“A lawyer's lawyer, then a professor's professor, then a judge's judge – Gary Trotter has done it all, performing at the highest level imaginable every step of the way." In those words, Justice David Stratas, Law’84, of the Federal Court of Appeal, describes the latest Court of Appeal for Ontario (OCA) appointee. 

Beginning his career as a practitioner, Trotter served as Crown Counsel for the Ministry of the Attorney General of Ontario from 1988 to 2000, arguing many cases before the OCA and also the Supreme Court of Canada. He then joined Queen’s Law, quickly becoming a popular and highly respected faculty member. His judicial career came calling in 2005, when he left academia for the Ontario Court of Justice in Toronto. Three years later he was appointed to the Ontario Superior Court.

October 20 saw Justice Trotter join his friend of 20 years, Justice John Laskin, on the OCA and Laskin is delighted with this reunion. “Trotter’s appointment to the Court has been applauded by the bar and the judiciary for good reasons. Gary has sound judgment, he is an expert in criminal law and he is a first-class writer.” 

Trotter has several publications, including his most recent book, Understanding Bail in Canada, which is written with both practitioners and laypeople in mind. 

“Equally importantly, Gary is decent, fair-minded and compassionate,” says Laskin. “He will be a superb addition to our court.”

Trevor Shaw, Law’05, recalls his former professor’s remarkable ability to engage students in criminal law and criminal procedure classes. “A lot of the cases we were learning about were ones that he had taken up to the Supreme Court of Canada. Not only were we listening to someone who was great at articulating the law but who also had the lived experience.”

Adding that Trotter is one of the country’s greatest experts in the field, Stratas is thrilled to see him appointed to what is arguably the country’s most important criminal court. “Some appellate judges are smart, some have a nose for the practical, many work hard and many write well,” Stratas says. “Once or twice every couple of years we see a new appointee with all these traits. Justice Trotter has them all in spades.”

By Anthony Pugh