522 THE ADVOCATE
VOL. 80 PART 4 JULY 2022
This article was generated as part of an in-house court project to assemble
biographies and photographs of all historic British Columbia Supreme Court of
Canada, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and County Court judges. The author
has been greatly assisted in this project by law clerks Tristan Packwood-Greaves,
Tunc Dogan and Roslyn Grant. The author is grateful for the assistance of
Michael Bain, Q.C., Diane Lemieux (Law Librarian, Judges’ Library) and Harry
Crerar in this project.
The project is still searching for photographs of three Country Court judges,
who sat in now-defunct courthouses:
• Andrew LEAMY (1901 to 1905), who sat in Grand Forks.
• John Robert BROWN (1907 to 1937), who sat in Grand Forks.
• Frederick CALDER (1907 to 1939), who sat in Ashcroft.
Any photographs or clues about these jurists gratefully received.
ENDNOTES
1. The author wishes to thank Christopher Harvey, QC,
for his helpful comments on an earlier draft of this
article, and Diane Lemieux (Law Librarian, Judges’
Library) and Harry Crerar for their assistance in
researching this article. The author also thanks
Andrea Mueller, Office Manager, Judicial Administration,
Supreme Court of British Columbia, and
Chester Spurek, Courts Services, for their assistance
with respect to the logistics of the portraits.
2. Including Warren Wilkinson, who on October 4,
1989 was the final County Court judge appointed.
3. The wall features all Vancouver County Court judges
(including those later elevated) up to William Schultz
CCJ/J (1962 to 1975). It then skips over all judges
later elevated to the Supreme Court, either at the
1990 merger or before, and features only those
judges who finished their careers on the County
Court. The only exceptions to this rule on the wall are
Walter Kirke Smith (1966 to 1969) and Beverley
McLachlin (1981). Pre-McLachlin Vancouver County
Court veterans not on the wall: James Allen Macdonald
(1965 to 1966); E Edward Hinkson (1968 to
1970); AA Mackoff (1970 to 1973); HE Hutcheon
(1973 to 1974); Patricia Proudfoot (1974 to 1977);
WJ Trainor (1973 to 1977); Raymond Paris (1974 to
1980); Allan AW Macdonell (1975 to 1981); John E
Spencer (1975 to 1981); Bruce D Macdonald (1980
to 1982); and Douglas B MacKinnon (1973 to
1985).
4. She served from April 10, 1981 to September 4,
1981 in Vancouver.
5. Two other veterans of the County Court retired just
before the Chief Justice. Justice Ian Josephson, QC
(CCJ 1989 to 1990 Westminster) retired from the
British Columbia Supreme Court on April 22, 2017.
Justice “Bud” Randall Wong (CCJ 1981 to 1990
Vancouver) retired on April 14, 2016. As judges
who became Supreme Court judges on merger, they
and their many contemporaries are not included on
the wall.
6. Upon the opening of the present Vancouver Law
Courts in 1979, Allan McEachern, the new Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court, directed that framed photographs
of every historic and present member of
that court be placed on the walls on the private
judges’ side of the building, in chronological order,
with dates of service. Attorney General Allan
Williams, on a tour of that hallway, was impressed
with the portrait display. He suggested that the project
be expanded to include the County Court and
Court of Appeal, and that the photographs also be
mounted on the public side of the courthouse.
McEachern CJBC’s executive secretary, Valerie
Forbes, is largely to credit for the completion of the
project, along with Ann Rector, the Judges’ Library
Librarian, and Court Law Officer Elizabeth Dunn.
The extant file for this project, in possession of the
Judges’ Library, revealed that the task of finding
older County Court judges’ portraits proved especially
difficult. The file reveals multiple inquiries to
various provincial archives, next of kin, veterans
organizations and the like. The letters include an
inquiry to the then dean of a Canadian law school
who had married the widow of a son of one of the
portraitless judges. The letter asked forgiveness for
“this strange request”. The project was completed
around June 1983.
7. This article will not attempt to set out a history of the
County Court. For commendable articles, see Alfred
Watts, QC, “The County Court of British Columbia”
(1968) 26 Advocate 245; David ML Farr, “The
Organization of the Judicial System in the Colonies
of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 1849–
1871” (1967) 3:1 UBC L Rev 1 at 30–31; the Honourable
James Teetzel Harvey, QC, “Goodbye
County Court” (October 1996). For an account of the