2005 – L'honorable Frank Iacobucci

The Honourable Frank Iacobucci, graciously accepted to be the 1st member and honoree of the Association of Italian-Canadian Jurists of Québec.

· Justice Iacobucci was born to Italian immigrants and grew up in the East End of Vancouver. At seventeen(17) he was hired to work alongside his father in a steel foundry, and was told by the superintendent that if he was a fraction of the worker his father was he would be a success. The money he earned at the steel foundry was put toward his education at the University of British Columbia, which in turn facilitated a distinguished legal career spanning private practice, academia, government and the judiciary.

· After pursuing private practice in New York, Justice Frank Iacobucci pursued an academic career at the University of Toronto, which included serving as Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto from 1979 to 1983. In 1985, Justice Iacobucci was appointed Deputy Minister of Justice and Deputy Attorney General for Canada. He was subsequently appointed Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Canada in 1988, and served as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada from 1991 to 2004. After retiring from the bench, Justice Iacobucci served as interim President of the University of Toronto, after which he joined Torys LLP as Counsel.

· Justice Frank Iacobucci has acted for the Federal Government and the Ontario Government on a broad range of issues, including serving as the federal negotiator for the Indian Residential Schools settlement, which ultimately resulted in the largest legal settlement in Canadian history to date. Justice Iacobucci has also been asked to conduct independent reviews for various organisations, including a recent report for the Chief of Police in Toronto on encounters of the police with people in crisis.

· Justice Iacobucci was recognized by the Allard Law Alumni Association as the recipient of the 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award. This award recognizes an extraordinary alumna/alumnus who has set a high standard for volunteerism, philanthropy and/or professional accomplishment, and has been an example for all. In July 2007, he was appointed a Companion in the Order of Canada and in 2009 received the Justice Medal for lifetime achievement from the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice.

· Justice Iacobucci was the first Italian-Canadian, allophone judge on the Court and was the recipient of numerous awards, honours and other recognitions in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and in Italy.