OTTAWA — A century and a half ago, it had only six judges, no permanent home and a less than onerous workload.
The Supreme Court of Canada is tracing its storied history, and somewhat humble beginnings, to mark its 150th anniversary this year.
As part of the celebrations, the high court plans a ceremonial opening Monday to the judicial year — the first such event since September 1986.
Legislation to create the new court was passed in the spring of 1875 and the first chief justice, William Buell Richards, was sworn in that October.
Richards, born in 1815 in Brockville, in what was then Upper Canada, was a lawyer and politician before becoming a judge.
Five other men rounded out the inaugural Supreme Court. The number of judges would increase to seven in 1927 and the current total of nine in 1949.
A Who’s Who of the country’s political circles attended a banquet hosted by Gov. Gen. Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood on Nov. 18, 1875, to inaugurate the new court, the Ottawa Daily Citizen reported.
The Governor General said in a toast that the establishment of the court marked a new epoch in the progressive history of the Dominion, exhibiting “proof and pledge of the stability of our Confederation.”
It had become a “homogenous and patriotic community, the inhabitants of what a few years ago were the scattered districts of Great Britain’s North American possessions,” he said.
In response, the chief justice said the judges had an earnest desire to perform their duties to provide “all proper assistance in establishing a government on the northern portion of the continent of America which will have the power to maintain liberty and order, and which will preserve life and property.”
For many years the Supreme Court would not have the last word on cases, as its decisions could be appealed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the United Kingdom. The judicial committee played this role until 1933 for criminal appeals and 1949 for civil ones.
At the Supreme Court’s first sitting on Jan. 17, 1876, “there were no cases to be heard,” notes a historical outline published on the court’s website.
The first case, a reference from the Senate on a private bill, came before the court in April 1876. The judges heard a handful of cases that June, including one on licence fees for brewers.
The Supreme Court had no dedicated home, so early hearings were held in available spaces on Parliament Hill, with a newspaper reporting that one sitting took place in the Senate reading room.
In 1882, the court moved to a now-demolished two-storey building at the edge of Parliament Hill.
Just months before the start of the Second World War in 1939, Queen Elizabeth, the grandmother of King Charles, laid the cornerstone of the court’s current home just west of Parliament Hill. She told a crowd that Canada was “rightly proud of being a land governed by the rule of law.”
The Supreme Court will vacate the art deco building in 2026 while it undergoes extensive, multi-year renovations.
The court’s judges and staff are slated to move across the street to the West Memorial Building, which is also being completely refurbished.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 5, 2025.
Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press
