Canadian SC to have first Muslim judge

OTTAWA: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has nominated Justice Mahmud Jamal as the next member of the Supreme Court (SC) of Canada – the first nonwhite judge to take the seat, reports foreign media.

He will replace Justice Rosalie Abella, who retires from the top court on Canada Day, according to CBC News.

"I know that Justice Jamal, with his exceptional legal and academic experience and dedication to serving others, will be a valuable asset to our country's highest court," the Canadian PM said in a statement issued to the media.

The fully bilingual Justice Jamal was appointed to the Court of Appeal for Ontario in 2019 and appeared in 35 appeals before the Supreme Court of Canada on civil, constitutional, criminal and regulatory issues.

Justice Jamal has also taught constitutional law at McGill University and administrative law at Osgoode Hall Law School.

According to Bloomberg, the 54-year-old was born in Kenya to Ismaili Muslim parents. He grew up in England and Canada. He later converted to the Baha’i faith upon marrying his Iranian-born wife, according to a questionnaire made public Thursday as part of his nomination. He was born in Nairobi, Kenya in 1967 to a family originally from India. His family moved to the UK in search of a better life in 1969 and settled in Edmonton in 1981 where he attended high school.

He is the first person in his family to attend university. He spent a year at the London School of Economics before getting his economics degree from the University of Toronto. He then went to McGill to study common law and Quebec civil law before getting his graduate law degree from Yale Law School.