THE ADVOCATE 445
VOL. 80 PART 3 MAY 2022
NEW JUDGES
By R.C. Tino Bella
The Honourable Justice Bruce Elwood
Bruce Elwood was appointed as a judge of the
Supreme Court of British Columbia on February 7,
2022, following three years sitting as a master of the
court in Vancouver.
Bruce was born in New York City and moved to
Ottawa with his parents as a child so that his father
could take up a position as chair of the history
department at Carleton University. Bruce is the eldest of three siblings, and
his love of learning and the outdoors was cultivated by his family.
His first and most influential role model was his mother. When he was a
child, she took him along to volunteer in the homes of children with special
needs. While on family vacations, she insisted that they visit not only museums
and churches, but also economically disadvantaged communities. In
her early 50s, his mother left a secure job as a high school guidance counsellor
and returned to university to obtain a Ph.D. in psychology. She went
on to become a highly regarded child psychologist, expert witness and
author in the field of childhood trauma. Late in her life, she developed a
training program to address intergenerational trauma in First Nations communities.
From his mother, Bruce gained an innate sense of justice and saw
the impact of showing care for and understanding of others with differing
life experiences.
Bruce’s path through his scholastic career was not a straight one. While
meandering through a four-year science program at Queen’s University, he
took time off to work as a ski instructor in Wyoming, tree planter in northern
Ontario, construction worker in Atlanta, and groundskeeper and cook
in Alberta. He eventually obtained a bachelor of science degree from
Queen’s in 1987. His interests were focused primarily on geology and