"Chief Justice of Canada" Bora Laskin Signed FDC Dated 1977 Todd Mueller COA

Description

Up for auction the "Chief Justice of Canada" Bora Laskin Hand Signed FDC Dated 1977.
This item is certified authentic by Todd Mueller and comes with their Certificate of Authenticity.
ES-612A
Bora Laskin
,
PC
CC
FRSC
(October 5, 1912 – March 26, 1984) was a
Canadian
lawyer, academic and judge. He served on the
Supreme Court of Canada
for fourteen years, including a decade as the 14th
Chief Justice of Canada
.
Laskin was born in
Fort William
,
Ontario
(now
Thunder Bay
), the son of Max Laskin and Bluma Zingel. His brother,
Saul Laskin
, went on to become the first mayor of Thunder Bay. His other brother, Charles, was a shirt designer and manufacturer. Laskin married Peggy Tenenbaum. The couple had two children:
John
, who followed in his father's footsteps and became a judge at the
Ontario Court of Appeal
, and Barbara. His grandson (the son of his daughter) carries on his name. His nephew John B. Laskin is a judge of the
Federal Court of Appeal
, having previously been a faculty member of the
University of Toronto Faculty of Law
and a prominent commercial litigator in Toronto. Laskin was educated as a lawyer at
Osgoode Hall Law School
.
[4]
He initially studied at the
University of Toronto
, earning a
Bachelor of Arts
in 1933. He received the degrees of
Master of Arts
in 1935 and earned a
Bachelor of Laws
from the University of Toronto in 1936.
While at the University of Toronto, he was a member of
Sigma Alpha Mu
fraternity.In 1937, he received a
Master of Laws
from
Harvard Law School
. He earned a gold medal at both the University of Toronto Law School and at Harvard Law School.
Despite his superior academic record, Laskin, who was
Jewish
, was unable to find work at any law firm of note, because of the
anti-Semitism
that pervaded the English-Canadian legal profession at the time. As a result, his first job after graduating was writing headnotes (
i.e.
, article synopses) for the
Canadian Abridgement
, a legal research tool. In order to be called to the bar, it was required that he serve
articles
with a lawyer who was already a member of the bar. He had trouble finding a lawyer who would serve as his principal, because non-Jewish lawyers would not accept Jewish students. Through connections, he eventually found a young Jewish lawyer, Sam Gotfrid, who was willing to sign as his principal, but Gotfrid was himself only just starting out and could not provide Laskin with any work or salary. A year into his articles, Laskin found a non-Jewish lawyer, W.C. Davidson, who was willing to take him as an articling student, and he finished his articles with Davidson. In later years, Laskin would say that he articled with Davidson, not mentioning his initial start with Gotfrid.
Ultimately, Laskin decided to pursue his career in academia. From 1940 to 1965 he taught at the University of Toronto (except for the period 1945 - 1949 when he taught at Osgoode Hall Law School). For twenty-three years he served as associate editor of Dominion Law Reports and Canadian Criminal Cases. He also wrote
Canadian Constitutional Law
and many other legal texts. His interests were in labour law, constitutional law, and human rights. He was a founding member of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.