Canada appoints first person of colour to Supreme Court, know all about Mahmud Jamal

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on June 17 nominated Mahmud Jamal, a member of Ontario’s highest court, as the newest justice on the Supreme Court of Canada. Jamal’s appointment is a historic first for Canadians of colour who have never seen themselves represented on the Supreme Court of Canada. While taking to Twitter, Trudeau noted Jamal’s “exceptional” experience and further added that he will be a “valuable asset” to the country’s highest court. 

Trudeau said, “I am pleased to announce the nomination of Justice Mahmud Jamal to the Supreme Court of Canada. Respected around the world, Canada’s Supreme Court is known for its strength, independence, and judicial excellence. I know that Justice Jamal, with his exceptional legal and academic experience and dedication to serving others, will be a valuable asset to our country’s highest court”.

Jamal has been an Ontario Court of Appeal judge since 2019. He appeared in 35 appeals before the Supreme Court of Canada on civil, constitutional, criminal, and regulatory issues. Jamal has previously even taught at two of Canada’s top law school and worked for decades as a litigator. 

About Mahmud Jamal

He was born in 1967 into an Indian family in Nairobi and raised in Britain before moving to Canada in 1981. In an essay as part of a questionnaire he filled out for the Supreme Court job, Jamal said that his hybrid religious and cultural upbringing and his experiences in Canada “exposed” him to some of the challenges and aspirations of immigrants, religious minorities and racialized persons. He said that he was raised at school as a Christian, reciting the Lord's Prayer and absorbing the values of the Church of England, and at home as a Muslim, memorizing Arabic prayers from the Quran and living as part of the Ismaili community. 

Jamal went on to say that like many others, he too experienced discrimination as a fact of daily life. He revealed that as a child, he was “taunted and harassed” because of his name, religion or the colour of his skin. Further, he added that his wife immigrated to Canada from Iran and after marriage, he became a Baha'i, attracted by the faith's message of the spiritual unity of humankind. He added that now he and his wife are raising two children in Toronto’s multi-ethnic Baha’i community. 

It is worth mentioning that Jamal must still be vetted by the House of Commons justice committee, but this is a formality. He will be replacing the retiring Rosalie Silberman Abella, the first refugee and first Jewish woman to sit on the court and also the nine-person court’s longest-serving justice. 

(Image: Twitter)