Gloria Jean Epstein is a former judge of the

Court of Appeal for Ontario The Court of Appeal for Ontario (frequently mistakenly referred to as the Ontario Court of Appeal) (ONCA is the abbreviation for its neutral citation) is the appellate court for the province of Ontario, Canada. The seat of the court is Osgoode Ha ...

. She had also previously been appointed to the Court of Ontario. She is known for her 1999 trial ruling in ''

M v H ''M. v. H.'' 9992 S.C.R. 3, is a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of Canada on the rights of cohabiting same-sex couples to equal treatment under the law. The court found that the definition of spouse in section 29 of Ontario's '' Family L ...

'' that Ontario's ''Family Law Act'' was unconstitutional for discriminating against same-sex couples by denying them the same benefits as legally-married heterosexual couples. Epstein's decision was appealed up to the

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; , ) is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants eac ...

and upheld.

Early life and career

Epstein graduated in 1972 from Queen's University, earning an Honours

Bachelor of Commerce A Bachelor of Commerce (BCom or B Com) is an undergraduate degree in commerce, accounting, mathematics, economics, and management-related subjects. The degree is mainly offered in Commonwealth nations. Structure Bachelor of Commerce The Bac ...

. Epstein is a graduate of the

University of Toronto Faculty of Law The University of Toronto Faculty of Law (U of T Law, UToronto Law) is the law school of the University of Toronto, located at the University of Toronto#St. George campus, St. George campus in Downtown Toronto. It is the top ranked common law facu ...

, earning a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

in 1977. She founded one of the first

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

-based law firms that was owned by a woman. She often lectures on the role of female lawyers in Canadian law and her own experience in being raised to the bench while raising three children.

Judicial career

In 1999, Epstein, then serving on the

Ontario Superior Court of Justice The Superior Court of Justice (French: ''Cour supérieure de justice'') is a superior court in Ontario. The Court sits in 52 locations across the province, including 17 Family Court locations, and consists of over 300 federally appointed judges. ...

, ruled in ''

'' that the definition of a spouse in the '' Ontario Family Law Act'' was unconstitutional because it discriminated against same-sex couples by not providing them the same benefits as legally married heterosexual couples. The ruling was upheld by the

Ontario Court of Appeal The Court of Appeal for Ontario (frequently mistakenly referred to as the Ontario Court of Appeal) (ONCA is the abbreviation for its neutral citation) is the appellate court for the province of Ontario, Canada. The seat of the court is Osgoode H ...

and the Supreme Court of Canada after appeals by the Ontario government of Premier

Mike Harris Michael Deane Harris (born January 23, 1945) is a retired Canadian politician who served as the 22nd premier of Ontario from 1995 to 2002 and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC Party) from 1990 to 2002. Taking the PC ...

. That same year, she also ruled that the plaintiff of '' Joly v Pelletier'' had no valid standing before the Court because his claim that he was a

martian Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, has appeared as a setting in works of fiction since at least the mid-1600s. Trends in the planet's portrayal have largely been influenced by advances in planetary science. It became the most popular celes ...

meant he was not a "person" for the purposes of court proceedings. In 2011, Epstein was considered a candidate to fill a vacant

seat for Ontario, which ultimately went to Court of Appeal judge

Andromache Karakatsanis Andromache Karakatsanis (born October 3, 1955) is a Canadian jurist. She was nominated to the Supreme Court of Canada by Stephen Harper in October 2011. She is the first Greek-Canadian judge on the Court. Since the retirement of Rosalie Abell ...

. In 2013, Epstein won a Toronto

YWCA The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swit ...

Women of Distinction Award for her contributions to the legal field. From 2013 to 2015, Epstein served as the volunteer president of the University of Toronto Law Alumni Association. In 2014, after the December 2013 retirement of Warren Winkler as

Chief Justice of Ontario The Court of Appeal for Ontario (frequently mistakenly referred to as the Ontario Court of Appeal) (ONCA is the abbreviation for its neutral citation) is the appellate court for the province of Ontario, Canada. The seat of the court is Osgoode Ha ...

, Epstein was considered as one of the two leading candidates to replace him as Ontario's highest judge. On January 1, 2015, Epstein retired to become a

supernumerary judge A supernumerary judge or supernumerary magistrate is a judge who has retired from a full-time position on a court, but continues to work part-time. Generally, when a judge becomes supernumerary, a vacancy is created, and the appropriate person or bo ...

, and was replaced as a full-time judge by Bradley W. Miller.

Post-judicial career

The

Toronto Police Services Board The Toronto Police Service Board (TPSB) is the civilian police board that governs the Toronto Police Service (TPS). The board is responsible for approving the annual police budget, defining objectives and policies for TPS, and hiring Toronto's p ...

chair cited Epstein's "legal rigour and reputational excellence" as she was retained to head an independent review of the handling of missing persons investigations by Toronto police. Epstein is to retire as a part-time judge on September 1, 2018, to dedicate herself to the review, which is expected to conclude in early 2020. In April 2021, Epstein's report found that both regular investigative failings as well as the Toronto police's systemic discrimination against the LGBTQ community hampered their efforts in the Bruce Mcarthur murders, the

murder of Tess Richey Tess Richey (30 November 199425 November 2017) was a Canadian woman who was killed after a Friday night out with a friend in the Church and Wellesley neighbourhood of Toronto. Four days after she had disappeared, her body was discovered by her m ...

, the death of Alloura Wells, and other cases she reviewed. While Epstein did not find a deliberate intention to discriminate, she highlighted issues that arose from police "misconceptions and stereotypical ideas" about LGBTQ people such as failing to understand why witnesses might be reluctant to come forward from the community because of a long history of mistrust.

Personal life

Epstein began horse-riding in 1986, when she was 35. At The Royal 2012 she won the Adult Amateur Stake with a horse named Moonshadow. Epstein was overall Adult Amateurs champion with a horse called High Voltage on the Canadian Circuit in back-to-back years. In June 2013, Epstein was both the Champion and Reserve Champion in the Adult Amateurs at the Palgrave Summer Classic show.

References

External links

Missing and Missed - Report of The Independent Civilian Review into Missing Person Investigations
{{DEFAULTSORT:Epstein, Gloria J. Living people Justices of the Court of Appeal for Ontario Year of birth missing (living people) Canadian women judges Queen's University at Kingston alumni University of Toronto Faculty of Law alumni