Paul Schabas

Paul B. Schabas is a Canadian jurist who has been serving as a judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice since 2019.^[1] He previously held the position of Treasurer of the Law Society of Ontario,^[2] the top elected position of the self-regulatory body for Ontario's legal profession.

Schabas completed his undergraduate studies in music at Indiana University Bloomington, and in history at University of Toronto's University College. He received his law degree from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in 1984, where he won the prize of First Oralist at the annual University of Toronto / Osgoode Hall (York University) First Year Criminal Law Moots in 1982.

Schabas was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1986.

Schabas began his legal career in 1984 as an articling student under Morris Manning QC, the prominent Toronto lawyer who represented Dr. Henry Morgentaler in R v Morgentaler, the landmark Supreme Court case that decriminalized abortion in Canada in 1988. Schabas was Manning's student in the trial of that case, in which a jury refused to convict Morgentaler and two other physicians for operating an abortion clinic in downtown Toronto in violation of Canada's Criminal Code. Following his call to the bar, Schabas was co-counsel to Manning when the case was appealed to the Supreme Court, which ultimately struck down Canada's abortion law under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1988.^[3]

Prior to his appointment as a judge, Schabas was a partner at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP in Toronto. Schabas joined Blakes in 1988 as a litigation associate, expanding his practice to municipal, environmental, estates, tax, human rights, and media law, while continuing to practise in the areas of criminal and constitutional law. Schabas became a partner at Blakes in 1992. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers.^[4] Schabas has appeared in the Supreme Court on 21 occasions. In a 2014 federal tax court case that garnered controversy, Schabas and his co-counsel were accused by the trial judge of making untruthful allegations against him in their appeal factum.

Schabas served as an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, where he taught media law with law partner Bert Bruser who was counsel to the Toronto Star.^[5] Schabas also served as vice-chair of the university tribunal adjudicating academic offences. He previously taught trial practice at York University's Osgoode Hall Law School and an introductory course on law to undergraduates at Trinity College, University of Toronto. He has spoken at numerous professional and academic conferences in Canada, the United States, and abroad, and published articles ranging from scholarly peer-reviewed work to op-eds in major daily newspapers. His articles have been cited by the Supreme Court of Canada on several occasions.

Schabas served as a Trustee and Chair of the Law Foundation of Ontario. He also served as Chair of Pro Bono Law Ontario, of which he was a founding director. He served as president of the Canadian Media Lawyers Association, and at various times as a director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, the Canadian Journalism Foundation, Lawyers Rights Watch Canada, the Advocates' Society, Family Service Toronto, and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada.

Schabas was elected a bencher (a member of the governance body) of the Law Society of Upper Canada in 2007, and re-elected in 2011 and 2015. As a bencher, he served as chair of the Professional Regulation Committee, the Proceedings Authorization Committee, the Human Rights Monitoring Group, and the Access to Justice Committee. He was a member of the Equity and Indigenous Affairs, Tribunals and Finance Committees, and the Articling and Mentoring Task Forces. He also chaired hearing panels in disciplinary and licensing matters of the Law Society.

In 2016, Schabas was elected by fellow benchers as the Law Society's 66th Treasurer, a position he held until 2018. He was the second lawyer from Blakes to serve as treasurer, following in the footsteps of the firm's founder Edward Blake, who served as Treasurer in the late 1800s following his service as Canada's justice minister and as Ontario's second Premier.

During Schabas's term of office, the regulatory body was re-named the Law Society of Ontario.^[6] He oversaw the body's adoption of a new requirement in 2017 for all Ontario lawyers to expressly affirm a Statement of Principles on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.^[7] The requirement generated significant debate in the legal profession, with many lawyers (including those who supported the principles) objecting to the mandatory nature of the requirement.^[8] This controversy became the focus of a highly polarized bencher election in 2019.^[9]

In April 2019, Schabas was appointed a Judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.^[1]

In 2023, Schabas upheld an order of the College of Psychologists of Ontario, a regulatory body, requiring Canadian psychologist and media personality Jordan Peterson to take social media training in the wake of complaints about online posts and statements over his views on women, masculinity, and gender identity.^[10]

In 2025, Schabas gained significant prominence beyond the legal community when his rulings in Cycle Toronto v Ontario, a Charter challenge against the Ontario government's push to remove existing bike lanes in downtown Toronto, made him a repeat target of Ontario Premier Doug Ford's ire. After Schabas temporarily enjoined the Ontario government from following through on its plans while the trial was ongoing, Ford angrily complained about “unelected” judges.^[11] This earned a rare formal rebuke from Ontario's three Chief Justices – Michael Tulloch (Chief Justice of Ontario), Geoffrey Morawetz (Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Justice), and Sharon Nicklas (Chief Justice of the Ontario Court of Justice) – who issued a joint statement reaffirming the need for judicial independence to uphold the rule of law.^[12]

In his final trial judgment, Schabas concluded that the government's move was an unjustified violation of cyclists' Charter right to life, liberty, and security of the person. This caused further angry outbursts by Ford, who called the judgement "the most ridiculous" he had ever seen and (without evidence) derided Schabas as having been "attacked by every single person right across the country for this ridiculous decision".^[13]