Frank Iacobucci

Introduction to Frank Iacobucci

Frank Iacobucci, born in 1937, Canadian jurist and puisne (associate) justice of the Supreme Court of Canada (1991-2004).

Iacobucci was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. He attended the University of British Columbia, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1961 and a law degree in 1962. In 1964 he earned a master's degree in law at Cambridge University in England. From 1967 to 1985 he was a professor and then the dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto. He served for three years in the federal government, first as deputy minister of justice and then as deputy attorney general of Canada. He was a constitutional adviser to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney during the Meech Lake Accord, an unsuccessful attempt to amend the Constitution of Canada to recognize Québec as a distinct society within Canada. In 1988 Iacobucci was appointed chief justice of the Federal Court of Canada, and in January 1991 Mulroney named him to the Supreme Court of Canada.

On the Court led by Chief Justice Antonio Lamer (served 1990-2000), Iacobucci was a solid member of the five-judge group that often formed the majority on the Court. His most dependable ally was Justice Peter Cory, who sometimes coauthored decisions and dissents with Iacobucci. The most important of these decisions was the string of cases establishing the rights of gays and lesbians under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Their joint decision in Vriend v. Alberta (1998) found that the Alberta Individual Rights Protection Act protected individuals against discrimination based on sexual orientation, even though the act did not specifically mention such discrimination. Their decision in M. v. H. (1999) invalidated provincial laws treating same-sex couples differently from heterosexual couples.

Iacobucci also wrote many decisions for the Court dealing with tax law. In Symes v. Canada (1993), which is sometimes called the Nanny Case, he found that the provisions of the federal income tax act that limited deductions for childcare as a business expense did not violate the equality rights of women professionals. His decision in Vancouver Society of Immigrant and Visible Minority Women v. M.N.R. (1999) denied the Vancouver Society's request for status as a charity. The case marked the Court's first thorough discussion of the definition and scope of charitable activities. Iacobucci retired in 2004.” (1)

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Notes and References

Information about Frank Iacobucci in the Encarta Online Encyclopedia

Guide to Frank Iacobucci

Law is our Passion

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This entry was last updated: August 24, 2014