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Professor Don Stuart addresses the audience at a Toronto reception held in his honour following the presentation of the G. Arthur Martin Criminal Justice Medal.

Professor Don Stuart has been awarded the 2012 G. Arthur Martin Criminal Justice Medal by the Criminal Lawyers’ Association for his outstanding contributions to criminal justice in Canada.

“I'm so honoured to receive this award in the name of a gentleman who in every sense devoted his life to enhancing the role of defence counsel and then, as a Court of Appeal judge, strove to make our justice system principled and better,” says Dr. Stuart.

Dr. Stuart’s strong sense of justice stems from his upbringing under apartheid in his native South Africa and international education. He is a Rhodes Scholar who studied criminal law at the University of Cambridge and University of Oxford. It was revealed to him that there was an imbalance of power between the individual and state and the abuses that may develop, and his interest for criminal justice emerged.

“Don’s passion has been caring about people and their fair and just treatment,” says David Finley (Law ’84), Deputy Director, Crown Law Office (Criminal), and one of Dr. Stuart’s former students. “Such concerns have been manifested in his longstanding commitment to the principled development and application of criminal justice and the vigorous defence of constitutional rights.”

Dr. Stuart has been teaching criminal law, criminal procedure, and evidence at Queen’s since 1975. He is also well renowned in the field, as the editor of Criminal Reports since 1982, and produces the National Judicial Institute Criminal Essentials, an e-letter sent to 1,000 judges. He has also written leading texts and casebooks, as well as numerous articles.

The Faculty of Law has created the Don Stuart Criminal Law Fund to celebrate this professor’s legacy and support the ongoing success of the criminal law program at Queen’s.