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Malcolm Rowe appointed as Canadian Supreme Court justice

Xinhua, October 18, 2016 Adjust font size:

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Monday appointed Malcolm Rowe to be new justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.

"I am greatly excited to announce the nomination of Mr. Justice Malcolm Rowe, whose remarkable depth of legal experience in criminal, constitutional, and public law will complement the extensive knowledge of the other Supreme Court justices," the prime minister said in his statement announcing the appointment issued Monday.

The appointment is historic for the province of Newfoundland and Labrador which has never had a representative on the Supreme Court since it joined Confederation in 1949.

Rowe, 63, has worked for the federal and provincial governments, as well as in private practice. He has experience in constitutional matters, foreign relations, the arbitration of maritime boundaries, and the negotiation of conventional law through the United Nations, according to the news release announcing his nomination. I

Rowe has made a remarkable contribution to the area of sentencing law, it added.

Before his appointment, Rowe worked as a senior bureaucrat, and secretary to the cabinet under Liberal Premier Brian Tobin's government of Newfoundland and Labrador province.

Tobin made Rowe lead his government's efforts to secure a constitutional amendment to replace the province's denominational school system in favour of a secular one.

Rowe, born to parents from small fishing communities, was a key strategist in the "Turbot War," when Canada successfully blocked Spanish and Portuguese fishing vessels from overfishing halibut just outside of the country's 200-mile nautical limit. He also helped in drafting a United Nations convention on high seas fisheries.

Rowe will fill the vacancy left by Justice Thomas Cromwell, who retired from the court on Sept. 1 this year.

On Oct. 25, Rowe will participate in a question and answer session moderated by a law professor. Members of the House justice committee and the Senate legal committee will be allowed to participate in it. Endit