LAMBERT, JUSTICE J. DOUGLAS: 1930-2022 On Sunday, July 31, 2022, The Hon. J. Douglas Lambert, retired Choose of the British Columbia Courtroom of Enchantment, and the Courtroom of Enchantment of Yukon, died peacefully on the age of 92. Predeceased by his beloved spouse of 64 years, Barbara, and his brother Owen (Wynne), he can be lovingly remembered by his kids James (Alexandra), Shaena (Bob) and John (Marie), by his grandchildren Andrew (Saya), Gabriella (Harneil), Peter (Alice), Lucy, Sophie, Leo and Yann, in addition to his prolonged household in Canada, Scotland and the US. His household is grateful to the workers of Tapestry Wesbrook Mall, the Vancouver Hospice Society, and to non-public caregiver Maria Rufina Arriola, and household, whose kindness and assist had been distinctive. Douglas was born in Ardrossan, Scotland. He was the son of Jimmy Lambert, a mining engineer, and Jean Lambert (nee Todd), a schoolteacher. After his early schooling at Ardrossan Academy, Trinity School Glenalmond, and St. Andrew’s College, he emigrated to Canada, ending his research at Queen’s College, Kingston (BA, 1955); and the College of British Columbia (LL. B. 1958). He was referred to as to the bar of British Columbia in 1959, and in the middle of his early observe he served within the Division of Justice in Ottawa and spent a 12 months in Barbados drafting the preliminary tax and monetary laws for the newly impartial nation. On his return to Canada in 1968 he practiced regulation in Vancouver with Davis and Firm. In 1976 he turned a part-time member of the British Columbia Regulation Reform Fee, and in 1978 turned its full-time Chair. He was appointed to the Courtroom of Enchantment of British Columbia in July 1978 and served as a Justice of the Courtroom till reaching the age of 75 in 2005. Extremely regarded for his incisive authorized thought, Douglas wrote prolifically and was revered by two generations of legal professionals who appeared earlier than him. He retained a fond reference to all his 27 regulation clerks, following their subsequent private {and professional} successes with nice curiosity. He was maybe finest recognized for his vital contribution to the evolution of the regulation on Aboriginal Title and Rights. His ground-breaking judgments on Indigenous regulation, 23 in all, span 1 / 4 of a century, and embrace Haida Nation v BC, which protected Haida Gwai forests and enshrined the province’s obligation to seek the advice of and accommodate Indigenous nations. In 1993, Douglas sat on the Delgamuukw attraction in Vancouver. His landmark dissenting opinion despatched the case to the Supreme Courtroom of Canada the place that Courtroom upheld his place in favour of jurisdiction and possession of land for the Gitxsan and Moist’suwet’en. For 3 years, whereas he was a Choose, Douglas was Chair of the Editorial Board of the Canadian Bar Overview and loved a cordial relationship with then editor, Bertie McLean. After retiring from the bench to the Okanagan Valley, Douglas practiced Indigenous regulation and arbitration for greater than a decade, aiding in historic instances for the Tsilhqot’in and Esquimalt peoples. He shared every day, till her loss of life in October 2021, along with his pricey spouse, Barbara, and along with his different fixed companion, a battered copy of the works of seventeenth century English social diarist, Samuel Pepys. A memorial is being deliberate for later this fall. Please contact the household for particulars.
Printed by Okanagan Valley Newspaper Group on Aug. 27, 2022.
