Fish, Morris Jacob (1938-…), served as a puisne (associate) justice of the Supreme Court of Canada from 2003 to 2013. He was the first English Canadian justice from Quebec to be appointed to the court since the 1950’s. Most appointees from Quebec have come from the province’s French Canadian majority. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien appointed Fish to the Supreme Court. Prior to his appointment, Fish served on the Quebec Court of Appeal, the highest court in the province.
Fish was born on Nov. 16, 1938, in Montreal, Quebec. In 1962, he received a bachelor’s degree in law from McGill University. From 1962 to 1963, Fish studied constitutional law and public liberties at the University of Paris. He was admitted to the Quebec Bar—that is, the body of lawyers licensed to practice law in Quebec—in 1964. He was also admitted to the Prince Edward Island Bar in 1968 and to the Alberta Bar in 1974.
From 1959 to 1970, Fish worked as a staff reporter, and then as an editorial writer, for the Montreal Star newspaper. He practiced law at a private Montreal law firm from 1967 to 1989. During the 1970’s and 1980’s, Fish also taught courses on criminal law at McGill University, the University of Ottawa, and the University of Montreal. He was appointed to the Quebec Court of Appeal in 1989 and served on that court until 2003. Fish retired from the Supreme Court in August 2013.
See also Supreme Court of Canada .
