Nunavut’s legal profession pays tribute to retiring chief justice

As a young lawyer, when Neil Sharkey would run past the Baffin Correctional Centre as part of his exercise regimen, he would stop into the jail and invite inmates to come for a jog with him.

“A man leading other men in a healing pursuit,” Justice Christian Lyons said, telling the story as a tribute to the retiring chief justice during his April 13 swearing-out ceremony.

Lyons was one of 10 members of Nunavut’s legal community who paid tribute to Sharkey. More than 50 people turned out for the event at the Iqaluit courthouse.

“People with old-fashioned community-building values, like Justice Sharkey, are vital,” Lyons said.

Former Nunavut chief justice Neil Sharkey gestures during a farewell speech April 13 at the Iqaluit courthouse during a swearing-out ceremony for the longstanding judge. (Photo by Corey Larocque)

Lyons joked that Sharkey was “being booted out the door … kicking and screaming” because he turned 75, the mandatory retirement age for Canadian judges.

Many of the tributes echoed Ritu Khullar, the Nunavut Court of Appeal’s chief justice, who said Sharkey showed integrity, fairness, commitment, dedication and kindness throughout his career.

Philippe Plourde, Nunavut’s chief federal prosecutor, recounted a time Sharkey was sentencing a young man who had committed a crime with a firearm.

Sharkey made a personal connection with the young man, telling him he had known the man’s late father. The judge and offender spoke for a few minutes. The man left the courtroom at peace and understanding his sentence, Plourde said.

He added that the man has never been back before the court.

“In Justice Sharkey’s court, there was approachability, understanding and respect,” Plourde said.

Alison Crowe, a defence lawyer who worked with Sharkey in the 1980s when there were only five members of the bar, recalled Sharkey as “the godfather of the Baffin bar” for his ability to put lawyers together and to help them make connections.

Sharkey was born in Toronto in 1949, to a father who worked for the city’s transit commission and a mother who was a bookkeeper.

As a University of Saskatchewan law student, he returned to Toronto and drove taxis to make money for school.

Sharkey married Anne Crawford, who is also a lawyer in Iqaluit, in 1985. They have three children, who watched a livestream of Saturday’s ceremony. When Sharkey was a prosecutor in Yellowknife, Crawford was a defence lawyer, and the two were once adversaries in a case.

Sharkey came to Iqaluit to become the director of Maliiganik Tukisiiniakvik, Nunavut’s legal aid society, which represents people charged with crime who can’t afford a lawyer.

He called his 13-year involvement with Maliiganik “one of the most enriching experiences” of his life.

After travelling around Nunavut for three years to recruit justices of the peace, Sharkey bought a house in Iqaluit’s Lower Base and set up his own practice.

In 2008, he was appointed a judge, and eventually because Nunavut’s first chief justice once the federal government allowed the territory to have its own chief.

Speaking to the lawyers who came to pay tribute to the retiring judge, Sharkey told them what they do is “essential to the rule of law in our society.”

“A vibrant legal profession, where lawyers can speak freely on many issues and encourage intelligent dialogue by educating the public about the rule of law, is essential to our society functioning,” he said.

“The rule of law is fragile and under attack today in many western democracies, most disturbingly in our neighbour to the south.”

But lawyers — more than judges — are in a position to “stem that erosion,” he said.

While Sharkey joked about “being forced out” because of his age, he said “it’s time.”

“It’s good to have a mandatory retirement age. It allows younger people to move into this role,” Sharkey said.