The Honourable Mary T. Moreau

The Honourable Mary T. Moreau was born in Edmonton, Alberta. Prior to entering law school, she studied at the Faculté Saint-Jean at the University of Alberta. She completed her Bachelor of Laws from the University of Alberta in 1979 while taking part in the common law/civil law exchange program at the Université de Sherbrooke in 1977. In 2019, she was granted an honourary Doctorate degree from the University of Alberta and, in November 2023, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Women in Law Leadership.

Justice Moreau was called to the Alberta Bar in 1980. As a lawyer, she practised primarily in criminal law, constitutional law, and civil litigation. She litigated several landmark cases involving minority language rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. She is a co-founder of the Association des juristes d’expression française de l’Alberta.

She was appointed as a justice of the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta in 1994. She was also appointed as a deputy judge of the Supreme Court of Yukon in 1996, and of the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories in 2005. In 2017, she was appointed Chief Justice of the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta.

Throughout her judicial career, Justice Moreau has been actively involved in judicial education, administration, and ethics.

She has regularly lectured at judicial education conferences and programs, and served as co-chair of the National Judicial Institute’s annual spring National Criminal Law Conference for six years. She has also actively participated in international judicial education and support projects in Mexico, Morocco, Haiti, Ukraine and Mongolia. She was a member of the National Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics from 2014 to 2017. She was president of the Canadian Superior Courts Judges Association from 2011 to 2012.

Up until recently, she chaired the Judicial Advisory Committee for Military Judge Appointments and also chaired the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs’ Judicial Advisory Committee on International Engagement.

Justice Moreau was a member of the Canadian Judicial Council from 2017-2023. She served on the Council’s Executive Committee, its Judicial Conduct Committee, and as chair of its Technology Subcommittee. She was a member of the Action Committee on Modernizing Court Operations, co-chaired by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada and the Chief Justice of Canada.

Justice Moreau was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada on November 6, 2023.

Webcast of the Ceremony in honour of the Honourable Mary T. Moreau held on February 19, 2024.