Established 1867 Location Osgoode Hall, Toronto | Country Ontario, Canada Website [1] | |
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Authorized by No. of positions 23 (plus supernumeraries) | ||
The Court of Appeal for Ontario (frequently referred to as Ontario Court of Appeal or OCA) is headquartered in downtown Toronto, in historic Osgoode Hall.
The Court is composed of 23 judges who hear over 1,500 appeals each year, on issues of private law, constitutional law, criminal law, administrative law, and other matters. The Supreme Court of Canada hears appeals from less than 3% of the decisions of the Court of Appeal; in a very practical sense, the Court of Appeal is the last avenue of appeal for most litigants in Canada's most populous province. Among the Court of Appeal's most notable decisions was a 2003 ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in Ontario, 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 Bertha Wilson. Justice Bertha Wilson was the first female justice on both the Ontario Court of Appeal (1975) and the Supreme Court of Canada (1982).
The court derives its jurisdiction from Ontario's Courts of Justice Act.