THE ADVOCATE 15
VOL. 79 PART 1 JANUARY 2021
several years on the Supreme Court, solid judgment and writing skills, the
right age and a vacancy in the office of the chief at the right time. Lance
Finch was the right person to be appointed chief, and he was ready at the
right time.”
On his appointment, Lance mused about a Vancouver Sun article that had
described Chief Justice McEachern as “a hard act to follow”. The same week
as the Sun article, Justice Proudfoot raised the stakes at a Vancouver Bar
Association luncheon by saying he was “an impossible act to follow.” In a
typically disarming manner, Lance described this sentiment as the only
occasion where the entire Court of Appeal might share a unanimous opinion.
He then quipped that the whole situation reminded him of a four-line
verse quoted by Stuart Keate, the late publisher of the Vancouver Sun:
Pierre had a dog team, the pride of the bay,
The lead dog got sore so he gave him away,
But the team kept on running, as though they had wings,
The second dog had a new outlook on things.
While Lance brought his own quieter style of leadership to the office of
Chief Justice, he led the court by seeking cooperation, building consensus
and fostering collegiality like Chief Justice McEachern had done for over 22
years. He described the office of Chief Justice as “first among equals”, and
this collegial approach meant he rarely had to impose his views on the court
in matters of administration. Months before he died, I told Lance I often
considered what he would do when confronted with a difficult problem. As
those months became weeks, he drew me into his home office on a visit and
gestured at his McEachern portrait, having been similarly influenced by
him.
Lance sat full-time as Chief Justice, writing many judgments of note, his
most recent one perhaps being Carter v. Canada (Attorney General), where
his dissent would help shape the interpretation of Canada’s assisted dying
laws. Despite sitting on many of the court’s most noteworthy cases, Lance
was committed to his vision of a generalist court, letting chance often select
who would sit on such cases. He carried the principle of equality of opportunity
within the court beyond its walls and remained concerned, past his
retirement, with the cost of justice and access to the courts.
Up to his final weeks, Lance remained an active participant in pro bono
cases before the Court of Appeal, acting as a mentor to younger lawyers
preparing and arguing cases before the court. He also had a special respect
for Indigenous peoples and the challenges they face in Canadian society,
speaking strongly in 2012 of the need to make space in Canadian law for
Indigenous legal orders.