Two prominent Nova Scotia judges retired from the province’s Court of Appeal this year, marking more than 50 years of combined service in the Canadian Judiciary.

The Hon. Justice Linda Lee Oland presided over her final appeal hearing in January and retired on April 1, 2020. The Hon. Justice Jamie W. S. Saunders presided over his last appeal in June and retired on Sept. 1, 2020.

Justice Jamie W. S. Saunders

Justice Jamie W. S. Saunders was born in Yorkton, Sask., and grew up in Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia. He is a graduate of Bishop’s University (Hons. Political Science, Philosophy and English) and Dalhousie University, where he obtained his law degree and was awarded the Smith Shield for written and oral advocacy.

Prior to becoming a judge, Justice Saunders was a litigator in private practice specializing in criminal defence, insurance, professional negligence, and counsel work. He acted as lead counsel to the Province of Nova Scotia in the Royal Commission on the Donald Marshall, Jr., Prosecution.

Justice Saunders was appointed to the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia in 1990 and was elevated to the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal in 2000. In addition to his judicial responsibilities in this province, Justice Saunders was also appointed to the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada in 2010.

During the course of his judicial career, Justice Saunders wrote and presented frequently in a variety of subjects, with a particular interest in advocacy, ethics, innovation, judgment writing and decision-making. He also lectured annually at Osgoode Hall Law School on written and oral advocacy, and the Schulich School of Law on appellate practice and procedure.

Justice Saunders is a Past President of the Canadian Superior Courts Judges Association (CSCJA), which represents and speaks on behalf of the more than 1,600 federally appointed judges and retired judges in Canada. He is the creator of Try Judging™, a multi-media educational program on the Canadian Judiciary, which became a preferred resource in Canada and abroad in teaching high school students about judicial independence, impartiality and the Rule of law.

Justice Saunders helped conceive, design, write and present the National Judicial Institute’s substantive program on judicial ethics. He served for many years on the Institute's Board of Governors, as well as select committees of the Canadian Judicial Council. In 2007, Justice Saunders was honoured by the CSCJA with the President’s Award to recognize his achievements as a jurist and his contribution to the judiciary in Canada.

Justice Linda Lee Oland

Justice Linda Lee Oland is a trailblazer in the legal community, both locally and nationally.

She was born and raised in Halifax, N.S., where her family was among the earliest in that city’s Chinese community. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Dalhousie University and worked for two years with the federal government in New Brunswick before returning to Nova Scotia to study law. She graduated in 1976 with her LLB from Dalhousie Law School.

At the beginning of her legal career, Justice Oland articled and worked as an associate with McInnes Cooper & Robertson in Halifax. She became the firm’s first female and first person from a visible racial group to be made partner. Her areas of practice focused on corporate and commercial law, estates and trusts, and immigration.

While in practice, Justice Oland served on the Board for the Legal Education Society and on Council for the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society. For several years, Justice Oland taught the Wills and Estates course at Dalhousie Law School. She was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1997.

Justice Oland was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia in 1998, making history as the first minority appointment to that Court. She was elevated to the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal in 2000, once again breaking ground as the first person of Asian heritage appointed to a Canadian appellate court.

During her time on the Bench, Justice Oland chaired the Judiciary’s Website Working Group, which led the successful refresh of the Courts’ website in 2014. She achieved functional bilingualism and was capable of presiding over matters entirely in French. She also completed two terms as Chair of the Judicial Advisory Committee and for several years she served as the Chief Justice of Nova Scotia’s designate to the Advisory Council for the Order of Nova Scotia.

In 2016, the Nova Scotia Council of Chiefs asked Justice Oland to look into the issue of diversity on the Bench. Her mandate was to identify appropriate initiatives the Judiciary may undertake to encourage inclusion, with a particular focus on Indigenous Black and Aboriginal representation. The recommendations in her report to the Chiefs were all accepted and in the years since, the changes have helped to grow the pool of diverse judicial candidates.