Collection 1001.05 - SAIT Historical Photo Collection

The Honourable William George Morrow was born in Edmonton, Alberta on February 5, 1917. He received his B.A. and his LL.B. from the University of Alberta in 1939. After articling in Edmonton with his father, William Morrow Sr., he was admitted to the Alberta bar on June 19, 1940. He joined the Canadian Navy in 1942, where he did active duty on a minesweeper. Following the war, he returned to his father's firm. Admitted to the Northwest Territories bar in 1959, and the Yukon bar in 1960, Morrow practiced in Edmonton, the Northwest Territories, and the Yukon with the firm of Morrow, Reynolds, Stevenson and Kane from 1940 until his appointment to the Bench of the Northwest Territories. He was named Q.C. in 1953. Morrow, along with J. A. Laycraft, R. A. MacKimmie, W. A. Stevenson, and J. V. H. Milvain, was counsel in "Wakefield v. Oil City" ([1959] 29 W.W.R. 638), which became the last Canadian Appeal to the Judicial of the Privy Council in July 1959. He received an honorary LL.D. from both the University of Alberta in 1972, and the University of Calgary in 1974, as well as a D.U.C. from the University of Calgary in 1975. Morrow's judicial career had a great impact on the administration of justice in Canada, especially as it relates to Native Canadians. He replaced John Howard Sissons as resident Judge of the Territorial Court of the Northwest Territories in 1966 and served until 1976, when he was appointed to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Alberta. During his tenure in the north, Morrow was especially sensitive to aboriginal rights and he sought to make Canadian law flexible enough to accommodate the traditions and values of the native cultures. Morrow was involved in several landmark northern cases, involving the complexities of international wildlife legislation, native hunting rights and witchcraft. Morrow was Commissioner of an Inquiry into the Administration of Justice in Hay River, where he addressed the problem of rising criminality among the younger aboriginal people. He also gave many lectures on these problems, wrote several articles for the Alberta Law Review, and contributed material to the Trial Judges Journal and the Journal of Natural Resource Management and Interdisciplinary Studies. In addition to his service on the Supreme Court of Alberta and the Territorial Court of the Northwest Territories, Morrow was Justice of the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories, 1966-1976, Deputy Judge, Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories, 1976-1980, Justice of the Court of Appeal of the Northwest Territories, 1971- 1980, and Justice of the Court of Appeal of the Yukon Territory, 1971-1980. Morrow died in Edmonton on August 13, 1980.