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It appears that an ignorance of basic arithmetic is shared by lawyers on both sides of the 49th parallel ... The first Chief Justice of SCOTUS, John Jay, spent most of his ten- ure abroad, and resigned after just six years to become the governor of New York after describing the court as “intol- erable.” Another justice, John Rutledge, never attended a formal session of the Court. And a third, Robert Hanson Harrison, declined the honor altogether. The first justices of our Court were also something of a mot- ley crew. Justice Henry Strong was known for his “opinion- ated criticisms of his colleagues, outbursts of temper and dis- courteous treatment of counsel,” and was described as lazy and irresponsible. He was to grace our Court for almost 30 years. In a similar vein, Justice William Henry was said to “be not too bright” and was known for judgments that were “long, windy, incoherent masses of verbiage, interspersed with ungrammatical expressions, slang, and the veriest legal platitudes inappropriately applied.” ON COURT FACILITIES For the first 145 years of its existence the U.S. Supreme Court sat in various government buildings and in at least two taverns. Historians have described the Court’s early premises as “mean and dingy” and only a “little better than a dungeon.” In its first two terms the Court heard a grand total of zero cases and spent its time appointing a Court crier and admit- ting lawyers to the Bar. Likewise lacking a dedicated building in its early years, the Supreme Court of Canada sat in the Railway Committee Room of Parliament with ex- tremely poor physical facilities, described as a “beggarly institution” with no offices for judges and no separate permanent library. The SCOTUS of Canada has much in common with your SCOTUS. Both courts hear appeals of national importance, both share common ideals about the im- portance of the rule of law, and both are respected around the world. Today I’d like to tell you a little bit about our SCOTUS, the SCOTUS of Canada, and to compare our respective apex courts. I’ll touch briefly on seven points. ON EARLY JUSTICES First, both courts originally had six jus- tices, and only gradually worked up to the current complement of nine. Eventually, it seems, people realized that an even number of justices can lead to deadlocked decisions. The Supreme Court of Canada’s first session in 1876 also had zero cases but the next year, things picked up. A landmark case argued over three full days in January 1877 involved a pew holder’s claim for damages for interference with his right to occupy pew number 68 in a Montreal church. The ejected pew holder won and was awarded $300 in damages. After an intermediate building for the Court, a two-story gothic revival structure that had until then served as a horse stable, in 1937 the Cana- dian government commissioned the renowned French Canadian architect Érnest Cormier to build the dedicated art deco courthouse that we use today. Cormier had originally intended the building to have a flat roof, but Prime Minister Mackenzie King had other ideas. Legend has it that while the building was under construction, Prime Minister King often walked by the building with his dog, an Irish terrier named Pat, from whom he often sought advice, including by séance after Pat’s death. SUMMER 2023 JOURNAL 16