After arriving in Ottawa to begin my Fulbright Fellowship at the University of Ottawa’s Centre for Health Law, Policy & Ethics, I stumbled across an poster for a book launch by author Beverley McLachlin. The launch in question — which I have yet to read but will — is for the third novel for her. I welcome a good legal thriller, especially when the writer has credibility in the genre. And certainly the former Chief Justice of the Canadian Supreme Court has credibility and writing talent. But after attending with the sold-out audience in a ballroom at the lovely Chateau Laurent, a historic, hotel not far from Parliament and the Supreme Court, I soon realized that her “real life” was more intriguing for me.
That led me to her recent memoir, Truth Be Told: My Journey Through Life and the Law, first published in 2019. I was intrigued by how a woman just ten years older than I am, went from growing up on rural farm to become the first college graduate in her family, a law professor, a trial judge in her province, an appellate judge at the provincial level, and then, the fourth-in-history female on the Canadian Supreme Court, before then taking the reins of the Court as Chief Justice, serving in that highest role for 19 years.