Mabel Van Camp

Mabel Margaret Van Camp (1920 – April 19, 2012) was a Canadian judge who in 1971 became the first woman on the Supreme Court of Ontario.

Van Camp was born in 1920 in the farming village of Blackstock, Ontario,^[1] to William John Weir and Mary Jane (Smith) Van Camp. She finished high school at age 16, and then became the first person from Blackstock to attend university. At the University of Toronto, she studied liberal arts, with an interest in Latin, English, economics, and history. Despite the dean of Osgoode Hall Law School telling her that life in the legal profession would be too difficult for a woman, she attended nonetheless, and graduated cum laude in 1947.^[1]

She practiced law at—and became a partner in—the Toronto firm of Beaudoin, Pepper & Van Camp, which had previously been all-male. In 1971, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau appointed her to the Ontario Supreme Court, giving her the distinction of being the first woman on that court.^[1] She retired in 1995, having reached the mandatory retirement age of 75.^[2] She was honoured with an appointment to the Order of Ontario in 2003.

She had no children of her own, but was generous in supporting the education of all 15 of her nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews. She died April 19, 2012, in Amherstview, Ontario, at the age of 91.^[1]

References