Beyond Politics - Justice Rothstein

Catherine Clark spoke to Justice Marshall Rothstein about his life on the Supreme Court of Canada.
Supreme Court Justice Marshall Rothstein was the only child of parents who emigrated to Canada from Eastern Europe. His mother, a school teacher was Russian and his father, a Pole, was a bookkeeper and merchant. They met in Canada and settled in Winnipeg, where they had their only child, Marshall, born during the war years. Marshall's father wanted him to be an actuary, and so Marshall pursued a bachelor's degree in Commerce at the University of Manitoba, but in his final year he took a course on commercial law and became fascinated by the law and decided that that was going to be his career path. Upon graduating from the University of Manitoba and passing his bar exams, Rothstein went to work for the firm of Thorvaldson, Eggerston, Saunders and Mauro. Rothstein specialized in transportation law and taught for several years at the University of Manitoba. In 1992, Brian Mulroney appointed him to the Federal Court Trial Division and in 1999 was elevated to the Federal Court of Appeal in Ottawa. In 2006, he was Stephen Harper's appointment to the Supreme Court and became the first justice to have his appointment publicly scrutinized when he appeared before a parliamentary committee.