'Kind of an anomaly': Anne Jeffries reflects on being one of the first female judges in N.B.

Provincial Court Judge Anne Jeffries remembers getting called "dear" a lot.

"I got that from the accused," said Jeffries, who was one of first women in New Brunswick to be appointed to the bench in 1997.

"You know, they'd be, 'Yes dear,' 'I understand dear.' … They weren't used to seeing a female judge and a lot of them almost didn't know how to react to it," she said.

"They weren't sure what to call you. Do I call her 'Her Honour?' You were kind of an anomaly at the time. But you take it as it comes, and from whence it comes."

A lot has changed in the two decades since then, said Jeffries, 67, who is based in Saint John.

New Brunswick is now the only province with an equal number of women and men serving as full-time provincial court judges. Gender equity in other provinces ranges between 33 per cent and 46 per cent.

The New Brunswick milestone was reached last month when Premier Brian Gallant appointed five new women to the bench. He also promoted a sitting judge to be the court's first female chief judge.

Jeffries took early retirement in 2012 and is now a "per diem" judge. She works about 30 to 40 days a year, filling in as needed during holidays and illnesses.

She was surprised by the news of five new women appointed to the bench.

"I went, 'Whoa, that's interesting,'" she said. "They've never done a bunch of female appointments in one sitting before."

She has never espoused gender equity for gender equity's sake, she said. But she has also never agreed with women being overlooked simply because they are women.

"People would say, 'Oh well, I don't know if they can do this, or do that," she said.

"There are qualified women, obviously, who deserve the recognition of their abilities to sit as judges, so it's nice to see that that's now coming to fruition."

'Never backed down'

Her legal career was "male-dominated," she said.

When she began practising criminal law in 1974 — one of only a handful of women in her graduating class of about 75 students — she dealt with some "chauvinistic" police officers and faced "cat calls" at the jail while meeting with clients.

"You grew a thick skin pretty quick," she said.

"I never backed down too much so I probably fared better than some of my other [female] colleagues because some were too, in my mind I guess, too sensitive to deal with some of the issues. But you had to let it go. You just couldn't get upset about everything."

Jeffries, whose brother is Greg Byrne, a former senior Liberal cabinet minister and chief of staff, attributes her success, in part, to their father, who always told her she could achieve whatever she set her mind to.

"So I had confidence, I had enough wits about me to just do what was necessary to get where I needed to be and not take too much guff off anybody to get there."

Her male counterparts were supportive and she developed a reputation on the bench for being tough, but fair. "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time," became the catchphrase of the married stepmother of three.

'Different perspective'

Looking back, Jeffries thinks being a woman may have worked in her favour in the courtroom at times. She said she rarely dealt with the verbal outbursts from accused that her male colleagues routinely experienced.

"There was just enough maybe of a novelty, I don't know, or enough of a recognition of a female presence that [the accused] kind of held themselves in control."

She believes that's one of the advantages women bring to the court. "Sometimes you can keep a lid on things, you can keep things more calm and like I say, you get I think maybe a little more deference in the court from the accused because you are female."

Women also bring a different perspective, she said. "Females sometimes look at things different in terms of, if you have children and deal with a lot of family issues and things, which usually fall more to the female, you have maybe more peace-making skills, I don't know … it's just different. I don't know how to explain it."

'Different perspective'

"It makes for a good exchange of ideas between your male and female counterparts because you can toss things back and forth and maybe get a little different perspective on something and go, 'Oh, I never thought of that.'"

Jeffries said she knows two of the five latest appointees well — Kelly Winchester and Lucie Mathurin, who both worked as Crown prosecutors in her court.

She said they both have lots of experience, and knows the other three — Joanne Durett, Johanne-Marguerite Landry and Natalie LeBlanc — would be equally qualified, having gone through the vetting process.

Candidates must have been members of the New Brunswick Bar in good standing for at least 10 years and have undergone a screening process conducted by a committee comprised of members of the public, the practicing bar, and the judiciary.

"I'm confident they're going to do well."