Charles Dubin, former chief justice of Ontario, is dead at the age of 87.
Born in Hamilton in 1921 and called to the bar in 1944, Dubin was appointed Queen’s Council at the age of 29, at the time the youngest person in the commonwealth to receive that honour. As one of the top lawyers in the country, he defended former prime minister John Diefenbaker at the federal inquiry into the Greda Munsinger affair. He was also a staunch opponent of the death penalty before it was abolished, defending 14 men charged with first-degree murder. None of his defendants were ever hung. In 1973, he was appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal, eventually becoming chief justice in 1990, a position he held for six years.
But what made Dubin a household name was his chairing of the inquiry into the use of performance enhancing drugs by athletes after the 1988 Seoul Olympics. The 638 page Dubin Report recognized steroids as a major threat to sports and was highly critical of the entire Canadian Olympic movement.
In 1997, Dubin was named an officer of the Order of Canada.