Emmett Matthew Hall
Encyclopedia
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
, QC
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
(November 9, 1898 - November 11, 1995) was a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
jurist and civil libertarian and is considered one of the fathers of
Father of medicare
Several individuals may be recognized as the father of medicare in Canada.*Tommy Douglas forwarded public health insurance as Premier of Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1961 and federal leader of the New Democratic Party from 1961 to 1971. Although Douglas is often credited as the "father of Medicare"...
the Canadian system of Medicare
Medicare (Canada)
Medicare is the unofficial name for Canada's publicly funded universal health insurance system. The formal terminology for the insurance system is provided by the Canada Health Act and the health insurance legislation of the individual provinces and territories.Under the terms of the Canada Health...
.
Hall was born in Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
but moved to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
in 1910 when his family took over a dairy farm. He received his law degree from the University of Saskatchewan
University of Saskatchewan
The University of Saskatchewan is a Canadian public research university, founded in 1907, and located on the east side of the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. An "Act to establish and incorporate a University for the Province of Saskatchewan" was passed by the...
in 1919 and practised as a defence lawyer for a number of years before being appointed to the bench. He became chief justice
Chief Justice
The Chief Justice in many countries is the name for the presiding member of a Supreme Court in Commonwealth or other countries with an Anglo-Saxon justice system based on English common law, such as the Supreme Court of Canada, the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the Court of Final Appeal of...
of the Court of Queen's Bench for Saskatchewan
Court of Queen's Bench for Saskatchewan
The Court of Queen's Bench of Saskatchewan is the superior trial court for the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The Court hears civil and criminal law cases. It is a court of inherent jurisdiction and there is no monetary limit on the claims which it may hear. It also has original jurisdiction...
in 1957 and chief justice of Saskatchewan in 1961. In 1962 he became a puisne justice
Puisne Justice
A Puisne Justice or Puisne Judge is the title for a regular member of a Court. This is distinguished from the head of the Court who is known as the Chief Justice or Chief Judge. The term is used almost exclusively in common law jurisdictions such as England, Australia, Kenya, Canada, Sri Lanka,...
of the Supreme Court of Canada
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...
and served on the high court until his retirement in 1973.
Hall chaired a royal commission
Royal Commission
In Commonwealth realms and other monarchies a Royal Commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue. They have been held in various countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Saudi Arabia...
on the national health system in 1964 that recommended the nationwide adoption of Saskatchewan's model of public health insurance. His recommendations led to the establishment of Canada's national medicare system. He also chaired numerous other royal commissions into education, court structure and grain handling, most notably the 1968 Committee on Aims and Objectives of Education which issued the Hall-Dennis Report which recommended adapting education to the stages of child development.
In 1967 his was the sole dissent in the Supreme Court 8 to 1 judgment upholding the 1959 conviction of Steven Truscott
Steven Truscott
Steven Murray Truscott is a Canadian man who was sentenced to death in 1959, when he was a 14-year old student, for the murder of classmate Lynne Harper...
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In 1974 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
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