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HABITAT FOR HUMANITY
About the late Mr. Justice Cawsey
It was fitting that Robert Allan Cawsey was born on Remembrance Day,
1922, because he never forgot what was important. He remembered to be
grateful to his dutiful parents, they being a vigilant police officer
father and a vigorous mother who managed to raise five children on the
meagre policeman's income of early Alberta in his home town of
Wetaskiwin.
He remembered to love and serve his country throughout his
life. He volunteered as a military cadet at age 12 in 1934, when war
loomed. A militia stint and then RCMP service was followed by
enlistment, officer training, and departure for war in late 1942. A tank commander in
Sicily and Italy with the Calgary Tank Regiment, he was engaged in
fierce and famous battles (Monte Cassino, Ponte Corvo) and ongoing
dangerous activity such as mine clearing.
He survived close calls with death. On one occasion he was
trapped on the wrong side of the Amo River in enemy territory. When
spotting with his binoculars, he was hit by shrapnel from a nearby
shell, the metal penetrating his shoulder and left lung, and remaining
with him until 1957. After several operations, he returned to active
duty in bandages, and was again severely injured when his tank hit a
land mine that killed his driver and severely damaged his leg, requiring
15 operations. His hearing was also affected though not severely until
later in life.
His military and legal careers intertwined. He had worked for
the Judge Advocate General while in the Army, while during his legal
practice he served as commander of D Squadron, 19
Though his Wetaskiwin law firm did financial and business work, he also set about the not deeply remunerative work of being Crown Prosecutor for his district. There he manifested the judicial temperament and level-headed sensitivity and integrity that has long been used to define the Crown Prosecutor as a form of Minister of Justice. His legal colleagues recognized his leadership in electing him as a Bencher of the Law Society.
Cawsey also continued his political avocation with the Conservative Party, following a brief dalliance with socialist views during the War that he said "got over". In actuality , though, Cawsey never fully discarded those sentiments. He was a moderate man, a Diefenbaker Conservative and thus a believer in the fundamental rights and freedoms of everyone. He saw worth in everyone.
He also was acutely aware of the conditions of the aboriginal people of his province as reflected in their social conditions and occasional collisions with criminal justice - all of which he saw close hand. Not surprisingly, it was he who was called upon in 1990 to inquire into the criminal justice system as it related to aboriginal people, ultimately producing a tour de force report, Justice on Trial, with numerous carefully considered and influential recommendations.
Cawsey was a judicial leader. He was the first Chief Judge of the Provincial Court following its configuration in the 1970s from a collection of magistrates and Justices of the Peace into a 'people 's court'. This was the Court most often seen by the public and he worked diligently to make it not only serve the public, but be seen to do so. Having set the framework of that Court, he moved on to the Court of Queen's Bench in 1979, and served diligently there until his retirement in 1997.
Though his physical bearing conveyed authority, he avoided elitism. He joined the YMCA not a private club. To others he described himself as working in a small office on 97 Street, rather than as a judge. His son reported that "He wanted to be treated like everybody else." He also was dutiful and generous to the end, participating actively on the Committee and even the hammer and nails aspects of the Habitat for Humanity Law Build in 1998, at the age of 76.
He passed away at the age of 81 in 2003, a much respected and admired man of modest origins who did the best that he could throughout his productive life. Phyllis, his spouse of many decades, passed away in 2007 .