David Watt

David Watt was a Justice of the Court of Appeal for Ontario from 2007 to 2021.

Early life He was educated at the University of Waterloo where he received a Bachelor of Arts in French and Criminology in 1967. He received an LL.B from Queen's University Law School and was a Silver Medalist. Watt was called to the Bar in 1972.

From 1972-1977 Watt worked as a lawyer, and was the Deputy Director of the Criminal Appeals and Special Prosecutions Branch. From 1977-1985 was Senior Crown Counsel with the Ministry of the Attorney General of Ontario and was responsible for argument of criminal appeals before the Ontario Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of Canada.

Watt is also the author of Tremeear’s Annotated Criminal Code, Watt’s Manual of Criminal Evidence, Watt’s Manual of Criminal Jury Instructions, Helping Jurors Understand, and Criminal Law Precedents which were published by Carswell.

In 1997 David Watt handed down a sentence of 2 years to convicted pedophile Gordon Stuckless. Two days later, victim and whistleblower Martin Kruze died by suicide.

Justice Watt retired from the Court of Appeal of Ontario and had his swearing out ceremony on his 75th birthday on November 2, 2021.