About Claire L'Heureux-Dubé
Claire L'Heureux-Dubé (born September 7, 1927) is a retired Canadian judge who served as a puisne justice on the Supreme Court of Canada from 1987 to 2002. She was the first woman from Quebec and the second woman appointed to this position, after Bertha Wilson. Previously, she had been one of the first female lawyers to handle divorce cases, and was the first woman appointed as a judge to the Quebec Superior Court and the Quebec Court of Appeal. During L'Heureux-Dubé's time on the country's top court, she earned a reputation as a steadfast feminist and supporter of minority rights. Because roughly 40 percent of the 254 judgements that she wrote were dissents, she became known as the court's "great dissenter". == Early life and career == L'Heureux-Dubé was born Claire L'Heureux in Quebec City in 1927. She was one of four girls raised by a mother who spent fifty years as a quadriplegic as a result of multiple sclerosis which developed when L'Heureux-Dubé was only nine. L'Heureux-Dubé attended the Ursuline Monastery of Quebec City and worked at a cod liver oil plant in Rimouski, Quebec, but quit when she was nineteen to continue her education. In 1951, she graduated cum laude from the law faculty of Université Laval, despite facing gender discrimination such as not being given scholarships that were awarded to men of similar financial means. She then entered private practice in Quebec.
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