338 THE ADVOCATE
VOL. 79 PART 3 MAY 2021
ance in advocating on behalf of disadvantaged clients, no matter how many
hurdles had to be overcome.
Susan has long been a champion of equality and equal treatment for all
those who come before the courts. As a young lawyer, she was involved in
a case where a female child was tragically and permanently brain damaged
in a car accident. Susan was startled to uncover in her research that case law
revealed differential treatment of male and female victims in awards for
loss of earning capacity, with females often receiving hundreds of thousands
of dollars less than their male counterparts. Rather than accepting
this inequality, Susan developed an argument that a female child ought to
be treated as having the same earning capacity as a male child—an award
should not be discounted simply on account of the victim’s gender. While
this argument seems obviously bound to succeed in today’s day and age, it
made only limited headway at the time, though the Supreme Court of
Canada did comment favourably on it. Thankfully, it has gained ground in
application in the years that followed.
In 1991, Susan made one of her most life-changing decisions: taking a
year out of practice to pursue an LL.M. at the London School of Economics
and Political Science, where she studied international law and international
human rights. She greatly admired Professor Rosalyn Higgins, who not only
taught international law at LSE, but also sat on the UN Human Rights Committee,
and in 1994 became a judge of the International Court of Justice.
The topics debated by students from around the world—human rights, sanctions,
the right of self-determination, war, international treaties and international
courts—were highly relevant to the times. The Berlin Wall had
come down, but war was ramping up in the former Yugoslavia and in
Kuwait, and Nelson Mandela had just been released from prison. The significance
of these world-changing events resonated with Susan, and years
later she would travel to Cape Town and visit Robben Island, where Mandela
had been held. She found it moving to see the harsh landscape, the rock
quarry where the prisoners worked, the small cells and the impact of racebased
rules that discriminated even down to the meagre diet fed to prisoners.
This experience stayed with Susan and continues to underpin the
compassionate approach she brings to the courtroom.
Susan’s time overseas was not all business and no play. The inspiration
for pursuing an LL.M. was in part sparked by her partner Marianne’s own
pursuit of a Ph.D. in biochemistry. No one has a greater work ethic than
Marianne, so it is very likely that a motivation to impress Marianne (along
with a little healthy competition, as Susan does have a wee bit of a competitive
streak, especially when playing euchre) contributed to Susan’s aca-