Louis-Philippe de Grandpré was born in Montreal, Quebec, to Roland de Grandpré and Aline Magnan.[1] He was one of three brothers, all of whom became gifted, popular lawyers. His brother Jean de Grandpré became Chairman of Bell Canada, and his brother Pierre practised for more than 45 years.[2]
De Grandpré was diagnosed with syringomyelia when he was 29, and from then on he was virtually paralyzed on the right side of his body.[3]
Early legal career
He practised law in Montreal from 1938 and, about eight years after his call to the bar, he co-founded the firm of Tansey, de Grandpré et de Grandpré.[3]
De Grandpré was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada on January 1, 1974. He was the subject of controversy that year when objections were raised to him hearing the case Morgentaler v. The Queen given his prior personal statements about the issue at a 1973 national meeting of the Canadian Bar Association. In the end, the Chief Justice decided that de Grandpré could remain on the panel to hear the abortion case.[5]
By October 1, 1977, de Grandpré resigned complaining of Chief Justice Bora Laskin's style of running the Court and the direction it was taking on many constitutional matters. In an interview near the end of his life, he said he found the work on the Court dead boring.[3]
Subsequent legal career
After leaving the bench, de Grandpré returned to the practice of law at the firm of Lafleur, Brown, de Grandpré (which later became Gowling Lafleur Henderson),[6] and was seen as a mentor by many lawyers. In 1985, de Grandpré authored a report on judicial independence for the Canadian Bar Association.
He died on January 24, 2008, in Saint-Lambert, leaving behind his wife, four children, eleven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren and a brother. The funeral service was held at Saint-Viateur d'Outremont and he was entombed at the Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery in Montreal.[10] His wife died in 2012.
^Speech of The Honourable Maryka Omatsu, "The Fiction of Judicial Impartiality", The University of Victoria Lansdowne Lecture, 1997. Reprinted in CJWL/RFD, Vol. 9.
