THE ADVOCATE 511
VOL. 80 PART 4 JULY 2022
GHOSTS OF THE COUNTY COURT
By the Honourable Justice David A. Crerar
Neglected in the shadow of the Great Hall elevator, the portrait
gallery of Vancouver County Court judges exudes a slight sadness.
1 The court it honours has been deceased for 32 years,
since it merged with the Supreme Court of British Columbia
on Canada Day, 1990, with the 51 County Court judges becoming, and outnumbering
the existing 39, Supreme Court judges.2 The limited space on
the wall does not permit portraits of all Vancouver County Court judges in
its history; while it provides a complete collection of judges appointed
before 1965, the remaining spaces feature only those judges who finished
their careers on the County Court, and who were not later appointed to the
Supreme Court of British Columbia, or beyond.3
All of the men on the wall have now passed on. The only survivor featured
on the wall is the sole woman, and a somewhat triumphalist exception
to the system of portrait selection just described: Beverley McLachlin,
now retired Chief Justice of Canada, during her five-month stint on the
County Court, her first judicial appointment, at the start of her meteoric
rise.4 She was also the last veteran of the County Court to retire as a judge,
on December 15, 2017.5
Crerar J. with law clerks Tristan Packwood-Greaves, Tunc Dogan and Roslyn Grant, with the three reframed County Court judges.
Three of the frames were especially poignant: bare names and dates written
in the white space, with the stark advice: “NO PHOTOGRAPH AVAILABLE.”
6 These lacunae have always troubled the author, from his days as a
law clerk, not only for the indignity inflicted on these jurists, but also given