The Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice (CIAJ) has announced its Justice Medal Award will be jointly awarded to Osgoode Hall Law School Professor Emeritus John McCamus and Patrick J. LeSage, former chief justice of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
The 2019 Justice Medal marks the exceptional achievement of a person who has shown distinctive leadership in the administration of justice in Canada or, by his or her writings or other endeavours, has made a significant contribution to the administration of justice in Canada. The award was inaugurated by the CIAJ Board of Directors in 1984, and is awarded every second year.
McCamus, who retired from Osgoode in 2013, spent 40 years in legal education, the legal profession and public service.
He began his career as a professor at Osgoode in 1971, and served as dean from 1982 to 1987. His principal areas of research and teaching have included private law, especially restitution and contract, commercial law and information practices law. His published work includes texts on the law of contracts and the law of restitution.
McCamus was Chair of the Ontario Law Reform Commission from 1993 to 1996 and Chair of the Ontario Legal Aid Review, an independent task force established to examine the legal aid system in Ontario, from 1996 to 1997. The review’s three-volume report, “A Blueprint for Publicly Funded Legal Services,” was published in September 1997.
He also spent time as Chair of Legal Aid Ontario, Chair of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and ombudsperson for York University. McCamus is an affiliated scholar with Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP.