The Honourable Lori Renée Weitzman

Justice Lori Renée Weitzman received her civil law degree in 1984 and her common law degree in 1985, both from McGill University. She also holds a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University, which she received in 1987. Prior to her appointment to the bench, she was a member of the Quebec Bar as well as the New York Bar, having first practised corporate law in New York before returning to Montreal.

Justice Weitzman was a Crown prosecutor in Montreal from 1987 to 2010, where she specialized in the prosecution of sexual assault and homicide cases. She was then assigned to the appeals team, pleading before the Court of Appeal of Quebec and the Supreme Court of Canada. From 1994 to 1999, she taught sentencing at McGill University, and then advocacy skills until 2008.

Justice Weitzman was appointed to the Court of Québec in April 2010, where she sat in the Criminal and Penal Division for 13 years. She has always been involved in the education of judges, for instance: from 2013 to 2016, she was in charge of the New Judges’ Education Program, an annual week-long conference organized by the Canadian Association of Provincial Court Judges; from 2019 to 2023, she participated in the annual National Judicial Institute (NJI) program in criminal law for federally appointed judges during their first five years on the bench; from 2016 to 2023, she was a member of the planning committee for the NJI’s Annual Criminal Law Conference.

Justice Weitzman also sat on Quebec’s Professions Tribunal from 2019 to 2023 and was a member of the Conseil de la magistrature du Québec from 2020 to 2023.

She was appointed to the Court of Appeal of Quebec on May 31, 2023.