‘We all have to work together’: Justice Michael Tulloch 

For Justice Michael Tulloch, delivering needed change to society starts with students.

Their optimism and passion is high and their minds are not as clouded or jaded, said Tulloch, the first Black Judge appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal during a recent virtual event.

“They’re the next leaders. And I think that if we can educate students to understand some of the challenges that our generation have faced, I strongly believe that they’re creative enough and often they’re smart enough to come up with viable solutions. That will enable us to have a much better society.”

Tulloch’s comments came during a virtual conversation with Scotiabank President and CEO Brian Porter to mark Black History Month.

Tulloch himself is a key figure in Canada’s legal history. He was born in Jamaica and came to Canada at age nine, making him one of the few judges on the top provincial court who were born outside of the country, he adds.

He was also a key advisor on Scotiabank’s new scholarship program for law students, which commits more than $500,000 over five years to fund students interested in pursuing a career in the legal profession with a goal to support and advocate for anti-racism in law.

Tulloch got his career started at York University studying Economics and Business before attending Osgoode Hall Law School. He later served as Assistant Crown Attorney in Peel and Toronto and worked in private practice, specializing in criminal law, before his appointment to the Superior Court in 2003 and the Appeal Court in 2012.

He has also been an active advocate for justice, including being appointed by the Ontario government to lead an independent review of provincial regulation on police street checks, or “carding,” a practice that Tulloch has said has a negative impact on Indigenous, Black and other racialized communities and should end.  The Ontario government later introduced the first regulation in Canada to better govern the use of street checks, but not ban them.

His unique background is an asset because it gives him a broader perspective, Tulloch said. Interacting with a range of people from different socioeconomic backgrounds and communities helps to inform his decisions and provide key context when dealing with cases addressing issues of poverty, racial discrimination and mental illness.

“I understand that the law is essential and the rule of law is critical,” Tulloch said. “But I think sometimes people get themselves into situations wherein we have to take ourselves back and look at the overall perspective and the contextual life of that person. That’s what I think my background has enabled me to do, in a good way.”

When he started his career, he never set out to be the first of anything, Tulloch said. But what guided him was a passion for justice and an idealistic nature, inspired by the civil rights movement in the US.

“I really believed in my heart that we could, if you understand the law and use it as a tool, we could use it as a tool for social change. And that’s really, when I went to law school, what motivated me. And I understood that in order for me to do that, I needed to be the best that I could possibly be.”

He was inspired in particular by Martin Luther King Jr., who “gave his entire self to pursuing justice for Black people, and he took on this mantle at a very young age. That was, in my view, just incredible at that particular time.”

Tulloch also cited Canadian politicians, including former prime ministers Pierre Trudeau and John Diefenbaker as inspirations.

He highlighted Trudeau’s passion for justice and his vision for Canada as a “just society,” which led to the creation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Diefenbaker was a “phenomenal lawyer” who, as PM in the early 1960s, opened up the immigration laws to make it easier for people from the Caribbean and other non-European countries to come to Canada, Tulloch said.

Understanding the history of Canada and the good things that people have done to help Black people was inspirational, he added.

“We have to recognize that we all have to work together regardless of what background we’re from in order to make our society better. And so, that’s really the approach that I’ve taken all my life. And that’s the approach that I’ve learned from others within our society, who have contributed their time and really spent their life in the service of making this society a better place.”