William Alexander Stevenson (May 7, 1934 – July 7, 2021) was a

Puisne Justice Puisne judge and puisne justice () are terms for an ordinary judge or a judge of lesser rank of a particular court. The term comes from a combination of the two French words, (since, later) and (born) which have been combined as or ; meaning ...

of 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 ...

from 1990 to 1992.

Early life

William Alexander Stevenson was born in

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, on May 7, 1934, to Alexander Lindsay Stevenson and Eileen Harriet Burns. In 1956, he graduated from the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta (also known as U of A or UAlberta, ) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, t ...

with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

, and then 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 1957. While at university, he helped found the ''

Alberta Law Review The ''Alberta Law Review'' is a peer-reviewed law review or legal journal, published quarterly by the Alberta Law Review Society. The Society is a non-profit organization consisting entirely of students from both the University of Alberta Faculty ...

'' and served as its first Editor in Chief. Upon graduation, he received the

Horace Harvey Horace Harvey (October 1, 1863 – September 9, 1949) was a lawyer, jurist, and a Chief Justice of Alberta, Canada. Early and family life Harvey was born in Elgin County, Canada West, on October 1, 1863, to William Harvey, Liberal Member of ...

Gold Medal in Law.

Legal career

He worked at the firm of Morrow, Morrow & Reynolds (subsequently Morrow, Reynolds and Stevenson, now Reynolds, Mirth, Richards & Farmer LLP) in Edmonton until 1968. Stevenson worked as counsel on '' Ponoka-Calmar Oils v Wakefield'', the last Canadian ruling rendered by the

Judicial Committee of the Privy Council The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) is the highest court of appeal for the Crown Dependencies, the British Overseas Territories, some Commonwealth countries and a few institutions in the United Kingdom. Established on 14 August ...

. In 1963, he became a teacher at the University of Alberta, serving as a full-time professor from 1968 until 1970 when he returned to his firm. In 1975, he was the first Chairman of the Legal Education Society of Alberta.

Judicial career

In 1975, he was appointed to the District Court of Alberta and then to the

Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta The Court of King's Bench of Alberta (abbreviated in citations as ABKB or Alta. K.B.) is the superior trial court of the Canadian province of Alberta. During the reign of Elizabeth II, it was named Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta. The Court w ...

in 1979. The following year he was appointed to the

Court of Appeal of Alberta The Court of Appeal of Alberta (frequently referred to as Alberta Court of Appeal or ABCA) is a Canadian appellate court that serves as the highest appellate court in the jurisdiction of Alberta, subordinate to the Supreme Court of Canada. Jur ...

, where he stayed for over ten years. He also served on the

Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories The Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories is the name of two different superior courts for the Canadian territory of the Northwest Territories, which have existed at different times. The first Supreme Court of the North-West Territories was cr ...

from 1976 to 1980, the

Court of Appeal for the Northwest Territories A court is an institution, often a government entity, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and administer justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law. Courts genera ...

from 1980 to 1990, and the Supreme Court of the Yukon Territory from 1978 to 1983. He was a founder of the Canadian Judicial Centre in the late 1980s, and was seen as a pioneer of continuing education for Canadian judges. On September 17, 1990, he was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada; however, he retired only two years later on June 5, 1992, for health reasons due to a progressive multidegenerative neurological condition. Between October 1990 and April 1992 he published a total of 21 reasons for judgment. In remarks to an Alberta Law Review reception in 2018, Supreme Court Justice Russell Brown characterized Stevenson's judgments as "models of uncommonly fine legal writing, characterized by economical, pithy and scrupulous legal analysis."

Death

Stevenson died in Edmonton on July 7, 2021, after being diagnosed with

stage 4 Stage 4 may refer to: * Key Stage 4 * ''Stage 4'' of ''Everywhere at the End of Time'' * Cambrian Stage 4 Cambrian Stage 4 is the still unnamed fourth stage of the Cambrian and the upper stage of Cambrian Series 2. It follows Cambrian Stage 3 an ...

cancer a month earlier.

Publications

Stevenson and Justice Jean E.L. Côté jointly authored the ''Annotations of The Alberta Rules of Court'' which were the basis for the ''Civil Procedure Encyclopedia'', a five volume treatise used often by barristers and the courts.

Awards

In 1992, Stevenson received an Honorary LLD from the University of Alberta. In 1996 he was made an Officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

.Governor General of Canada Order of Canada Recipients: William Alexander Stevenson, O.C., LL.B., LL.D., November 14, 1996.
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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stevenson, William Lawyers in Alberta Judges in Alberta Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada Officers of the Order of Canada University of Alberta alumni University of Alberta Faculty of Law alumni 1934 births 2021 deaths People from Edmonton