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A judge who presided over some of Windsor’s most sensational criminal trials at the downtown Superior Court of Justice building is moving up the ranks in the Canadian justice system.
Justice Renee Pomerance — admired for bringing civility to the courtroom and treating even the vilest of offenders with humanity — has been appointed to the Court of Appeal for Ontario, the province’s highest court.
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“She’s the greatest female jurist this jurisdiction has ever seen — she’ll be missed,” said Daniel Topp, president of the Windsor-Essex Criminal Lawyers’ Association.
“She is very, very well-respected — a pure jurist, with a big heart and a big brain,” Topp told the Star.
“No matter how complex the facts, she never forgot she was dealing with human beings.” Topp said that included not just the accused but also the lawyers and courtroom staff in what can be a stressful, high-pressure professional environment.
Even vicious killers and dangerous offenders she dispatched to prison to serve long sentences behind bars could expect at least a few final words of hope and encouragement from Pomerance.
“You say no one has ever given you a chance. I am going to give you a chance today,” she once told a former gang member at his sentencing for a violent home invasion. The man was still sentenced to a lengthy prison term, but nowhere near what the Crown had sought.
But when Pomerance sentenced a hate-filled young man in February to life in prison and declared his 2021 killing of four members of a London Muslim family an act of terrorism, she made a point in her lengthy decision of not mentioning him by name a single time.
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Pomerance, a specialist in criminal and constitutional law, was appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario in Windsor in 2006 after about seven years of prosecuting criminal cases for the Crown at its busy Toronto offices.
During her time in Toronto, one of her leaves of absence was a 2002-03 stint as counsel to Canadian judge Peter Cory, appointed by the governments of Britain and Ireland to look into a series of notorious killings during “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland. Cory’s inquiry found evidence of British security services colluding in those murders.
The Court of Appeal announcement by federal Minister of Justice and Attorney General Arif Virani comes just nine months after Pomerance had been appointed regional senior judge for the Superior Court of Justice Southwest Region. Her duties included not only criminal cases but also civil and other cases.
“I will miss Windsor and the surrounding area, but am excited about the challenges that lie ahead,” Pomerance told the Star in an emailed statement Monday.
“I hope that, in discharging my new duties, I can continue to contribute to this community and others in Ontario. I know that it will be a privilege to try.”
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Her stuff was bullet-proof
Sometimes taking hours to cover in meticulous detail her instructions to trial juries or to explain her decisions, Pomerance’s rulings from the local bench would rarely be appealed.
“Her stuff was bullet-proof, absolutely,” said Topp. “The way her mind works, she’s on another level.”
As recently as April, Pomerance, whose expertise extends to judicial education, spoke at the Essex Law Association’s annual dinner on the importance and the need for civility in the courtroom.
“She understood the human factor … and we treated her with respect and deference,” said Topp.
Approximately 30 judges sit on the Court of Appeal, which hears appeals from Superior Court and the Ontario Court of Justice. For most litigants in Ontario, it’s the last avenue of appeal — fewer than two per cent of its decisions are heard by the Supreme Court of Canada.
One of Topp’s cases he expects to be heard soon in the Court of Appeal — and then possibly the Supreme Court — was a recent Pomerance decision designating Windsor serial arsonist Frank Warren a dangerous offender, but also ordering him into a provincial psychiatric hospital rather than a federal prison.
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Pomerance ruled it would be unconstitutional to not also provide the Windsor man with a potential pathway to eventual release. Topp said the Crown is seeking to have that order stayed.
“She’s remodelling the law with her decision … because of the Charter issues involved,” said Topp.
On the same day as Pomerance’s new appointment was announced, lawyer Jacqueline Horvat, with Toronto’s Gillian Hnatiw & Co., was named a judge of the Superior Court of Justice in Windsor, replacing Justice Kirk Munroe who retired in February.
Raised in Windsor, where she also obtained her law degree, Horvat in 2022 was elected treasurer of the Law Society of Ontario. She is also a former director of the Ontario Judicial Education Network, dedicated to fostering public understanding of the judicial system.
Three of the five appointments made last week by Justice Minister Arif have Windsor connections. Brian DeLorenzi is now the newest Superior Court judge in Sault Ste. Marie, his hometown. He was in the same University of Windsor Faculty of Law 2001 graduating class as Horvat.
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Pomerance declined a request to be interviewed, but in her emailed statement Monday she told the Star that, upon first arriving in Windsor in 2006, “I was immediately struck by the warm and welcoming nature of the community.
“It did not take long for the city to feel like home, and it has remained a wonderful place to live and work.”
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