Since her appointment to the bench in November 1994, the Honourable Mary T. Moreau has contributed her energy and wisdom to the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench for over 20 years. She is the first woman appointed to the position of Chief Justice of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench.
Throughout her judicial career, Chief Justice Moreau has been actively involved in education, administration, and strategic planning. She regularly lectures at judicial education programs, and served as co-chair of the National Judicial Institute’s annual spring National Criminal Law Conference for six years.
A former president of the Canadian Superior Court Judges Association, Chief Justice Moreau received the Association’s President’s Award in 2013.
Since 2014, she has been a member of the Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics, which provides confidential advisory opinions on ethical issues to federally appointed judges across Canada. As well, she is a longstanding member of the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta’s Strategic Planning Committee.
Prior to becoming a judge, Chief Justice Moreau practiced criminal law, constitutional law, and civil litigation in Edmonton. In particular, she litigated numerous landmark cases involving minority language rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. She is also a co-founder of the Association des juristes d’expression française de l’Alberta.
Since her appointment to the bench, she has presided over French and bilingual trials in Alberta, and serves as a Deputy Justice in the Northwest Territories and the Yukon. In 2009, she chaired a National Judicial Institute project responsible for the creation of an electronic bench book for judges on the language rights of the accused, which she helped update in 2017. Justice Moreau actively participates in international judicial education and support projects, and is a member of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs’ Judicial Advisory Committee on International Engagement.