Francis Alexander Anglin

Francis Alexander Anglin, born on April second, eighteen sixty-five, in Saint John, New Brunswick, was a distinguished Canadian lawyer and judge. He was the son of Timothy Anglin, a notable politician and Speaker of the House of Commons, and the brother of celebrated stage actress Margaret Anglin. After completing his degrees in arts and law at the College of Ottawa, he was called to the Ontario Bar in eighteen eighty-eight, quickly gaining recognition as a skilled lawyer in Toronto.

In nineteen hundred and four, Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier appointed Anglin to the Ontario High Court of Justice, marking the beginning of his judicial career. He ascended to the Supreme Court of Canada in nineteen hundred and nine, both appointments being influenced by political patronage. His most significant elevation came in nineteen twenty-four when Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King appointed him as the seventh Chief Justice of Canada, a role he held until his retirement due to health issues in nineteen thirty-three.

Anglin's tenure as Chief Justice was marked by his advocacy for a broader interpretation of the federal government's authority in constitutional matters, often contrasting with the prevailing jurisprudence of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. His most controversial ruling came in the Persons case, where he declined to interpret the term 'person' in the Constitution Act of eighteen sixty-seven to include women for Senate appointments. This decision, later overturned by the Privy Council, remains one of the most criticized in the history of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Francis Alexander Anglin passed away just three days after his retirement, leaving behind a complex legacy as a jurist who navigated the intricate intersections of law and politics in early twentieth-century Canada.