Catherine Anne Fraser

Catherine Anne Fraser

Catherine Anne Fraser was appointed Chief Justice of Alberta in 1992, the first woman to be appointed chief justice of a province in Canada. Born in Campbellton, New Brunswick in 1947, she graduated from the University of Alberta Faculty of Law in 1970 as the Silver Medallist and received her Master of Laws from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1972. She was admitted to the Alberta Bar in 1971 and appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1983. Chief Justice Fraser’s judicial career began when she was appointed to the Queen’s Bench in 1989. She was elevated to the Court of Appeal in 1991 and appointed Chief Justice of Alberta and Chief Justice of the Court of Appeal of the Northwest Territories the following year. On the creation of Nunavut in 1999, she was appointed Chief Justice of the Court of Appeal of Nunavut. Over the two decades leading to her retirement in 2022, Chief Justice Fraser was instrumental in advocating for the rule of law, judicial independence and human rights internationally. She was involved in judicial education initiatives across the globe, including Australia, New Zealand, England, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Serbia, Croatia, Taiwan, Zimbabwe and, most recently, in the Palestinian Territories. She has worked with judges from many of these countries and spoken and written on a wide range of topics. https://iawjcc.com/chief-judges/

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