The evening began with a formal welcoming ceremony, held in the Faculty of Law’s Gowling WLG Moot Court where Justice Kasirer gave a compelling and thought-provoking address. To welcome Justice Kasirer to the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law community, representatives of the Common Law Student Society offered him an official sweatshirt. Tara Rose McDonald, a Learner in the second year of our JD program, then presented Justice Kasirer with a work of art she created using carbon on cotton, symbolizing the multiplicity of legal orders - countless Indigenous systems that interact with both Common Law and Civilian legal traditions - operating in Canada. The work was interpreted by Danielle Lussier, the Faculty’s Indigenous Learner Advocate and alumnus of both the Common Law and Civil Law Sections, using traditional Métis beadwork techniques. The ceremony was followed by a reception.
The event was attended by students, faculty members, members of the public and the Supreme Court of Canada Judges; The Right Honourable Richard Wagner, P.C. (LLL '79), Chief Justice of Canada, The Honourable Rosalie Silberman Abella, The Honourable Michael J. Moldaver, The Honourable Andromache Karakatsanis, The Honourable Suzanne Côté, The Honourable Russell Brown, The Honourable Malcolm Rowe and The Honourable Sheilah L. Martin. Other noteworthy attendees included: Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Canada, Paul Crampton (LLB '85), Deputy Minister of Justice and Deputy Attorney General of Canada, Nathalie G. Drouin, Commissioner for Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs Canada, Marc Giroux (LLB '92), Executive Legal Officer for the Supreme Court of Canada, Renée Thériault, and from the University of Ottawa, Jacques Frémont, President and Vice-Chancellor, Annick Bergeron, Secretary-General, Jill Scott, Provost and Vice-President, Academic Affairs, Sylvain Charbonneau, Vice-President, Research, Marie-Eve Sylvestre, Dean of the Civil Law section, Adam Dodek, Dean of the Common Law Section and many other Honourable Judges.
Justice Kasirer is a graduate of McGill University, the University of Toronto and Université de Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne). He became a member of the Barreau du Québec in 1987. From 1989 to 2009, he taught at the Faculty of Law at McGill University and was dean of the Faculty of Law at McGill for 6 years. He has also held the James McGill Chair and directed the Paul-André Crépeau Centre for Private and Comparative Law. Justice Kasirer has taught as a visiting professor at a number of universities, including Université de Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne). He has been secretary and member of the Editorial Committee of the Private Law Dictionary at McGill University for 30 years. He also serves on the editorial committees of the Revue du Notariat, the Revue de droit de l’Université de Sherbrooke, the Louisiana State University Journal of Civil Law Studies and the Revue internationale de droit comparé in Paris. He has been a Titular Member of the International Academy of Comparative Law (Paris) for nearly 15 years. Justice Kasirer is the author of over 100 publications.
In 2008 Justice Kasirer was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2009, he was appointed as a Justice with the Court of Appeal of Quebec.
Justice Kasirer was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada on September 16, 2019.