Charles Doherty Gonthier

Gonthier Charles Doherty

Introduction to Charles Doherty Gonthier

Charles Doherty Gonthier, born in 1928, Canadian jurist and puisne (associate) justice of the Supreme Court of Canada (1989-2003).

Gonthier was born in Montréal, Québec, and earned a bachelor's degree from the Collège Stanislas in Montréal in 1947. He received his law degree from McGill University in 1951, and in 1952 he began practicing law in Montréal. He was appointed to the Québec Superior Court in 1974 and then to the Québec Court of Appeal in 1988. In February 1989 Prime Minister Brian Mulroney named Gonthier to the Supreme Court of Canada.

From 1989 to 1997 Gonthier frequently sided with Justice Gérard La Forest on what was usually the minority side of the Court. Gonthier and his allies often dissented from the Court's majority; these dissents were characterized by a more narrow interpretation of the individual rights granted by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. They also believed that judges should defer more often to the laws made by legislatures rather than overturning these laws. The retirement of La Forest in 1997 isolated Gonthier, most dramatically in his lone dissent in M. v. H. (1999). Gonthier argued in this dissent that provincial legislation excluding same-sex couples from the legal definition of marriage did not violate the equality rights guaranteed by the charter. He also dissented from many of the Court's other major decisions that expanded equality rights, freedom of expression, and the rights of criminal defendants.

Gonthier has written decisions or dissents for the Court less frequently than most justices. His highest profile decision was Thibaudeau v. Canada (1995), which upheld the provisions of the federal Income Tax Act that taxed the recipients, rather than the payers, of alimony and support payments. Gonthier reached the Court's mandatory retirement age of 75 in 2003.” (1)

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Information about Charles Doherty Gonthier in the Encarta Online Encyclopedia

Guide to Charles Doherty Gonthier

Law is our Passion

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This entry was last updated: August 24, 2014