Canada’s Supreme Court brought its anniversary outreach to Thunder Bay
A November 2025 visit included a public forum, school meetings and conversations with local legal organizations.
News report
Judges of the Supreme Court of Canada met the public and students in Thunder Bay on November 17 and 18, 2025, concluding a five-city outreach series marking the Court's 150th anniversary. The visit moved discussion of the country's final court of appeal into a regional community.
The program included a public forum at the Thunder Bay Courthouse, beginning with a welcoming ceremony involving Indigenous leaders. Members of the public could attend in person or online and submit questions about the Court's role. The invitation explicitly distinguished the event from a legal clinic or discussion of individual cases.
The Court's subsequent updates report that judges also visited secondary schools, the Kinna-aweya Legal Clinic and Lakehead University's Bora Laskin Faculty of Law. Topics discussed with law students included judicial independence, constitutional law and Indigenous law.
Thunder Bay followed visits to Victoria, Moncton, Yellowknife and Sherbrooke during 2025. The Court's year-in-review account places those exchanges among anniversary activities intended to improve public understanding, alongside historical exhibits and other educational projects.
The outreach series illustrates a form of public access that extends beyond publishing judgments: people can ask about how the institution works and speak with judges in an educational setting. The November visit was a completed anniversary event, not a standing appointment service. The official accounts document the meetings and activities, but do not quantify a resulting change in public trust. Their concrete contribution was an opportunity for dialogue with communities outside Ottawa.
