Mary Carter (judge)


Mary Yvonne Carter (1923-2010) was a Saskatchewan judge. She is notable as the second female magistrate appointed in Saskatchewan history (in 1960) and one of the earliest female law graduates in that province (in 1947).[1]

History

Mary Carter was born Mary Munn on October 11, 1923 in Cromer, Manitoba. Her family also lived in the Manitoba towns of Elkhorn, Virden and Carberry, before moving to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in 1938.[2]

Carter graduated from Nutana Collegiate in 1941 and subsequently earned degrees in arts and law from the University of Saskatchewan. She was called to the Saskatchewan bar in 1948.[1]

Carter was appointed a provincial magistrate in 1960, being the second female so appointed in Saskatchewan, following the appointment of Tillie Taylor in 1959.[3] Both were appointed to sit in Saskatoon and were preceded in appointment by Regina juvenile court judges Ethel MacLachlan and Margaret Burgess.[3] Ethel MacLachlan, a non-lawyer, was appointed the first juvenile court judge in Saskatchewan in 1917, being also the first woman in the province to be named a judge.[4] MacLachlan was succeeded as a juvenile court judge by lawyer Margaret Burgess, appointed in 1935.[5]

Carter was elevated to the Saskatchewan District Court in 1978, where her work became part of a pilot project to the development of a Unified Family Court[1], further to Saskatchewan's Unified Family Court Act, passed that same year. She became a judge of the Court of Queen's Bench for Saskatchewan in 1981 and sat in that superior court until 1998, when she retired, at the age of 75.[1]


References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Beth Bilson, Profile of Mary Carter. Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan. Retrieved 2016-11-28.
  2. ↑ Obituary of Mary Carter, Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, October 4-6, 2010. Retrieved 2016-12-02.
  3. 1 2 Pernelle Jakobsen, Bench-Breakers? Women Judges in Prairie Canada 1916-1980, p. 172. Doctoral dissertation in History, University of Calgary, 2014. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
  4. ↑ Kim Marschall, Profile of Ethel MacLachlan. Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
  5. ↑ "Through the years", Home Town in Review - 80 years ago, May 30, 1935. The Review (Weyburn), June 3, 2015. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
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