John Sopinka
John Sopinka
Introduction to John Sopinka
John Sopinka (1933-1997), Canadian jurist and puisne (associate) justice of the Supreme Court of Canada (1988-1997). He was born in Broderick, Saskatchewan, to parents who had emigrated from Ukraine. He earned his bachelor's degree in 1955 and his law degree in 1958 from the University of Toronto. While in law school, Sopinka briefly played professional football with the Toronto Argonauts and the Montréal Alouettes. He then built a law practice and became one of the best-known lawyers in Toronto, Ontario. Sopinka was also coauthor of The Law of Evidence in Canada (1992), one of the most widely cited books on the subject. When Prime Minister Brian Mulroney appointed him to the Supreme Court in May 1988, Sopinka had no prior judicial experience. It has been customary for the Court to include one such member.
On the Supreme Court, Sopinka was a solid member of the majority group led by Chief Justice Antonio Lamer (served 1990-2000), writing more decisions for the Court than any other member except Lamer himself. He was a moderate concerning equality rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the guarantee of rights that became part of the Canadian constitution in 1982. His frequently quoted separate concurrence in McKinney v. University of Guelph (1991) warned that applying the charter too broadly would “impose on the whole country a regime not forged through the democratic process but by the heavy hand of the law.” He also wrote the decision in R. v. Butler (1992), which found that “reasonable limits” on pornography were allowable in the interest of protecting women from harm, despite the charter's guarantee of freedom of expression.
Sopinka was an aggressive leader with regard to legal rights under the charter. His most significant (and controversial) cases included R. v. Stinchcombe (1991), which set very broad requirements for the information prosecutors are obligated to disclose to the defense in criminal cases. He also wrote the decision for R. v. Carosella (1997), which required rape crisis centers to make their records available to criminal defendants.
While on the bench, Sopinka spoke out strongly against the prevailing belief that judges should not participate in public debate. In 1989 he gave a widely quoted speech asking, “Must a Judge Be a Monk?” and answered with an emphatic negative. Sopinka died unexpectedly of a heart ailment in 1997.” (1)