Turtle Talk

Here’s the Supreme Court of Canada’s report card in Aboriginal law.  Since the repatriation of the Constitution in 1982, the court has  found in favour (the “u” is added for all our dear Canadian friends) of Aboriginal interests a total of 21/64 times, or 32.8%.  The current make-up of the court (McLachlin, Binnie, LeBel, Deschamps, Fish, Abella, Charron, Rothstein, and Cromwell) have individually found in favour of Aboriginal interests 65/175 times, or 37.1%.

As you’ll see by looking at the numbers, in regard to Indian law, Canada’s Supreme Court has not had the villainous equivalents of Justices Thomas and Scalia (4/39 ~ 10.2% and 9/52 ~ 17.3%, respectively) though Justices Bastarache and Major came close with their records of 4/21 ~ 19% and 6/29 ~ 20.6%, respectively.  However, aboriginal interests in Canada have not been served by having Justices on the other end of the spectrum, like Brennan (8/11 ~ 72.7%), Marshall (10/13 ~ 76.9%), and Blackmun (13/20 ~ 65%)*

* These figures are only for voting history since 1986, the year Antonin Scalia, currently the longest serving Justice, joined the court.  Their voting records will, of course, be different if including pre-1986 cases.

Here’s the individual Justices’ breakdown:

McLachlin – 17/47 (36.1%)

Binnie 12/28 (42.8%)

LeBel – 6/22 (27.2%)

Deschamps – 6/18 (33.3%)

Fish – 6/16 (37.5%)

Abella 7/15 (46.6%)

Charron – 5/15 (33.3%)

Rothstein 4/9 (44.4%)

Cromwell 2/5 (40%)

And here’s the total breakdown of the Justices’ records since 1982.

Martland – 0/1 (0%)

Laskin – 0/1 (0%)

Ritchie – 2/5 (40%)

Chouinard – 3/8 (37.5%)

Beetz – 3/11 (27.2%)

Estey – 3/10 (30%)

McIntyre – 3/11 (27.2%)

Le Dain – 1/2 (50%)

Dickson – 7/15 (46.6%)

Wilson – 6/11 (54.5%)

Stevenson – 1/3 (33.3%)

La Forest – 6/21 (28.5%)

Lamer – 10/33 (30.3%)

Cory – 10/26 (38.4%)

L’Heureux Dubé – 12/26 (46.1%)

Gonthier – 12/35 (34.2%)

Iacobucci – 8/27 (29.6%)

Arbour – 2/7 (28.5%)

Major – 6/29 (20.6%)

Bastarache – 4/21 (19%)