Binnie, William Ian Corneil : [William Ian Corneil Binnie was born 14 April, 1939 in Montreal Quebec. He attended Trinity College School and completed a B.A. from McGill University in 1960. He received an LL.B in 1963 and an LL.M in 1988, both from Cambridge University. In 1965, he obtained an LL.B from the University of Toronto.
Binnie was called to the English Bar in 1966, the Ontario Bar in 1967 and the Yukon Territory Bar in 1986. He was admitted to practice before the International Court of Justice in 1984. He practiced across Canada, obtaining occasional calls to the Bars of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Newfoundland.
Binnie began practicing litigation in 1967 at Wright & McTaggart and its successor firms until 1982, at which time he became the Associate Deputy Minister of Justice for Canada. In 1986 he returned to private practice as a senior partner at McCarthy Tétrault. On January 8, 1998, he was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada directly from the bar-an appointment practice that has become increasingly exceptional since the mid-twentieth century.
At the time of his appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada, Binnie was regarded as one of the top trial lawyers in the country. His international experience included serving as a legal counsel to the Government of Tanzania (1970-71), representing Canada before the International Court of Justice at the Hague in the Gulf of Maine dispute against the United States (1984), and appearing as a member of Canada's legal team before an international tribunal in the Saint-Pierre & Miquelon maritime boundary dispute with France (1991). In Canada, he acted as a Special Parliamentary Counsel to the Joint Committee of the Senate and the House of Commons on the Meech Lake Accord (1990), and served as an advisor to the Government of Newfoundland on constitutional amendments to the Terms of Union. He appeared as an advocate before the Supreme Court of Canada numerous times in significant constitutional, civil and occasional criminal cases.
Outside of the courtroom, Binnie has been a lecturer at various law schools and associations. He was appointed Queen's Counsel (Ontario) in 1979, and was elected a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers (1993) and a Commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists (2003). He was the Honorary Colonel of 426 Squadron, 8 Wing (Trenton) from 2004 to 2007.
Justice Binnie retired from the Supreme Court of Canada on October 21, 2011, and returned to private practice. In 2012 he was invested as a Companion to the Order of Canada].
