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Remarks of the Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin, P.C.
Ceremony in Honour of the Honourable Morris Fish
October 15, 2003

Distinguished members of the Bench,
The Honourable Martin Cauchon, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada,
The Honourable Marc Bellemare, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Quebec,
Mr. William Johnson, President of the Canadian Bar Association,
Bâtonnier Denis Jacques, on behalf of the Bâtonnier of the Province of Quebec, Mr. Pierre Gagnon,
Former members of the Court and their spouses,
Distinguished members of the Bar,
Mrs. Judith Chinks-Fish, Laura, Amy, and all of the members of the Fish family,
Distinguished guests and friends of the Fish family,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is my great pleasure to officially welcome to his new duties my dear colleague, the Honourable Morris J. Fish. Mr. Justice Fish has already begun to sit in this historic courtroom, and you will all be reassured to hear that he was sworn in as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada well before doing so! As a result, today’s ceremony is not so much a formal ritual as an occasion to welcome him in our midst, an occasion to introduce Justice Fish, and an occasion for him to wear the ceremonial red robe, also known by a few of our grandchildren as the “Santa Claus outfit”.

First things first: I would now like to ask Anne Roland, the Registrar of the Supreme Court, to read the Commission under the Great Seal of Canada attesting to the appointment of the Honourable Mr. Justice Morris J. Fish as puisne judge of the Supreme Court of Canada, together with the oaths he swore in the judges’ library on September 9 last.

(Reading of the Commission and the Oath)

I now invite Mr. Justice Fish to join the Registrar in order to sign the Judges’ Ceremonial Roll Book.

Once the book is signed, I will ask Mr. Justice Fish to accept the Old Testament on which he swore the oath of office on September 9, 2003.

[...]

Thank you, Ms. Roland.

It is my privilege and my great pleasure to speak first on this occasion, and to greet our new colleague on behalf of the Members of the Court.

Mr. Justice Fish was telling me the other day that when he once acquired a painting from his friend Marian Scott, she would not let him pay immediately. “Live with it for a month” she said, “and then you can decide whether you really want to keep it”. Well, we have lived with Morris for a little over a month now, and we are definitely keeping him!

Mr. Justice Fish comes to us from the Quebec Court of Appeal, where he spent more than fourteen years of his life. More than a dozen of his former colleagues on the Quebec Court of Appeal [translation] “filled up a bus”, as is said in Quebec, and are with us this morning to wish him good luck. Before his appointment to the Bench, Morris Fish was a distinguished member of the Quebec Bar, where he quickly rose through the ranks to become one of the most respected criminal lawyers of his generation - a reference and an inspiration for over 25 years. True Canadian that he is, Morris Fish was also, at one point in his professional life, a member of the Bars of Prince Edward Island and Alberta. But he is, first and foremost, a Montrealer, so deeply rooted in the life of this beautiful city that he was said by one journalist to have attended a high school that existed only in the imagination of Mordecai Richler.

His appointment to the Supreme Court was greeted with a shower of praise extolling his wisdom, his elegant writing style, his thorough knowledge of the law, his endearing sense of humour, his great tact. Indeed, the other day I saw on his desk a crystal gavel, which could only be used most delicately, if ever -- a perfect metaphor for the kind of judge he is. In a formula that was bound to be repeated over and over again, he was described as a “Mensch on the Bench”. From his colleagues’ point of view, you could also say “A Mensch for a Mensch”, since Mr. Justice Fish is replacing, among us, that other incarnation of the “gentleman” judge, the Honourable Charles Doherty Gonthier, whom I greet warmly this morning.

For Morris Fish, this is all well deserved praise from those who know him, love him, and respect him. Even the press described him, and I quote, as “a supremely wise and popular choice”. Now, it is true that Morris was a journalist in the early years of his professional life, but I know that the media would have said the same thing even if he had not once been one of them.

We are thus most fortunate to welcome among us one of the most distinguished jurists of his generation, the first Quebec anglophone named to this Court since Douglas Abbott in the 1950's, the first Jewish member of the court since Bora Laskin, who served as Chief Justice of Canada until 1984, and one of the most indefatigable storytellers you will ever encounter. Indeed, if I may paraphrase another storyteller, Nobel Laureate I. B. Singer, one can find in Morris Fish’s spirit, as in the Yiddish spirit, “expressions of pious joy, lust for life, longing for the Messiah, patience and deep appreciation of human individuality. There is a quiet humor in Morris and a gratitude for every day of life, every crumb of success, each encounter of love”. These are qualities he shares with Judy Fish, his wife and his partner in life. On the Montreal scene, the two of them brought their zest for life and their commitment to knowing and serving others. And this, they have now brought to us in Ottawa.

Mr. Justice Fish, Morris, welcome to our Court.

I would now like to ask the Honourable Martin Cauchon, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, to say a few words.

[ ...]

Thank you Minister Cauchon.

I would now like to ask Marc Bellemare, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Quebec, to say a few words.

[ ...]

Thank you Minister Bellemare.

I now invite Mr. William Johnson, President of the Canadian Bar Association, to say a few words.

[ ...]

Thank you Mr. Johnson.

I would now like to ask Bâtonnier Denis Jacques to say a few words on behalf of the Bâtonnier of the Province of Quebec, Mr. Pierre Gagnon.

[...]

Thank you Mr. Jacques.

And now, the time has come for Mr. Justice Fish to say a few words.

[ ...]

Thank you Mr. Justice Fish.

I have one final task and that is to thank you all for being with us on this special occasion. And I wish to particularly acknowledge the presence of our former colleague and Chief Justice Antonio Lamer who contributed so much to this Court. Thank you for being with us.

You are now all invited to join us for the reception in honour of Mr. Justice Fish. Guests are asked to kindly proceed to the judges’ dining room on the third floor, where we can all celebrate Mr. Justice Fish’s appointment.

The Court is adjourned until tomorrow morning.

Remarks of the Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin, P.C.
Chief Justice of Canada
Ceremony in Honour of the Honourable Morris Fish
Ottawa, Ontario
Wednesday, October 15, 2003