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The Hon. Marie Corbett, Q.C.

21 April 2016 | Email This Post Email This Post | Print This Post Print This Post

The former judge, the Honourable Marie Corbett, Q.C. discusses her memoir January: A Woman Judge’s Season of Disillusion (Broad Cove Press, 2016), with Joseph Planta.


January: A Woman Judge’s Season of Disillusion by Marie Corbett (Broad Cove, 2016).

Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: January


Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, at TheCommentary.ca.

There’s a new book out that’s a fascinating read, January: A Woman Judge’s Season of Disillusion. It’s the first memoir by a female Canadian judge, and it offers perspectives on the law, the courts, and a compelling personal narrative. The Honourable Marie Corbett, Q.C. presided in Toronto as a superior court trial judge for 14 years. She talks candidly in this book about the work life of a judge, being a wife and mom, as well as caring for a sick friend, while presiding over a full docket of cases. She narrates those cases, offering valuable insight into how juries are chosen, the rigours of examination and cross-examination, as well as the outfits that judges have to don as they go about their legal work. She talks about victims of abuse and the challenges that they face entering a courtroom and facing their accused. The illness and death of her friend Anne is throughout the book. Anne Armstrong Gibson was a lawyer herself, and well known in social circles in Toronto. A tireless volunteer and fundraiser, she battles a terminal illness, having just been widowed, and having to prepare her young sons with life without her. Judge Corbett is around Anne in her final weeks and we as the reader see what it’s like. It’s such a good book about family and work and how the sort of lives we want for ourselves can be confounded by both, and how the life we get can be had by finding how to balance family and career. Judge Corbett is a long time crusader for social justice in Canada in the areas of environmental law, family law, and pension law reform. She was a founding member and first woman president of the Canadian Environmental Law Association. She is a Queen’s Counsel, and she received a YWCA Women of Distinction Award. The book is published by Broad Cove Press. www.mariecorbett.com is the website for more. She joins me from here in Vancouver. She divides her time between Florida and Newfoundland. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, the Honourable Marie Corbett; Judge Corbett, good morning.