William Alexander Stevenson (May 7, 1934 – July 7, 2021) was a Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada from 1990 to 1992.
Early life
Stevenson was born on May 7, 1934, in Edmonton, Alberta, the only child of Alexander Lindsay Stevenson, an Edmonton Police Service officer, and Eileen Harriet Burns. He attended Eastwood School before enrolling at the University of Alberta in 1952, graduating in 1957 with a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws. He was awarded the Horace Harvey Gold Medal in Law as the top student in 1957.
Legal career
After graduating from the University of Alberta, Stevenson articled with Morrow, Morrow & Reynolds (later Morrow, Reynolds and Stevenson, and now Reynolds, Mirth, Richards & Farmer LLP) in Edmonton.
In 1963, Stevenson began teaching as a sessional instructor at the University of Alberta Faculty of Law. He served as a full-time professor from 1968 to 1970, after which he returned to private practice with his firm, but continued to teach part time until 1985.
In the late 1960s, Stevenson joined Horace Johnson, and James Herbert Laycraft on the committee to revise the Alberta Rules of Court.
In 1975, he founded and became the first Chairman of the Legal Education Society of Alberta.
In addition to his Alberta appointments, Stevenson also served on several territorial courts. He sat on the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories from 1976 to 1980, on the Court of Appeal for the Northwest Territories from 1980 to 1990, and on the Supreme Court of the Yukon Territory from 1978 to 1983.
In 1986, at the request of Chief Justice Brian Dickson and the Minister of Justice, Stevenson conducted a national study on judicial education. His report identified uneven coverage, significant gaps and deficiencies, duplication, and a lack of coordination that resulted in wasted resources. He recommended the creation of a permanent, professionally operated, bilingual resource centre for judicial education in Canada. Stevenson subsequently became the founder of the National Judicial Institute (originally the Canadian Judicial Centre) in the late 1980s, and he is regarded as a pioneer of continuing education for Canadian judges.
Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
On September 17, 1990, he was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada; however, he retired only two years later on June 5, 1992, for health reasons Between October 1990 and April 1992 he published a total of 21 reasons for judgment.
Personal life
In July 1961, he married Patricia, and together had four children.
Stevenson died in Edmonton on July 7, 2021, at the age of 87, a month after being diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.
Legacy
Justice Russell Brown described Stevenson's judgments as "models of uncommonly fine legal writing, characterized by economical, pithy and scrupulous legal analysis." In 1996, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada.