Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has nominated Ontario judge Mahmud Jamal to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Jamal, who would be the first person of colour to sit on the top court, was a longtime litigator before becoming a judge of the Ontario Court of Appeal two years ago.
As a lawyer he appeared in dozens of appeals before the Supreme Court on a wide variety of issues.
Jamal, fluent in English and French, also taught constitutional law at McGill University and administrative law at Osgoode Hall Law School.
Born in Kenya, he was raised in England, and completed high school in Edmonton before pursuing a bachelor of arts at the University of Toronto and law studies at McGill and Yale University in the United States.
He would fill the vacancy on the top court created by the retiring Rosalie Abella.
Members of the House of Commons justice committee and Senate committee on legal affairs, along with a member of the federal Green party, will soon take part in a question-and-answer session with Jamal.
The session will be moderated by Marie-Eve Sylvestre, dean of the civil law section at the University of Ottawa’s faculty of law.
