The Honourable Mahmud Jamal

Justice Mahmud Jamal was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada on July 1, 2021. He served as a justice of the Court of Appeal for Ontario from 2019 to 2021.

Before his appointment to the bench, Justice Jamal practised with Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP for over 23 years in the fields of appellate litigation, constitutional and public law, class actions, and commercial litigation. He appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada as counsel to a party or intervener in 35 appeals addressing a wide range of civil, constitutional, criminal, and regulatory issues, including issues of Quebec civil law. He also appeared before the courts of seven provinces, the Federal Court, the Federal Court of Appeal, the Tax Court of Canada, and various federal and provincial administrative tribunals.

As a lawyer, Justice Jamal was a director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, The Advocates’ Society, and the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History. He was an advocacy advisor to the Supreme Court Advocacy Institute and a trustee of the Canadian Business Law Journal. He has taught constitutional law at the Faculty of Law of McGill University and administrative law at Osgoode Hall Law School, and he has published widely in his areas of practice. He was also chair of his firm’s national pro bono program and a member of its partnership board.

Justice Jamal is an adjunct professor at the Faculty of Law of McGill University, a senior fellow of Massey College at the University of Toronto, and the chair of the Ontario Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee.

Justice Jamal was born in Kenya, raised in England, and completed high school in Edmonton, Alberta. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto, Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Civil Law degrees from the Faculty of Law of McGill University, and a Master of Laws from Yale Law School, which he attended on a Fulbright Scholarship. He served as a law clerk to Justice Melvin L. Rothman of the Quebec Court of Appeal and Justice Charles D. Gonthier of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Webcast of the Ceremony in honour of the Honourable Mahmud Jamal, on October 28, 2021, at 2:30 p.m.