Chief justice of Nunavut appeals court dies

Ritu Khullar, chief justice of the Alberta, Nunavut and Northwest Territories courts of appeal, has died.

She died on Sept. 3, surrounded by loved ones, said a statement from the Nunavut Court of Appeal, released Wednesday. It did not identify a cause of death.

She had been on medical leave since January following surgery, the Court of Appeal of Alberta announced earlier this year.

“Khullar was a respected jurist whose intellect, thoughtfulness, and compassion were reflected in her work. She never lost sight of the impact her decisions had on the lives of the parties before her,” the statement said.

Born in Fort Vermillion, Alta., in 1964, Khullar studied law at the University of Toronto and University of Alberta before spending more than two decades in private practice, where she became one of Alberta’s most “pre-eminent” lawyers in public law.

She was appointed to the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta in 2017. Five years later, in 2022, she was appointed Chief Justice of Alberta and Chief Justice of the Courts of Appeal of Alberta, Nunavut and Northwest Territories.

They were roles that she “considered the greatest privilege and honour of her professional life,” Justice Minister George Hickes wrote in a statement published Wednesday.

“Khullar served Nunavummiut with fairness, thoughtfulness, and compassion, and upheld the belief that legal institutions mattered most when they met people fairly in the circumstances of their lives,” Hickes said.