The Supreme Court of Ontario was a superior court of the Canadian province of Ontario . Created in 1881 pursuant to the Ontario Judicature Act (1881), the Supreme Court of Ontario had two branches: the High Court of Justice Division and the Appellate Division. The Supreme Court of Ontario was a Section 96 court with inherent jurisdiction.
5-831: The Appellate Division was later transformed into the Court of Appeal for Ontario . In 1989 the Courts of Justice Amendment Act, 1989 was enacted by the Government to create one large superior trial court for Ontario. This Act came into force in 1990 and resulted in the merger of the Supreme Court (or High Court), the District Court and the Surrogate Court into the Ontario Court of Justice (General Division). The Ontario Court (General Division)
10-662: The court is Osgoode Hall in downtown Toronto (also the seat of the Law Society of Ontario and the Divisional Court of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ). The Court is composed of 22 judicial seats, in addition to 10 justices who currently sit supernumerary. They hear over 1,500 appeals each year, on issues of private law , constitutional law , criminal law , administrative law and other matters. The Supreme Court of Canada hears appeals from less than 3% of
15-663: The decisions of the Court of Appeal for Ontario, therefore in a practical sense, the Court of Appeal is the last avenue of appeal for most litigants in Ontario. Among the Court of Appeal's most notable decisions was the 2003 ruling in Halpern v Canada (AG) that found defining marriage as between one man and one woman to violate Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms , legalizing same-sex marriage in Ontario and making Canada
20-410: The first jurisdiction in the world where same-sex marriage was legalized by a court ruling. Among many judges from the Court who have been elevated to the Supreme Court of Canada are Justices Rosalie Abella , Louise Arbour , Peter Cory , Louise Charron , Andromache Karakatsanis , Bora Laskin , Michael Moldaver , and Mahmud Jamal , as well as Bertha Wilson , who was the first female justice on both
25-535: Was later replaced by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice . The court once sat at 145 Queen Street West in Toronto, now site of Four Seasons Centre . Court of Appeal for Ontario The Court of Appeal for Ontario (frequently mistakenly referred to as the Ontario Court of Appeal ) ( ONCA is the abbreviation for its neutral citation) is the appellate court for the province of Ontario , Canada . The seat of
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