[1]: 120  He became a Hudson's Bay Company clerk in Nanaimo, British Columbia and then a judge in the Colony of Vancouver Island.

[2] In the years when the Hudson's Bay Company continued to have exclusive licence to trade in what is now British Columbia, Governor James Douglas had appointed four magistrates to deal with legal disputes but he found them to be "ignorant and unreliable".

His wife's brother, an HBC employee arrived from Demerara in July 1853[3]: 79  to take up duties as a clerk in the company operations in Nanaimo, British Columbia.

Douglas appointed Cameron a Judge of the newly created Supreme Court of Civil Justice on Dec 2, 1853.

[4]: 92 [1]: 119 On February 28, 1856 at direction of London, Douglas established an elected legislative assembly for the Colony of Vancouver Island which began with 7 representatives: John Muir, Dr. J. S. Helmcken, Thomas J Skinner, J.

[1]: 122 In November 1858 Cameron, as Chief Justice of Vancouver Island, attended with Matthew Baillie Begbie, just arrived as judge elect of the new colony of British Columbia, and Governor Douglas at Fort Langley.