Bertha Wilson

Bertha Wernham Wilson (September 18, 1923 – April 28, 2007) was a Canadian jurist and the first female puisne justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. Before her ascension to Canada's highest court, she was the first female associate and partner at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt and the first woman appointed to the Court of Appeal for Ontario. During her time at Osler, she created the first in-firm research department in the Canadian legal industry.

Early life Wilson was born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, on September 18, 1923. She was the daughter of Archibald Wernham and Christina Noble. She received a Master of Arts degree in philosophy from the University of Aberdeen in 1944. In 1949, Bertha Wilson emigrated to Canada with her husband, Reverend John Wilson, a Presbyterian minister, whom she had married in 1945. Three years later, in 1952, her husband became a naval chaplain during the Korean War, and she worked as a dental receptionist in Ottawa. In 1954, her husband was posted to Halifax, Nova Scotia and they both moved.

Legal career

In 1955, Wilson was admitted to Dalhousie University to study law, and three years later she completed her Bachelor of Laws degree (LLB), and was called to the bar of Nova Scotia. Wilson moved to Toronto and joined Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt in 1958, a year before she was called to the bar of Ontario, where she later became the firm's first female associate. In 1968, Wilson became Osler's first female partner. She founded the research department at Osler, which was the first of its kind in Canada, becoming a model for other research departments.

Wilson was the first woman appointed to the Court of Appeal for Ontario in 1975. In March, 1982, she became the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada, nominated by Pierre Trudeau. Wilson retired from the court in January 1991, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and in 1992, she was named Companion of the Order of Canada.

Death Wilson developed Alzheimer's disease later in life and died in an Ottawa, Ontario, retirement home on April 28, 2007, at the age of 83.