin. “She was a very serious woman, and cared deeply about equality and advancing the rights of women.”