Northwest Territories Judicial Appointment Announced

OTTAWA, December 2, 2011 – The Honourable Rob Nicholson, P.C., Q.C., M.P. for Niagara Falls, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, today announced the following appointment:

The Honourable Shannon Smallwood, a lawyer with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada in Yellowknife, is appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories (Yellowknife) to replace Madam Justice V.A. Schuler, who was appointed Senior Judge of the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories, effective July 1st, 2011.

Madam Justice Smallwood received a Bachelor of Arts in 1993 and a Bachelor of Laws in 1999 from the University of Calgary. She was admitted to the Bar of the Northwest Territories in 2000.

Madam Justice Smallwood has been Senior Counsel and Team Leader with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada in Yellowknife since 2008, and was Crown counsel from 2005 to 2008. She was counsel with the Department of Justice's International Assistance Group in Ottawa from March to September 2005, and Crown counsel in Yellowknife from October 2000 to June 2004. Her main area of practice was criminal law.

Madam Justice Smallwood has been a member of the Bench and Bar Committee (Territorial and Supreme Courts), Admissions Committee and Discipline Committee of the Law Society of the Northwest Territories. She is a past member of various committees, including the Continuing Legal Education Committee, the Awards and Recognition Committee, and the Social Committee, since 2000. She was a member of the Canadian Bar Association from 1996 to 2004.

This appointment is effective immediately.

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Ref.:

  • Julie Di Mambro
    Press Secretary
    Office of the Minister of Justice
    613-992-4621

  • Media Relations
    Department of Justice
    613-957-4207