Viscount Bennett Lecture: Hon. Michel Bastarache
On November 12th, the Hon. Michel Bastarache, former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, delivered this year’s Viscount Bennett Lecture. The title of the lecture was “How Internationalization of the Law Has Materialized in Canada”.
The Viscount Bennett Lecture was established under the terms of the will of Viscount Bennett of Mickleham, Calgary and Hopewell. Born at Hopewell Cape, Richard Bedford Bennett (1870-1947) had a long and distinguished career as lawyer, politician and statesman, serving as prime minister from 1930 to 1935. In 1941 he was raised to the peerage of the United Kingdom. In commemoration of Viscount Bennett’s life and career, this Lecture Series promotes greater appreciation of the role of law in contemporary society.
This year’s lecturer, the Honourable Michel Bastarache, received his education at the Université de Moncton (B.A), Université de Montreal (LL. L.), University of Ottawa (LL. B.) and the Université de Nice (graduate degree in public law). He was called to the New Brunswick Bar in 1980, the Alberta Bar in 1985, and the Ontario Bar in 1986.
Over the course of his career, Michel Bastarache has held positions in academia, government, business, and the judiciary. In 1978, he joined the Université de Moncton as a Law Professor and then became the Dean of that Law School from 1980 to 1983. After acting as the Director General for the Promotion of Official Languages in the Department of the Secretary of State of Canada, he joined the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa and from 1984 to 1987, he acted as the Associate Dean of the Common Law section of that Faculty. In 1987, he turned to the practice of law joining the firm of Lang Michener Lash Johnston and becoming a partner in 1988. He returned to New Brunswick in 1989 to become the president and Chief Executive Officer of Assumption Mutual Life. In 1994, he returned to the practice of law at the Moncton office of Stewart McKelvey Stirling Scales. He was appointed to the New Brunswick Court of Appeal in 1995 and was promoted to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1997. During this period, he wrote more than 150 judgments and from 2004-2008, he acted as Vice-Chair of the National Judicial Institute. He retired from the Supreme Court on June 30th 2008. He is currently counsel at the firm of Heenan Blaikie.
Michel Bastarache is the author of a number of articles and books including the very recently published The Law of Bilingual Interpretation (2008) and acted as Editor in Chief of the Canadian Bar Review from 1998-2005. He has received honourary doctorates in law from a number of academic institutions including the University of New Brunswick, LL.D. (Hon.) 2007; the University of Moncton, LL.D. (Hon.) 1998, Dalhousie Law School, LL.D. (Hon.), 1998; and Ottawa University, LL.D. (Hon.) 1998. He has received a number of awards recognizing his contributions to the field of law and language rights including the medal marking the 125th anniversary of the Université de Montreál’s Faculty of Law in 2003, the Officier de la Légion d’honneur (France) 2003, and the Prix Boréal, Fédération des communautés francophones et acadiennes du Canada, 1995.
