Binnie, Ian (1939-…), served as a puisne (associate) justice of the Supreme Court of Canada from 1998 to 2011. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien appointed him to the court. Before his appointment, Binnie was a senior partner at the law firm of McCarthy Tetrault in Toronto, Ontario.
William Ian Corneil Binnie was born in Montreal on April 14, 1939. He earned bachelor’s degrees in law from Cambridge University, in Cambridge, England, in 1963, and from the University of Toronto in 1965. Binnie was admitted to the Bar of England—that is, the body of lawyers licensed to practice law in England—in 1966. The following year, he was admitted to the Bar of Ontario. From 1967 to 1982, Binnie practiced law at a number of Toronto law firms.
In 1970 and 1971, Binnie also served as legal adviser for the Treasury Department of the government of Tanzania. From 1975 to 1979, he was a part-time lecturer on Aboriginal rights at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto. Binnie was associate deputy minister of justice for Canada from 1982 to 1986, when he joined McCarthy Tetrault.
In 1984, Binnie was admitted to practice law before the International Court of Justice, a judicial agency of the United Nations. Two years later, he was called to the Bar of the Yukon Territory (now Yukon). Binnie earned a master’s degree in law from Cambridge University in England in 1988. He was elected to the International Commission of Jurists in 2003 and became editor in chief of the Canadian Bar Review in 2005.
See also Supreme Court of Canada .
