Jean Beetz

Beetz retired in 1988 due to ill health. In 1989 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada, for his contribution to Canadian federalism, administrative, public, and civil law.

Beetz also participated in the 1981 Patriation Reference, which considered Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s attempt to have the federal government unilaterally patriate the Constitution of Canada without the consent of the provinces. By a 7-2 division, a majority of the Court held that Parliament had the legal authority to act unilaterally. However, by a division of 6-3, the Court also held that unilateral federal action would violate a constitutional convention that had emerged since Confederation, requiring substantial provincial agreement on constitutional amendments.

In 1973, Prime Minister Trudeau appointed Beetz to the Quebec Court of Appeal. He served on that court for less than a year, being elevated to the Supreme Court of Canada on January 1, 1974.

In addition to his academic work, Beetz also served in Ottawa from 1966 to 1971. He was the Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet and Assistant Clerk of the Privy Council. He then served as Prime Minister Trudeau’s Special Counsel on Constitutional Affairs. In that position, he was deeply involved in the Victoria Charter constitutional reform process, which was a fore-runner to the patriation of the Constitution in 1982 and the adoption of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Beetz was called to the bar in Quebec before leaving for England on his Rhodes Scholarship. On his return to Canada in 1953, he became an assistant professor teaching Canadian constitutional law at the Université de Montréal. He taught there for twenty years, including serving as Dean of the Faculty of Law from 1968 to 1970. He had a reputation as a reflective and meticulous scholar and a wise and caring teacher. One of his colleagues on the Faculty of Law was Pierre Trudeau, later the federal Minister of Justice and then Prime Minister of Canada.

Beetz earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1947 from the Université de Montréal and a Licentiate of Laws in 1950. He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and attended Pembroke College, Oxford, where he received Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in 1953.

Jean-Marie Philémon Joseph Beetz, CC, c.r. (March 27, 1927 – September 30, 1991) was a Canadian lawyer, academic and judge from Quebec. He served as a puisne justice of the Supreme Court of Canada from 1974 to 1988.