Randall (Bud) Wong

BC’s longest serving judge, the Honourable Justice Randall (Bud) Wong is a pioneer in Canadian law. He served as the first Chinese-Canadian provincial Crown Counsel (1967) and became a BC Provincial Court judge in 1974. In 1981 he became the first Chinese-Canadian federally-appointed judge with his appointment to the British Columbia County Court. In 1990 he was promoted to a position on Canada’s Supreme Court serving the Supreme Courts of British Columbia, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut’s Court of Justice.?

In 2006, Justice Wong gave an address in Vancouver to the Association of Chinese-Canadian Professionals, and reflected on the early years of Chinese-Canadians practicing law:

“Even in the 1960s, not many Chinese-Canadians studied law as a career. UBC Law School only graduated one or two Chinese-Canadians out of a class of sixty students per year. Andrew Joe was the First Chinese-Canadian who graduated from UBC Law … and was the first to be admitted to The Law Society of B.C. Most Chinese-Canadian lawyers practised in Chinatown and were primarily solicitors and not litigators. None were employed with major law firms in Vancouver until the late 1970s.”

Wong’s parents owned the historic Ovaltine Cafe, and he attributes conversations with law enforcement officials while working there with his decision to make the law his career.

Bill Hooker introduced our speaker.

In April 2016, on his 75th birthday, Judge Randall ‘Bud’ Wong retired as the longest-serving judge in British Columbia’s history. With his 42-year tenure as a judge, he earned himself the nickname, Judicial Dinosaur. A nickname like that comes with a lot of stories and wisdom. As the last pre-Chart of Rights judge on the Supreme Court to retire, he feels a kinship with Stonehenge – they’re both old, don’t move, and people continue to wonder where they came from.

Unlike Stonehenge though, we’re lucky enough that Wong is able to tell us of his origins. And they begin well before his retirement or appointment as a judge. He was born in Vancouver to a Chinese-Canadian family, during a time of rampant racial discrimination. Following the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885, the primarily Chinese laborers from Guangdong Province were left out to dry. At the time they made up about 10% of BC’s total population. A heavy head tax was imposed to discourage further Chinese immigration, followed by the Chinese Immigration Act that closed Canada to all Chinese immigration from 1923-1947. Movie theatres were racially segregated, and Asians were banned from buying homes, using indoor pools, practicing law, and voting. In his parents’generation, one really had to be outstanding in comparison to the competing candidates in order to gain jobs with white employers outside of Chinatown. It wasn’t until after the end of WWII, in which Chinese-Canadians served, that the Voters Act of 1875 was finally repealed to allow ethnic minorities to participate in elections. In 1952, Andrew Joe became the first Chinese-Canadian to graduate from UBC Law.

In his youth, Randall spent his summers working at his parents’ Downtown Eastside diner, the now famously longstanding Ovaltine Café. Located near a police station, the diner was often frequented by many judges, lawyers, and police officers, who influenced Wong to pursue a career in law. Following in the footsteps of Andrew Joe, Wong graduated from UBC in 1966. At the time, the Law Society of BC only had about 4000 members, most lawyers were generalists, and the camaraderie among them was strong. Even in the late 1960s, the school was only graduating one or two Chinese-Canadian law students every year. Most Chinese-Canadian lawyers at the time practiced within Chinatown as solicitors. The civil rights
movement in 1968 however brought a sea change in social attitude and economic opportunities for Chinese Canadians, and in 1981, Wong became the first federally appointed Chinese-Canadian judge.

Wong regaled us with stories of his younger law days, with colourful judges who sometimes fell asleep during trials and asked expert witnesses for their advice on personal medical concerns. Others made sassy remarks to prostitutes, and were put in their places after foolishly demanding that their female colleagues change out of their trousers.

As expected, a lot has changed over the course of Judge Wong’s long career. He contrasts the past with the post-1982 era, following the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, where judges have a more active role in extending social policy. Now, with over 15,000 lawyers in the province, relationships have become much more formal than they once were. He reflects on the transformation of the legal profession from a vocation into more of a business-like endeavor as overhead costs have increased. The law has become so complex that generalist lawyers are a dying breed, and high degrees of specialization is on the rise. Now only the most affluent can use the court system effectively, and meditation or arbitration are the norm. Students are now more formally educated, but mentorship is declining. Whereas in the 70s there were only three women judges, women now make up 45% of the BC bench.

Wong also emphasizes the importance of Chinese Canadian professionals to be more involved in community service such as pro-bono work, volunteerism at service organizations, and participation in boards and political office.

Wong’s appointment to the bench 49 years ago was a major coup for visible minorities and a promise for future opportunities for succeeding generations of young persons. With so many notable figures in the field like Bob Lee, Milton Wong, and Anna K. Fung, Wong expresses a
deep optimism for the future of Chinese-Canadians.

Retired judge and member, Grant Taylor, thanked our speaker and presented him with the customary honorarium.
customary honorarium.