A Historic Appointment
In July 2021, Mahmud Jamal became the first person of colour to serve on the Supreme Court of Canada. “When I was appointed, I was contacted by many young lawyers, students and other Canadians, many who were immigrants or visible minorities, and they told me what my appointment meant to them. It came as something of a shock to me in terms of the impact that it was having on other communities… This is an opportunity not just for me but for them and for their children.”

A Distinguished Career
Justice Jamal was the first in his family to attend university. He earned law degrees from McGill and Yale, then built a distinguished 23-year career as a litigator, appearing before the Supreme Court no less than 35 times as counsel. His commitment to pro bono work and legal education has been a significant part of his career. Before joining the Supreme Court, he served on the Court of Appeal for Ontario beginning in 2019.

The Responsibility of Representation
In his advisory board interview, Justice Jamal spoke of the “tremendous responsibility” that comes with being from a racialized community or minority. “They can see their own faces reflected in the justice system,” he explains. All nine justices share this responsibility to the institution, to the future of the Constitution, and to fidelity to the law.

Balancing Individual Rights and State Authority
Justice Jamal addresses the Court’s role in criminal cases, where it adjudicates the rights of accused persons challenging state authority. “It’s important that individuals have rights, but it’s also important as part of the balance that we maintain appropriate powers of the police and other state authorities to investigate offenses… Much of judging is about striking a balance between competing principles.”

Pluralism as a Unifying Principle
“The only unifying principle that seems to tie my life together is an abiding belief in pluralism,” Justice Jamal shares. His diverse experiences include immigrating to Canada from the United Kingdom, growing up in Edmonton, studying law in Montreal’s linguistically diverse environment, and working internationally. “We have a great opportunity and responsibility to explore all these forms of diversity in our adjudication.”

Legal Pluralism: Common Law, Civil Law, and Indigenous Law
Justice Jamal studied both common law and civil law at McGill, gaining appreciation for viewing legal problems from different perspectives. He emphasizes that Canada’s three foundational legal systems — common law, civil law, and Indigenous law — are all “valuable and worth exploring.”

Learning from Comparative Law
“Studying law in a foreign country allows you to gain a deeper appreciation of your own legal systems. It also allows you to see the possibilities of comparative law.” Justice Jamal studied at Yale and frequently dealt with lawyers in Japan, the United States, and Europe during his practice. “Lawyers and judges are essentially problem solvers. The more tools that we have to solve those problems, either domestic tools or international tools, the better problem solvers we will be.”

Hunter v. Southam: A Foundational Charter Case
Justice Jamal discusses Hunter v. Southam (1984), one of the early decisions interpreting Section 8 of the Charter (the right to be secure against unreasonable search and seizure). Justice Dickson, looking to American jurisprudence and Viscount Sankey’s “living tree” metaphor, established that Section 8 protects a reasonable expectation of privacy — requiring prior judicial authorization (a warrant) rather than regulatory authorization for searches.

Adapting Precedent to New Technology
“We have to apply these broad principles to deal with pressing problems that come before the court, dealing with new technology that wasn’t contemplated, that didn’t exist at the time the Charter was enacted in 1982.” Cases like Spencer and Bykovets have extended privacy protections to online searches, building upon Hunter v. Southam’s foundation.

Temporary Custodians of the Constitution
Justice Jamal offers a powerful metaphor for the Court’s role: “It’s like a relay race. We are given the baton from our predecessors. We take it forward for a period of time. We try and protect the institution. We try and protect the law and then we pass the baton to somebody else. We are temporary custodians of the Constitution and of the law. We pass it on to the next generation when our time is done.”