Carter, Mary Yvonne (1923-2010)

Mary Carter, 1976

Canada Post Corporation S-SP-A9787-2, Saskatoon Starphoenix Fonds

Mary Carter had a long and distinguished career as lawyer, magistrate, and judge. She was born Mary Munn on October 11, 1923, in Cromer, Manitoba, where her father was employed by the United Grain Growers. The family moved to Saskatoon in 1938, and she graduated from Nutana Collegiate in 1941. She received two degrees from the University of Saskatchewan: a BA (with Distinction) in 1944, and an LLB in 1947. She married Roger Carter in 1947. After articling with the law firm of Caswell, Whitmore and Stokan, she practiced with her husband in the firm of Makaroff, Carter and Carter from 1948 to 1953, leaving practice when the first of her six children was born. In 1960, she became the second woman to be appointed a magistrate in Saskatchewan. In this role, her work often concerned matrimonial disputes, child support and child custody, and cases under young offender legislation; these were the areas that came to be most closely associated with her judicial career. Carter was elevated to Saskatchewan’s District Court in 1978, where her work was part of the pilot project for a Unified Family Court. In 1981, when the courts were amalgamated, she became a judge of the Court of Queen’s Bench, where she sat until her retirement in 1998. Mary Carter passed away in October 2010.

Beth Bilson