Court of Appeal for Ontario

The Court of Appeal for Ontario (frequently mistakenly referred to as the Ontario Court of Appeal) (ONCA is the abbreviation for its neutral citation) is the appellate court for the province of Ontario, Canada.

The Court is composed of 22 judicial seats, in addition to 10 justices who currently sit supernumerary.

[2] Among the Court of Appeal's most notable decisions was the 2003 ruling in Halpern v Canada (AG) that found defining marriage as between one man and one woman to violate Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, legalizing same-sex marriage in Ontario and making Canada the first jurisdiction in the world where same-sex marriage was legalized by a court ruling.

Among many judges from the Court who have been elevated to the Supreme Court of Canada are Justices Rosalie Abella, Louise Arbour, Peter Cory, Louise Charron, Andromache Karakatsanis, Bora Laskin, Michael Moldaver, and Mahmud Jamal, as well as Bertha Wilson, who was the first female justice on both the Court of Appeal for Ontario (1975) and the Supreme Court of Canada (1982).

Ontario Crown Law Office Supernumerary Justices Counsel with Fraser & Beatty / Dentons LLP

A courtroom at Osgoode Hall . Over the dais are the Royal Arms of the United Kingdom , which until 1931 were the Royal Arms for general purposes throughout the British Empire. The Statute of Westminster 1931 effectively elevated the Royal Arms of Canada to the position of the King's Royal Arms for general purposes across Canada, which is why the Royal Arms of Canada are now used by the court to represent the Canadian Crown .