Keynote Address

Justice Mahmud Jamal was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada on July 1, 2021. He previously served as a Justice of the Court of Appeal for Ontario, where he rendered decisions in all areas of the Court’s civil and criminal jurisdiction.

Before his appointment to the bench, Justice Jamal practised with the law firm of Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP in Toronto for over 23 years in the fields of appellate litigation, constitutional and public law, class actions, and commercial litigation. He appeared as counsel before the Supreme Court of Canada in wide range of civil, constitutional, criminal, and regulatory cases. He also appeared before various provincial courts across Canada, the Federal Court, Federal Court of Appeal, and Tax Court of Canada, and federal and provincial administrative tribunals.

As a lawyer, Justice Jamal was a director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, The Advocates' Society, and the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History. He was an advocacy advisor to the Supreme Court Advocacy Institute and a trustee of the Canadian Business Law Journal. He has taught constitutional law at the Faculty of Law, McGill University, administrative law at Osgoode Hall Law School, and published widely in his areas of practice. He was also chair of his firm’s national pro bono program for many years and a member of its Partnership Board.

Justice Jamal was born in Kenya, raised in England, and completed high school in Edmonton, Alberta. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto, Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Civil Law degrees from the Faculty of Law, McGill University, and a Master of Laws from Yale Law School, which he attended on a Fulbright Scholarship. He served as law clerk to Justice Melvin L. Rothman of the Quebec Court of Appeal and Justice Charles D. Gonthier of the Supreme Court of Canada.