Thibaudeau Rinfret

Trained in civil law at McGill and Université Laval, Rinfret was an eminent Montreal advocate and professor of municipal law before his elevation to the Quebec Superior Court and then the Supreme Court of Canada in 1924.

Named Chief Justice in 1944, Rinfret oversaw the watershed constitutional transition of December 1949, when the Parliament of Canada abolished appeals to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London. Under his stewardship, the Supreme Court became the final court of appeal for all Canadian civil and criminal law.