THE ADVOCATE 735
VOL. 79 PART 5 SEPTEMBER 2021
Jeffrey W. Joudrey
On April 22, 2021, in Vancouver, with no forewarning,
the family and friends of Jeffrey Joudrey lost a
wonderful friend, devoted son and brilliant lawyer.
For a man known by all to have, metaphorically, a
big heart, the tragic irony is that it was his heart that
ultimately failed him. He was only 53 years old.
Jeff was born in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia on
November 12, 1967, to his parents Douglas and Sharyn Joudrey. Like many
Maritimers before them, Jeff’s family sought greener pastures “away”. They
settled in Edson, Alberta, a place that Jeff often fondly described as “a hill
and a swamp”.
Jeff spent his formative years living a bucolic life enjoying hunting and
fishing in rural Alberta. Not afraid of hard work, he spent some of his time
working on the many pipelines that dissect the province.
Jeff was an accomplished musician. He was a skilled drummer, playing
in various bands, including in one with his father. Music was a family passion
shared by his parents and siblings.
He was a passionate gardener whose interests were broad. He helped
landscape many properties when he found time away from the law. He had
a keen interest in the finer points of horticulture, including propagating
seeds, specific lighting and fertilizer needs of diverse plants, and the analysis
of plant productivity.
Jeff was an avid and talented fly fisherman, a passion he maintained,
though practised less often in later years than he would have liked. He was
legendary for creating (and selling, at a young age) his own flies.
At some point (we are unclear about the timing of this decision), Jeff’s
sense of wanderlust brought him to British Columbia for his higher education.
Never shy about engaging in a good argument, Jeff gravitated to such
subjects as philosophy and then law, much to the torment of his professors.
Mr. Justice Russell Brown of the Supreme Court of Canada remembered
him as a formidable student colleague in law school. Jeff was a proud graduate
of the University of Victoria Faculty of Law.
For a man who went on to great professional distinction, Jeff often
claimed that law was not his calling. He was passionate about many things,
including hockey, sports statistics, politics, horticulture, video games and,
perhaps above all else, cats. Unlike famous internet lawyers, Jeff was in fact
a cat (or he certainly seemed to be), whether as a cool cat (as he exuded his