Michael Moldaver

Michael Moldaver (born December 23, 1947) is a former Canadian judge.

Moldaver was born on December 23, 1947, in Peterborough, Ontario.

He is the youngest of Irving Moldaver and Ruth Moldaver's three sons.

Moldaver's father, Irving, was a Jewish Russian immigrant to Peterborough who worked as a scrap metal dealer; Ruth Moldaver's family ran a clothing store.

Moldaver's maternal grandfather was also Peterborough's first rabbi.

As his parents did not have the opportunity to receive a formal education, they stressed the importance of their sons receiving higher education.

Moldaver attended elementary school at Queen Mary Public School and high school at Peterborough Collegiate.

Upon graduating, he enrolled at the University of Toronto, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in 1968.

From there, he decided to pursue a Bachelor of Laws and enrolled at the school's Faculty of Law.

Moldaver struggled in his first semester of law school and failed his December exams.

Moldaver recovered and upon his graduation in 1971, was named his graduating year's gold medalist, an award given to the student with the highest academic average.

Upon graduating from law school, Moldaver began articling in Toronto at Thomson Rogers.

At that time, his mind was set on finishing his articles and then returning to Peterborough to practice with his brother.

However, Moldaver's plans changed with the opportunity to finish the last six months of his articles with a leading criminal defence lawyer, Goldwyn Arthur Martin.

Due to his experience with Martin, he decided to remain in Toronto and pursue his career as a criminal lawyer.

Moldaver was called to the Ontario Bar in 1973.

Moldaver always wanted to pursue criminal law, as he enjoyed his criminal law classes in law school.

In addition, he also admired the television show Perry Mason, which was based on a fictional charismatic criminal defence lawyer.

Moldaver stated that the thought of "being able to defend a person charged with murder, who was innocent, and have the real culprit confess after a blistering cross-examination was too much for [him] to resist".

His passion for criminal law crystallized during his time with Martin, whom he later described as the "Dean of criminal law in Canada".

Following his articles, Moldaver began his career as a criminal practitioner at the law firm of Pomerant, Pomerant and Greenspan and became a partner in 1975.

He had the opportunity to work with Justice Marc Rosenberg, and notable lawyers Eddie Greenspan and Alan Gold.

He gained a wealth of experience in short time, as he was given the opportunity to work on murder files in his first year.

As he continued to develop and progress into becoming a successful lawyer, he tried to stay true to his personal motto: "Don't go to trial unless you absolutely have to, but if you do go to trial – make your mark."

After being named Queen's Counsel in 1985, he left the firm to begin practicing as a sole practitioner.

After two years, he joined Goodman and Goodman, where he spent the rest of his practising career.

Throughout his career, Moldaver has appeared in front of courts at every level, including the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal for Ontario.

As a lawyer, his only appearance in the Supreme Court of Canada was to make an application for leave to appeal a case to the Court.

Following that application, he told his firm he was "never going back to that place".

Some of the most frequently cited cases in which he was counsel include:

In 1990, at age 42, Moldaver was appointed to the High Court of Justice of the Supreme Court of Ontario (now known as the Ontario Superior Court of Justice).

He spent five years there before being elevated to the Court of Appeal for Ontario in 1995.

Moldaver sat on the Court of Appeal for the next 16 years before his eventual appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada.

While at the Court of Appeal, Moldaver was known as one of the Court's most outspoken members and was considered an expert on criminal law.

In a series of controversial speeches, he complained that criminal defence lawyers would sometimes "trivialize" the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms out of monetary self-interest by arguing for unnecessary rights claims.

During his time at the Court of Appeal, Moldaver was involved in the acquittal of two longstanding murder convictions.

Led by Innocence Canada, Steven Truscott's case was brought before the Court in 2006.

He was a puisne justice on the Supreme Court of Canada from his 2011 appointment by former Prime Minister Stephen Harper until his retirement in 2022.

Before his elevation to the nation's top court, he served as a judge at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal for Ontario for over 20 years.

A former criminal lawyer, Moldaver is considered an expert in both Canadian criminal law and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.