FACULTY PROFILE
Probable cause for retirement The door to criminal law legend Don Stuart’s office is closing – but not completely BY KEN CUTHBERTSON, LAW’83
D
on Stuart has announced his retirement. The 2017-18 academic year will be the last for one of the longest-serving and most widely respected and beloved members of the Queen’s Law teaching fraternity. “I could have stepped away nine years ago, when I turned 65,” he says, “but for a couple of reasons I didn’t. For one, I felt a responsibility to continue writing about and speaking out on legal issues, particularly those that relate to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.” In the 36 years since the Charter’s 1982 inception, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) has wrestled with hundreds of criminal cases in which the balance between individual rights and those of society was pivotal. Stuart recalls the late Brian Dickson (the SCC’s Chief Justice, 1984-90) talking about the importance of legal scholars adopting a positive and constructive approach when they analyze and criticize the court’s decisions. “The idea that academics are privileged and have a responsibility to help develop Charter principles stayed with me, shaping much of my thinking over the years.” The other reason Stuart didn’t call it a career in 2009 was more personal. “I love my work. I enjoy teaching, writing, and interacting with students and colleagues,” he says. “I’m lucky to have worked alongside a whole slew of very good people, among them the late Ron Delisle, LLB’64 (BSc’59), Allan Manson and Lisa Dufraimont (now teaching at Osgoode). “In recent years, some excellent young legal scholars and teachers
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have joined the Queen’s Law faculty, and so, while I’m concerned about issues such as the rising cost of tuition at law schools and the dilution of the ‘community atmosphere’ as Queen’s Law grows, I’m optimistic the school’s reputation as one of Canada’s best in the field of criminal law will continue.” While that will undoubtedly be so, it’s equally certain that Don Stuart’s presence will be missed. A native of South Africa, Stuart and his sister grew up in a single-parent home after their father died in WWII, and Stuart learned early the value of working and studying hard. Fortunately, he was academically gifted and won a Rhodes Scholarship (PhD Oxford) that led him into a career as a legal scholar, first at the University of Witwatersrand, and then in Canada.
Professor Don Stuart early in his career at Queen’s Law.
He taught part-time at Osgoode and then full-time at the University of Alberta before coming to Queen’s in 1975. He has been here ever since – apart from a one-year hiatus (1988-89) as a Crown Attorney in Toronto. “That was the wisest thing I ever did, because it gave me a chance to see how academic legal theory relates to real life,” he recalls. Over the past 43 years, Stuart has earned a well-deserved reputation as one of Canada’s foremost authorities on all aspects of the criminal justice system. A prolific legal scholar, he is author or co-author of countless articles and 51 editions of textbooks and casebooks. He has been editor of Criminal Reports for the last 36 years, and of the National Judicial Institute’s Criminal Essentials e-letter (the influential criminal case digest for Canadian judges) for almost 18. His major peer tributes include the Award for Academic Excellence (Canadian Association of Law Teachers, 1998), the Mundell Medal for legal writing (Ontario Bar Association, 2007), and the G. Arthur Martin Medal for Criminal Justice (Criminal Lawyers’ Association, 2012). In the school context, he has shared his knowledge, enthusiasm, and admitted “pro-accused bias” (sparked by Apartheid) with generations of students and had his pedagogical passion recognized through four Law Students’ Society teaching awards. “On every trip to Queen’s, I still visit Don to chat about the latest legal issues,” says Justice David Stratas, Law’84. “He remains my teacher. He remains the best teacher I know.” As Jeremy Butt, Law’16, observes wryly, “Professor Stuart isn’t shy.
