Claire L'Heureux-Dubé: A Life

by Constance Backhouse

Both lionized and vilified, Claire L'Heureux-Dubé has shaped the Canadian legal landscape – and in particular its highest court. Only the second woman on the Supreme Court of Canada, L'Heureux-Dubé anchored her approach to cases in their social, economic, and political context. This compelling biography takes a similar tack, tracing the experience of a francophone woman within the male-dominated Quebec legal profession – and within the primarily anglophone world of the Supreme Court. In the process, Claire L'Heureux-Dubé enhances our understanding of the Canadian judiciary, the creation of law, the Quebec socio-legal environment, and the nation's top court.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Law, History

600 pages, Hardcover

Published October 25, 2017

Reviews

[Elisabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I ordered this book really just out of respect for the author, Constance Backhouse, who is a law professor and has published several books on feminist history and women’s legal position. She is also a cousin of my husband.
I thought I would simply “dip in” to the book to get its flavour, not read it all — especially when I saw it had 545 pages plus another 150 pages of notes.
But instead I was hooked near the beginning and couldn’t put it down.
At a time when a new film about US Supreme Court judge Ruth Bader Ginsberg is in the theatres, and we are in a #metoo year — this book, featuring the second woman appointed to the Canadian Suoreme Court, is particularly interesting. A fascinating film could be made of her life.
Growing up in Quebec in the 1930s-1940s, educated in a convent, with all the pressures to conform to religious and societal models of retiring female domesticity, Claire fought her way into university and then law school and passed the bar. She built a career as a lawyer, then became a judge, and ultimately ended on the Supreme Court.
She did not identify herself as a feminist, and many of her battles for her career took place before Betty Friedan or the 1960s/70s “second wave” of feminism happened. But she gradually developed a view of how women should be treated by the law, based not just on legal texts but on social analyses, and ultimately became a lightning rod for anti-feminist polemics for some of the key opinions she wrote, particularly on consent and sexual assault.
Backhouse gives us a picture of L’Heureuse-Dube’s life, in the context of Quebec’s transformation during the “Quiet Revolution” years. She also describes several of her key cases and their impact.
Not a light read, but definitely an interesting one.

[Wes Pue · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book on an historic SCC judge, written by a remarkable historian who is herself a figure of historical importance. Very readable. Exhaustively researched. Smart. It’s subject is formidable feminist judge who would not call herself a feminist. Though offering high praise for Claire L’Heureux-Dube, the author identifies significant failings, especially with regard to issues touching on race. The chapter on law and religion alone is worth the price of the book.

[Jeffrey Westman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t keep many books that I’ve already read - I usually try to gift them to other people who might be able to enjoy the book themselves. This is a book I’ve decided to keep. It’s unusually intimate, and there were many parts where I saw myself or others. I plan to read it again in a few years.

[Kathleen]

A fascinating history of women in law in Quebec. First woman from Quebec to reach the supreme Court. Huge book but don't let that put you off very readable especially for English Canadians. Definitely an old boys network