Charles Stuart (politician) - Life After Politics

Life After Politics

As Supreme Court judge, Stuart found in favour of the Alberta government in a 1912 suit against the Royal Bank of Canada. In the aftermath of the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway scandal, the government had attempted to take control of money that had been raised from a bond issue in support of the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway, which had defaulted on its obligations. The Royal Bank, where the money was deposited, refused to turn it over to the government, which sued. Stuart found that the government was entitled to the money, but his ruling was overturned by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in 1913.

In 1921, Stuart was elevated to the Supreme Court's newly created Appellate Division. While sitting on this court, he upheld a trial decision convicting a prostitute, who appealed on the basis that the magistrate who convicted her, Alice Jamieson, was, by virtue of being a woman, not legally a person and therefore ineligible to serve as magistrate. This decision was a prelude to the famous Persons Case, which found that Canadian women were indeed persons.

Stuart became the first Chancellor of the University of Alberta in 1908, and served until his death; the university awarded him an honorary doctorate of laws in 1915. Charles Stuart died March 5, 1926.