Charles Gonthier
Charles Doherty Gonthier, was a Puisne judge on the Supreme Court of Canada from February 1, 1989 to August 1, 2003. He was replaced by Morris Fish. Gonthier was born in Montreal, Quebec to Georges Gonthier, an accountant, Auditor General of Canada from 1924 to 1939, Kathleen Doherty. Charles was the only child the two had together, although Georges Gonthier, widowed, had other children from his first marriage. Kathleen's father, Charles Doherty, was a lawyer and politician who became federal Minister of Justice. Although Charles Doherty died when Gonthier was only 3, the stories his mother recounted about his grandfather were influential upon his interest in a law career, he was educated at École Garneau, Ottawa at Collège Stanislas in Montreal, a Roman Catholic private school and the most elite institution of its kind in Quebec where he obtained a French Baccalaureate. He earned his B. C. L. at McGill University in 1951. Hon. LL. D. McGill University, 1990. D. H. C. Université de Montréal, 2002. Married in 1961 to Mariette Morin, M.
D. M. Sc. F. R. C. S. F. A. C. O. G. Called to the Bar of Quebec, 1952, he practised law in Montréal with Hackett, Mulvena & Laverty, 1952–57 and with Hugessen, Chisholm, Smith & Davis known as Laing, Courtois, Parsons, Gonthier & Tétrault, 1957-74. He was appointed to the Quebec Superior Court on October 17, 1974, he was appointed to the Quebec Court of Appeal on May 24, 1988 and to the Supreme Court of Canada on February 1, 1989. Gonthier retired on August 1, 2003. In recent years, Gonthier had a special interest in Environmental and Sustainable Development Law and participated in a number of international conferences, he was the recipient of several honorary degrees and titles. Gonthier was counsel at McCarthy Tétrault in Montréal, he was Chair of the Board of Governors of the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law. He was a Wainwright Senior Fellow at the Law Faculty of McGill University, he was the longest serving member of the Board of Advisors for the McGill Law Journal, from 1992 until his death in 2009, a board member of The McGill International Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy as well.
Effective August 1, 2006, Gonthier was appointed Commissioner of the Communications Security Establishment, Canada's national cryptologic agency. Appointed Queen's Counsel, 1971. Member of the Board of the Montréal Legal Aid Bureau, 1959-69. President of Junior Bar of Montréal, 1960-61. President of Junior Bar Section of the Canadian Bar Association, 1961-62. Member of the Board of Montréal Bar, 1961-62. Secretary of the Quebec Division of the Canadian Bar Association, 1963-64. Member of the Committee on Building Contracts of the Quebec Civil Code Revision Office, 1969-72. Member of the Committee on Discipline of the Bar of Quebec, 1973-74. President of the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice, 1986-87. President of the Canadian Judges Conference, 1988-89. Chairman of the Commission for National Judges of the First World Conference on the Independence of Justice in Montréal, 1983. President of l'Association des anciens du Collège Stanislas, 1954-55. Secretary of the Montréal Branch of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs, 1957-58.
Chairman of the Board of Collège Stanislas, 1984-90. Honorary Secretary of the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, 1961-76. Member of the Board of Directors of the McCord Museum of Canadian History, 1976-89. Knight of l'Ordre des palmes académiques - France, 1988. Fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers, 1996. Fellow, Canadian Bar Association, 2003. Lifetime member, Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice. Bar of Montreal Medal, 2003. Companion of the Order of Canada, 2007. Opinions of the Supreme Court of Canada by Justice Gonthier Official Supreme Court of Canada biography Justice Gonthier Legacy Website
Judith Collins
Judith Anne Collins is a New Zealand politician. She was a government minister under John Key and Bill English. Prior to entering politics Collins worked as a commercial lawyer, including running her own practice for a decade, she entered Parliament in the 2002 election, was promoted to Cabinet when National came into government in 2008. Her initial ministerial portfolios were Police and Veterans' Affairs. After the 2011 election, her portfolios changed to Justice, Accident Compensation Corporation and Ethnic Affairs, she was ranked fifth in Cabinet, was the highest ranked woman. Collins resigned from Cabinet on 30 August 2014 following e-mail leaks alleging she had undermined the head of the Serious Fraud Office whilst she was the minister responsible for that organisation, she was cleared of any wrongdoing, returned to Cabinet in December 2015, serving until National lost power at the 2017 election. Collins was born in Hamilton, her parents were dairy farmers Percy and Jessie Collins of Walton in the Waikato and she was the youngest of six children.
She attended Matamata College. In 1977 and 1978 she studied at the University of Canterbury. In 1979 she switched to the University of Auckland, obtained first an LLB and a LLM and a Master of Taxation Studies, she met Chinese-Samoan David Wong Tung, at university. He was a police officer and had migrated from Samoa as a child, they have one son. Collins was a Labour Party supporter from childhood, but by 2002 had been a member of the National Party for three years, she has been a member of Rotary International. After leaving university, she worked as a lawyer, specialising in employment, property and tax law, she worked as a solicitor for four different firms between 1981 and 1990, became principal of her own firm, Judith Collins & Associates. In the last two years before election to Parliament, she worked as special counsel for Minter Ellison Rudd Watts, she was active in legal associations, was President of the Auckland District Law Society and Vice-President of the New Zealand Law Society. She served as chairperson of the Casino Control Authority and was a director of Housing New Zealand Limited.
Collins was elected to Parliament in the 2002 election as the National MP for Clevedon. Clevedon, although technically a new electorate, was based on the old Hunua electorate, held by National's Warren Kyd. In Parliament, Collins became National's Associate Spokesperson on Health and Spokesperson on Internal Affairs. In 2003, these responsibilities were changed for those of Associate Spokesperson on Justice and Spokesperson on Tourism, she was regarded as having performed well and when Katherine Rich refused to give full support to the controversial Orewa Speech by then-party leader Don Brash, Rich was demoted in February 2005 and Collins became National's spokesperson on Social Welfare instead. Collins served as spokesperson on Family, spokesperson on Pacific Island Affairs. In 2003, while in opposition Collins campaigned for an inquiry to find out whether New Zealand troops were exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War and if so any effect this subsequently had. Despite previous inquiries stating otherwise, the committee established that troops were exposed to defoliant chemicals during their service in Vietnam, therefore operated in a toxic environment.
This resulted in an apology in 2004 from the Labour-led Government to Veterans and the establishment of a Memorandum of Understanding to support veterans. In 2004 Collins was awarded the Ex-Vietnam Services Association Pin as a result of campaigning for the inquiry. Collins' Clevedon electorate disappeared under boundary changes for the 2008 election, she announced her intention to seek the National Party nomination for Howick, which comprises the urban part of her former Clevedon electorate. However, following objections made to the Electoral Commission over draft changes to the boundaries that saw a major redrawing of the adjacent constituency Pakuranga, the draft Howick was redrawn and renamed Botany. Collins sought and won the nomination for Papakura and allowed her colleague, National Party MP Pansy Wong to seek nomination for Botany. Collins won Papakura with a majority of more than 10,000; the National Party formed a government after the 2008 election, Collins entered Cabinet with the portfolios of Police and Veterans' Affairs.
After the 2011 election she was appointed Minister of Justice, Minister of Accident Compensation Corporation and Minister of Ethnic Affairs and, with a Cabinet ranking of five, was the highest ranked woman. In 2009, Collins questioned the leadership of, refused to express confidence in, Department of Corrections chief executive Barry Matthews, after a spate of bad publicity. However, after an enquiry by the State Services Commissioner Iain Rennie, Matthews kept his job because Corrections had made efforts to improve and had warned the government of the day and the previous government that under-resourcing was putting public safety at risk. Collins increased the availability of work programmes in prison, increased funding to widen the availability of alcohol and drug treatment programmes. Corrections built three new Drug Treatment Units and introducing condensed treatment programmes for prisoners serving shorter sentences. Collins oversaw completion of a new prison in Mount Eden and awarded the private management contract for the new prison to British comp
Jean Chrétien
Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien is a Canadian politician who served as the 20th prime minister of Canada from November 4, 1993, to December 12, 2003. Born and raised in Shawinigan, Chrétien is a law graduate from Université Laval, he was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada in 1963. He served in various cabinet posts under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, most prominently as Minister of Justice, Minister of Finance, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, he served as Deputy Prime Minister in John Turner's short-lived government. He became leader of the Liberal Party of Canada in 1990, led the party to a majority government in the 1993 federal election, he was reelected with further majorities in 1997 and 2000. Chrétien was opposed to the Quebec sovereignty movement and supported official bilingualism and multiculturalism, he won a narrow victory as leader of the federalist camp in the 1995 Quebec referendum, pioneered the Clarity Act to avoid ambiguity in future referendum questions.
He advanced the Youth Criminal Justice Act in Parliament. Although his popularity and that of the Liberal Party were unchallenged for three consecutive federal elections, he became subject to various political controversies in the years of his prime-ministership, he was accused of inappropriate behaviour in the Sponsorship scandal, although he has denied any wrongdoing. He became embroiled in a protracted struggle within the Liberal Party against long-time political rival Paul Martin, he retired as prime minister in December 2003, left public life altogether in order to spend more time with his grandchildren. In retrospective polling, Chrétien ranks among scholars and the public. Chrétien was born on January 11, 1934, in Shawinigan, Quebec, as the 18th of 19 children, of Marie and Wellie Chrétien; the working-class Chrétien family was poor, Chrétien had to wear clothing, worn by his siblings as his parents were too indigent to buy new clothing for him. Chrétien's parents wanted their children to escape a working- class life in Shawinigan by attending classical colleges, which were the only way one could attend university in Quebec at the time.
Chrétien's older brother Maurice won a scholarship at the insurance company he was working for, which allowed him to attend medical school, with the profits from his medical practice to allow his younger siblings to attend the classical colleges. Wellie Chrétien was a staunch Liberal who once got to shake hands as a young man with his hero, Sir Wilfrid Laurier; the local parish priest, Father Auger, a supporter of the Union Nationale who hated all Liberals as "ungodly," and spread malicious rumours about the Liberal Chrétien family, saying he would never let a teenage girl go on a date unchaperoned with any of the Chrétien boys, which caused the young Jean Chrétien to have troubled relations with the Catholic church. As a young boy, Chrétien had to read the dictionary. During the Second World War, the Canadian nationalist Wellie Chrétien had attracted much public disapproval by being a staunch supporter of the war effort, by being one of the few French-Canadians in Shawinigan willing to publicly support sending the conscripts to fight overseas.
Under the 1940 National Resources Mobilization Act, the federal government could conscript Canadians only for the defence of Canada, until late 1944, only volunteers went to fight overseas. In 1940s Quebec, where many French-Canadians were opposed to Canada fighting in the war, to sending the "Zombies" overseas, this made Wellie Chrétien and his family outcasts. Furthermore, during the Grande Noirceur when Quebec society was dominated by the corrupt Union Nationale patronage machine, the Chrétien family were excluded because of Wellie Chrétien's support for the war; the Union Nationale Premier Maurice Duplessis had been an outspoken opponent of Canadian participation in World War Two. Until 1964, Quebec had no public schools, Chrétien was educated in Catholic schools. Chrétien disliked the Catholic priests who educated him and in turn was disliked by them with one of Chrétien's former teachers, Father François Lanoue, recalling that Chrétien was the only student he had to beat up in his classroom as was too unruly.
Chrétien in an interview called his education "unnatural" as he recalled an strict regime where the priests beat anyone bloody who dared to question their authority while teaching via rote learning. One of Chrétien's classmates recalled "We didn't have the right to have feelings or express them"; as a young man, Chrétien was well known for his love of violence, as someone who relished his reputation as a local tough guy, most happy when punching out his fellow students. One of Chrétien's classmates recalled that he was much feared on the account of his "atrocious temper". Chrétien studied law at Université Laval; as a student at Trois-Rivières, Chrétien recalled that his best day at that school was his first day when he attacked without provocation another student taller than himself, leading him to proudly remember that: "I socked it to him bad. In front of everybody!". Chrétien recalled that his assault was meant to send the message to the other students: "Don't mess with Chrétien!". When asked in an interview by his biographer Lawrence Martin about what subject he was best at in high school, Chrétien replied: "It was street fighting that I was best at".
Despite the thuggish image that he cultivated at Séminaire Saint-Joseph, Chrétien's grades were high, wit
Antonio Lamer
Joseph Antonio Charles Lamer, was a Canadian lawyer and the 16th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. Lamer practised in partnership at the firm of Cutler, Lamer and Associates and was a full professor in the Faculty of Law, Université de Montréal, where he was a lecturer in criminology. On December 19, 1969, at the age of 36, he was appointed to the Quebec Superior Court and to the Queen's Bench of the province of Quebec. In 1978, he was elevated to the Quebec Court of Appeal and was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1980, he was named Chief Justice on July 1, 1990 and retired on January 7, 2000. He joined the law firm Stikeman Elliott in a senior advisory role and was appointed Associate Professor of Law at the Université de Montréal in 2000, he was appointed Communications Security Establishment Commissioner on June 19, 2003, a position he held until August 1, 2006. He served as Honorary Colonel of the Governor General's Foot Guards. In March 2003, the government of Newfoundland and Labrador chose Lamer to oversee an inquiry into how the criminal justice system dealt with three discredited murder convictions.
The hearings lasted about three years. Lamer was tasked to conduct an investigation into the death of Catherine Carroll and the circumstances surrounding the resulting criminal proceedings against Gregory Parsons, an investigation into the death of Brenda Young and the circumstances surrounding the resulting criminal proceedings against Randy Druken. Lamer was asked to inquire as to why Ronald Dalton's appeal of his murder conviction took eight years before it was brought on for a hearing in the Court of Appeal. Justice Bertha Wilson became the first woman appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal in 1976 and to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1982. Justice Lamer refused to rise from his chair along with the rest of his colleagues when Justice Wilson entered the conference room for her first judicial conference. Born in Montreal, Lamer served in the Royal Canadian Artillery from 1950 to 1954 and in the Canadian Intelligence Corps from 1954 to 1960. In 1956, he graduated in law from the Université de Montréal and was called to the Bar of Quebec in 1957.
In 1987, he married Danièle Tremblay-Lamer, appointed a judge on the Federal Court. During his tenure he was well known among the bench to be a frequent consumer of alcohol wine, have various drug prescriptions to deal with his declining health. Various commentators and other judges have vocally critiqued these habits of his as reason for him to resign from the court, he died in Ottawa of a cardiac condition on November 24, 2007. He was a Companion of the Order of Canada, he received honorary degrees from the Université de Moncton, University of Ottawa, Université de Montréal, University of Toronto, University of New Brunswick, Dalhousie University, University of British Columbia, Saint Paul University. From 1992 to 1998, Chief Justice Lamer was Honorary Lieutenant Colonel of the 62nd Field Artillery Regiment, RCA. List of Supreme Court of Canada cases Reasons of the Supreme Court of Canada by Chief Justice Lamer Office of the Communications Security Establishment Commissioner at the Wayback Machine Supreme Court of Canada biography Order of Canada Citation at Archive.today
Queen's Counsel
A Queen's Counsel, or King's Counsel during the reign of a king, is an eminent lawyer, appointed by the monarch to be one of "Her Majesty's Counsel learned in the law." The term is recognised as an honorific. The position exists in some Commonwealth jurisdictions around the world, but other Commonwealth countries have either abolished the position, or re-named it to eliminate monarchical connotations, such as "Senior Counsel" or "Senior Advocate". Queen's Counsel is an office, conferred by the Crown, recognised by courts. Members have the privilege of sitting within the bar of court; as members wear silk gowns of a particular design, appointment as Queen's Counsel is known informally as taking silk, hence QCs are colloquially called silks. Appointments are made from within the legal profession on the basis of merit rather than a particular level of experience. However, successful applicants tend to be barristers, or advocates with 15 years of experience or more; the Attorney General, Solicitor-General and King's Serjeants were King's Counsel in Ordinary in the Kingdom of England.
The first Queen's Counsel Extraordinary was Sir Francis Bacon, given a patent giving him precedence at the Bar in 1597, formally styled King's Counsel in 1603. The new rank of King's Counsel contributed to the gradual obsolescence of the more senior serjeant-at-law by superseding it; the Attorney-General and Solicitor-General had succeeded the King's Serjeants as leaders of the Bar in Tudor times, though not technically senior until 1623 and 1813, respectively. But the King's Counsel emerged into eminence only in the early 1830s, prior to when they were few in number, it became the standard means to recognise a barrister as a senior member of the profession, the numbers multiplied accordingly. It became of greater professional importance to become a KC, the serjeants declined; the KCs inherited the prestige of their priority before the courts. The earliest English law list, published in 1775, lists 165 members of the Bar, of whom 14 were King's Counsel, a proportion of about 8.5%. As of 2010 the same proportion existed, though the number of barristers had increased to about 12,250 in independent practice.
In 1839 the number of Queen's Counsel was seventy. In 1882, the number of Queen's Counsel was 187; the list of Queen's Counsel in the Law List of 1897 gave the names of 238, of whom hardly one third appeared to be in actual practice. In 1959, the number of practising Queen's Counsel was 181. In each of the five years up to 1970, the number of practising Queen's Counsel was 208, 209, 221, 236 and 262, respectively. In each of the years 1973 to 1978, the number of practising Queen's Counsel was 329, 345, 370, 372, 384 and 404, respectively. In 1989, the number of practising Queen's Counsel was 601. In each of the years 1991 to 2000, the number of practising Queen's Counsel was 736, 760, 797, 845, 891, 925, 974, 1006, 1043, 1072, respectively; the title traditionally depends on the sex of the sovereign. The current Queen, Elizabeth II has had a long reign, few if any people appointed as King's Counsel survive, it can be assumed that, should the Queen die and the reign pass to a descendant, holders of the title will again become KC, as the next three in line to the throne are male heirs.
Queen's Counsel and serjeants were prohibited, at least from the mid-nineteenth century onward, from drafting pleadings alone. They were not permitted to appear in court without a junior barrister, they had to have chambers in London. From the beginning, they were not allowed to appear against the Crown without a special licence, but this was given as a formality; this stipulation was important in criminal cases, which are brought in the name of the Crown. The result was that, until 1920 in England and Wales, King's and Queen's Counsel had to have a licence to appear in criminal cases for the defence; these restrictions had a number of consequences: they made the taking of "silk" something of a professional risk, because the appointment abolished at a stroke some of the staple work of the junior barrister. By the end of the twentieth century, all of these rules had been abolished one by one. Appointment as QC is now a matter of prestige only, with no formal disadvantages. Queen's Counsel were traditionally selected from barristers, rather than from lawyers in general, because they were counsel appointed to conduct court work on behalf of the Crown.
Although the limitations on private instruction were relaxed, QCs continued to be selected from barristers, who had the sole right of audience in the higher courts. The first woman appointed King's Counsel was Helen Kinnear in Canada in 1934; the first women to be appointed as King's Counsel in the United Kingdom were Helena Normanton and Rose Heilbron in 1949. In 1994 solicitors of England and Wales became entitled to gain rights of audience in the higher courts, some 275 were so entitled in 1995. In 1995, these solicitors alone became entitled to apply for appointment as Queen's Counsel, the first two solicitors were appointed on 27 March 1997, out of 68 new QCs; these were Arthur Marriott, partner of the London office of the American law firm of Wilmer Cutler and Pickering based in Washington, D. C. and Law
Beverley McLachlin
Beverley Marian McLachlin, CStJ is a Canadian jurist and author who served as the 17th Chief Justice of Canada from 2000 to 2017, the first woman to hold that position and the longest serving Chief Justice in Canadian history. In her role as Chief Justice, she simultaneously served as a Deputy of the Governor General of Canada. McLachlin retired December 15, 2017, nine months before reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75, her successor as Chief Justice of Canada is Richard Wagner, nominated by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2017. Her successor as a Justice of the Court is Sheilah Martin, nominated by the Prime Minister through a new process for judicial appointments to the Supreme Court of Canada that permitted "any Canadian lawyer or judge who fits a specified criteria" to apply. In March 2018, McLachlin was nominated to become a non-permanent judge on the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal, the first Canadian jurist nominated to the post; the appointment came into effect July 30, 2018, for a three-year term.
McLachlin was born Beverley Gietz in Pincher Creek, the eldest child of Eleanora Marian and Ernest Gietz. Her parents, who were of German descent, were "fundamentalist Christians" of the Pentecostal Church, she received a B. A. and an M. A. in philosophy and an LL. B. degree from the University of Alberta. She was called to the Bar of Alberta in 1969 and to the Bar of British Columbia in 1971, she practised law from 1969 until 1975. From 1974 to 1981, she was an Associate Professor and Professor with tenure at the University of British Columbia, she has one son, from her first marriage to Roderick McLachlin, who took care of much of Angus's upbringing. Her first husband died of cancer in 1988, a few days after she was appointed chief justice of the B. C. Supreme Court. In 1992 she married Frank McArdle, a lawyer and executive director of the Canadian Superior Courts Judges Association. In April 1981, McLachlin was appointed to the County Court of Vancouver. Just five months she was appointed to the Superior Court of British Columbia.
In 1985 she was appointed to the British Columbia Court of Appeal, three years in 1988 she was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia. She was nominated by Brian Mulroney to be made a Puisne Justice to the Supreme Court of Canada on March 30, 1989. On the advice of Jean Chrétien, she was made Chief Justice of Canada on January 7, 2000. Upon being sworn into the Supreme Court of Canada, she became a Deputy of the Governor General of Canada together with the other justices of the Supreme Court; when Governor General Adrienne Clarkson was hospitalized for a cardiac pacemaker operation on July 8, 2005, McLachlin performed the duties of the Governor General as the Administrator of Canada. In her role as Administrator, she gave royal assent to the Civil Marriage Act which legalized same-sex marriage nationally in Canada, she relinquished that task. She is the Chairperson of the Canadian Judicial Council, on the Board of Governors of the National Judicial Institute, on the Advisory Council of the Order of Canada.
She is a Member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada. She was made a Commander of the Legion of Honour by the Government of France in 2008. On December 15, 2006, she was appointed Commander of the Venerable Order of Saint John. McLachlin has defined her function as one that requires conscious objectivity, which she describes as follows: What you have to try to do as a judge, whether you're on charter issues or any other issue, is by an act of the imagination put yourself in the shoes of the different parties, think about how it looks from their perspective, think about it, not just give it lip service... As a judge, I've been a judge for a long time, I have always resolved to just try to judge the issues as as I can, not to think about things in too strategic a manner. My job is to listen to what the parties have to say, to do my best to understand the position, the ramifications of deciding one way or the other, to think about what’s best for Canadian society on this particular problem that’s before us, give it my best judgment after listening to my eight other colleagues.
So there's a consensual element there. McLachlin has stated, "I think the court belongs to the Canadian people and it should reflect the Canadian people." In the opinion of an interviewer, this is "not only to convey an impression of balance, but to bring in perspectives that were so long absent from the judicial imagination. To her, judgment is not a coldly neutral evaluation of competing positions, robotically free of passion or perspective, it is an engaged, human act of imagination."The Supreme Court, under McLachlin, ruled against the former Conservative government of Stephen Harper on several important issues, including prostitution, assisted suicide, mandatory minimum gun crime sentences, Senate reform, whether Taliban fighter Omar Khadr deserved an adult sentence, whether Federal Court judge Marc Nadon could be elevated to the Supreme Court. McLachlin surpassed Sir William Johnstone Ritchie as the longest-serving Chief Justice of Canada in history on September 22, 2013. McLachlin was nominated in March 2018 to become a non-permanent member of the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong.
The Court appoints foreign judges from common-law jurisdictions outside of Hong Kong, of which McLachlin is the first Canadian, to sit as non-permanent members of the court. Her appointment was approved by the Hong Kong Legislative Council, the Chief Executive gazetted the appointment effective July 30, 2018. McLachlin's
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of 2,018,923 in 2015, it is Canada's most read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it falls behind the Toronto Star in overall weekly circulation because the Star publishes a Sunday edition while the Globe does not; the Globe and Mail is regarded by some as Canada's "newspaper of record". The newspaper is owned based in Toronto; the predecessor to The Globe and Mail was called The Globe. Brown's liberal politics led him to court the support of the Clear Grits, precursor to the modern Liberal Party of Canada; the Globe began in Toronto as a weekly party organ for Brown's Reform Party, but seeing the economic gains that he could make in the newspaper business, Brown soon targeted a wide audience of liberal minded freeholders. He selected as the motto for the editorial page a quotation from Junius, "The subject, loyal to the Chief Magistrate will neither advise nor submit to arbitrary measures."
The quotation is carried on the editorial page to this day. By the 1850s, The Globe had become an well-regarded daily newspaper, it began distribution by railway to other cities in Ontario shortly after Confederation. At the dawn of the twentieth century, The Globe added photography, a women's section, the slogan "Canada's National Newspaper", which remains on its front-page banner, it began opening bureaus and offering subscriptions across Canada. On 23 November 1936, The Globe merged with The Mail and Empire, itself formed through the 1895 merger of two conservative newspapers, The Toronto Mail and Toronto Empire. Press reports at the time stated, "the minnow swallowed the whale" because The Globe's circulation was smaller than The Mail and Empire's; the merger was arranged by George McCullagh, who fronted for mining magnate William Henry Wright and became the first publisher of The Globe and Mail. McCullagh committed suicide in 1952, the newspaper was sold to the Webster family of Montreal.
As the paper lost ground to The Toronto Star in the local Toronto market, it began to expand its national circulation. The newspaper was unionised under the banner of the American Newspaper Guild. From 1937 until 1974, the newspaper was produced at the William H. Wright Building, located at 140 King Street West on the northeast corner of King Street and York Street, close to the homes of the Toronto Daily Star at Old Toronto Star Building at 80 King West and the Old Toronto Telegram Building at Bay and Melinda; the building at 130 King Street West was demolished in 1974 to make way for First Canadian Place, the newspaper moved to 444 Front Street West, the headquarters of the Toronto Telegram newspaper, built in 1963. In 1965, the paper was bought by Winnipeg-based FP Publications, controlled by Bryan Maheswary, which owned a chain of local Canadian newspapers. FP put a strong emphasis on the Report on Business section, launched in 1962, thereby building the paper's reputation as the voice of Toronto's business community.
FP Publications and The Globe and Mail were sold in 1980 to The Thomson Corporation, a company run by the family of Kenneth Thomson. After the acquisition there were few changes made in news policy. However, there was more attention paid to national and international news on the editorial, op-ed, front pages in contrast to its previous policy of stressing Toronto and Ontario material; the Globe and Mail has always been a morning newspaper. Since the 1980s, it has been printed in separate editions in six Canadian cities: Montreal, Winnipeg and Vancouver. Southern Ontario Newspaper Guild employees took their first strike vote at The Globe in 1982 marking a new era in relations with the company; those negotiations ended without a strike, the Globe unit of SONG still has a strike-free record. SONG members voted in 1994 to sever ties with the American-focused Newspaper Guild. Shortly afterwards, SONG affiliated with the Communications and Paperworkers Union of Canada. Under the editorship of William Thorsell in the 1980s and 1990s, the paper endorsed the free trade policies of Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.
The paper became an outspoken proponent of the Meech Lake Accord and the Charlottetown Accord, with their editorial the day of the 1995 Quebec Referendum quoting a Mulroney speech in favour of the Accord. During this period, the paper continued to favour such liberal policies as decriminalizing drugs and expanding gay rights. In 1995, the paper launched globeandmail.com. Since the launch of the National Post as another English-language national paper in 1998, some industry analysts had proclaimed a "national newspaper war" between The Globe and Mail and the National Post; as a response to this threat, in 2001, The Globe and Mail was combined with broadcast assets held by Bell Canada to form the joint venture Bell Globemedia. In 2004, access to some features of globeandmail.com became restricted to paid subscribers only. The subscription service was reduced a few years to include an electronic edition of the newspaper, access to its archives, membership to a premium investment site
