A Lakes District Secondary School graduate has been appointed to the appellate courts of three Canadian jurisdictions.
On March 7, federal Justice Minister Peter MacKay announced that Russell S. Brown had been appointed a justice of appeal of the Alberta Court of Appeal, a judge of the Court of Appeal for the Northwest Territories, and a judge of the Court of Appeal of Nunavut. Justice Brown replaces Madam Justice Myra B. Bielby (Edmonton), who elected to become a supernumerary judge as of Feb. 2.
Justice Brown, son of Burns Lake residents Jack and Barbara Brown, received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of British Columbia in 1987. He then attended the University of Victoria, where he graduated in 1994 with a Bachelor of Laws. In 1995, he was admitted to the Bar of British Columbia. He later received a Master of Laws (2003) and a Doctor of Juridical Science (2006), both from the University of Toronto.
In 2004, Justice Brown joined the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Law, where he served with distinction. On Feb. 8, 2013, he was appointed to the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench.
In Canadian provinces and territories, the court of appeal is the ‘court of last resort’ for citizens. A plaintiff or defendant dissatisfied with a ruling made by a lower court may appeal it to a court of appeal. The court’s panel of justices will then re-examine the case and make a ruling on it. That ruling, however, applies not just to the appellant’s case, but all similar cases in the applicable jurisdiction.