Brief Biographical Note of Associate Chief Justice Dennis O'Connor

Justice Dennis O’Connor is the Associate Chief Justice of Ontario and has been a member of the Court of Appeal for Ontario since 1998.

Justice O’Connor attended Osgoode Hall Law School (LLB 1964) and was called to the bar of Ontario in 1966. After his call, he practised law with his father and Arthur Maloney, Q.C. In 1973, he was appointed Magistrate in the Yukon Territory where he served until 1976. During that period, he also sat as a Deputy Magistrate of the Northwest Territories and a Provincial Court judge in the northern regions of British Columbia.

From 1976 to 1980, Justice O’Connor taught law at the University of Western Ontario. In 1980, he was appointed Queen’s Counsel. From 1980 to 1998, he practised a broad range of litigation with the firm of Borden, Elliot in Toronto. He acted as chief negotiator for the Government of Canada for the Yukon Indian Land Claim from 1980 to 1984. He was a part-time faculty member of Osgoode Hall Law School from 1982 to 1986 and served as an elected bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada from 1987 to 1995.

In 1998, Justice O’Connor was appointed to the Court of Appeal for Ontario and in 2001 he was appointed Associate Chief Justice of Ontario. Justice O’Connor conducted two public inquiries: the Walkerton Inquiry from 2000 to 2002; and the Arar Inquiry from 2004 to 2006. From 2007 to 2010, he was Chair of the Judicial Independence Committee and the Priorities and Planning Committee of the Canadian Judicial Council. Currently, in addition to sitting on the Court of Appeal for Ontario, he is a deputy judge of the Yukon Supreme Court.

Awards and honours include: Doctors of Law (Hon) from the University of Guelph (2011), Assumption University (2008), York University (2007), and the University of Western Ontario (2003). He is the recipient of the Toronto Lawyers’ Association Award of Distinction, the Association of Progressive Muslims of Ontario Eid-ul-Adha Award (2008), the Ontario Bar Association Award for Distinguished Service (2007), the Society of Ontario Adjudicators and Regulators Medal (2006), the Canadian Water Resources Association Distinguished Achievement Award (2004), and the American Water Works Association Award of Merit (2003). He has also received special recognition awards from the Municipality of Brockton (Walkerton) and the Ontario Municipal Water Association. In 1976, Justice O’Connor was inducted into the Beaver Clan of the Crow Tribe at the Tauk-ee-tee-see-goo in the Yukon Territory. Justice O’Connor is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers (1991).

Justice O’Connor and his wife, Heather, have two sons and four grandchildren.