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Brian Dickson
Dickson (Robert George) Brian
Introduction to Brian Dickson
Brian Dickson (1916-1998), Canadian jurist and chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada (1984-1990). He was born in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, and studied at the University of Manitoba, receiving his law degree in 1938. After returning from service in World War II (1939-1945), where he lost a leg in the invasion of Normandy, France, he practiced corporate law in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In 1963 he was appointed to the Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench, and he was named to the Manitoba Court of Appeal in 1967. In March 1973 Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau appointed Dickson as a puisne (associate) justice on the Supreme Court, and in April 1984 Trudeau elevated him to chief justice of the Court.
Dickson became chief justice at a crucial time for the Court. Two years earlier the government had enacted the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, an addition to the federal constitution that protected a number of individual and group rights for Canadians. The charter charged the judicial system with upholding those rights. The Dickson Court delivered the first generation of decisions interpreting the charter. Those decisions overturned the Court's long history of conservatism by claiming a much more active and significant role for the judiciary in Canadian political life. Dickson delivered many of the most important decisions of this period and led a Court whose strong unity was vital in overcoming the uncertainty surrounding the charter.
Dickson's decision in Hunter v. Southam (1984) was particularly important in establishing the Court's new direction. In the case, Canada's largest newspaper chain challenged the search-and-seizure powers granted in the Combines Investigation Act. The decision laid down strict new guidelines for the issuing of search warrants. More significantly, it mandated that the courts take a broad and “purposive” approach to the charter, by considering the social and policy effects of their rulings rather than narrowly following the letter of the law. Many lawyers and academics regard this as one of the best-written judgments ever delivered by the Supreme Court.
In R. v. Oakes (1986) Dickson made an important ruling on section 1 of the charter, which allows for “reasonable limits” on the rights guaranteed by the charter. His decision formulated a four-stage test for judging those limits. Most importantly, it obligated the government to demonstrate why limiting a charter right was necessary.” (1)