Peter Coulson
Peter Coulson: Judge, family man, volunteer, traveller. Born July 9, 1939, in Newcastle, Ont.; died Aug. 30, 2017, in Cobourg, Ont.; of cancer; aged 78.
Peter was born in the front parlour of his aunt's home in Newcastle, Ont. His parents, Bill and Evelyne, would invest every hard-earned dollar they had in their son, which permitted him to attend an all-boys private school in Toronto. The training would serve him well.
In 1953, Bill bought a farm on Amherst Island, just west of Kingston on Lake Ontario. The move meant that Peter would finish high-school in a one-room schoolhouse – where he stoked the wood stove and helped to teach the younger students. After graduating, he tried Collège militaire royal in St. Jean, Que., but didn't last long. Peter ended up at Queen's University (with a loan from Queen's principal William Mackintosh) and flourished: graduating with a BA and a bachelor of law. He also met Janet, the love of his life, at Queen's, and they were married in July, 1965. Peter – who worked as a defence lawyer, crown attorney and judge – would frequently quip, "I'm the luckiest boy who ever got off of Amherst Island."
In the courtroom, Justice Coulson eschewed the mathematical precision of legal scholars to employ his own brand of moral pragmatism. He didn't just practise law, he practised morality. In each case he strove to balance the facts and the individuals involved with the letter of the law, to mete out decisions that were just and not simply legally accurate. As he liked to say: "Consider the facts of the case, and then work within the law to deliver the most just outcome." Peter didn't suffer fools and his courtroom quips were legendary. On one occasion, he remarked to an accused with a lengthy criminal record, "You have been coming to court more often than I have."
As a judge, he helped create a judicial counselling system to support his colleagues on the bench who were going through immense job stresses. He also particularly enjoyed the privilege of marrying young couples.
Being a judge is a stressful job that carries a huge amount of responsibility. Yet he didn't bring those stresses home with him, he didn't complain about the horrific things he heard that day. He insulated his family and always put them first. He took his boys, David and Michael, to thousands of 6 a.m. hockey games and never once complained.
He showed the same strong moral compass in his devotion to public service, dedicating over 50 years to Rotary International and serving on hospital boards and community service organizations.
Above all else, he devoted himself to making Janet happy. Our parents spent the last 10 years travelling around the world. A map wasn't big enough, so their grandchildren would take out a globe and spin it to see if they could land on "where in the world are Grammy and Pop." His time and devotion to bringing people together will be one of the things we miss the most.
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