By Daniel Jutras
Charles Doherty Gonthier, BCL’51, LLD’90, was known to the legal community as a gentleman, scholar, philosopher and original thinker. To us, at McGill’s Faculty of Law, he was a close friend and a role model.
After graduating from McGill, Mr. Justice Gonthier was called to the Quebec Bar in 1952 and began a distinguished bilingual and bijuridical legal career in Montreal. He was appointed Q.C. in 1971, was elevated to the Bench in 1974 and appointed to the Court of Appeal in 1989. The following year he joined the ranks of the Supreme Court of Canada, from which he retired in 2003. He then returned to private practice with the Montreal law office of McCarthy Tétrault. He also brought renewed energy to the Faculty of Law as a Wainwright Senior Fellow, and as a governing board member for the McGill Centre for International Sustainable Development Law.
Mr. Justice Gonthier is fondly remembered by generations of McGill Law students who were fortunate enough to work with him as law clerks. Most of them will never forget the splendid summer reunions Mr. Justice Gonthier so generously organized in the idyllic setting of his country home, Inishowen, near Ste-Agathe. They will all remember him as a man of extraordinary kindness, humanity and wisdom, and for his tireless determination to do the right thing.
Après avoir quitté la magistrature, l’honorable Charles Gonthier a donné un appui considérable à l’élaboration d’une normativité juridique du développement durable en consacrant un temps combien précieux au CISD de McGill. Cet appui délibéré s’inscrivait parfaitement dans la philosophie politique du juge Gonthier qui, à une époque parfois fortement centrée sur l’individu conçu dans l’immédiat, aura souvent rappelé l’importance des valeurs de communauté et de fraternité envisagées sur la durée. La disparition de cette voix unique est une perte immense pour nous tous.
En plus de cette pensée riche et originale, Charles Gonthier nous laisse en héritage le souvenir d’un homme empreint d’humilité, dans un monde où l’orgueil est si répandu. Il était toujours affable et bienveillant, conversant avec délicatesse sans jamais élever la voix ni dominer son interlocuteur. Surtout, il savait écouter, et montrait un intérêt sincère pour les jeunes juristes auxquels il donnait temps et énergie sans compter.
Charles Gonthier passed away on July 16, 2009. He leaves his wife of nearly 50 years, Mariette Morin, M.D., M.Sc., F.R.C.S.(C), F.A.C.O.G., five sons, and nine grandchildren.
Daniel Jutras est Doyen intérimaire de la faculté de droit. Daniel Jutras is the Interim Dean of Law.