News Release

FREDERICTON (GNB) – The following statement of condolence was issued today by Premier Blaine Higgs:

Marcia and I were saddened to learn of the passing of New Brunswick Senator Judith Keating.

Judith was passionate about the law and public policy and devoted her life to both.

She joined the Government of New Brunswick in 1985 as legislative counsel and became the first woman to serve as the province’s deputy minister of justice and attorney general.

During her career, she worked tirelessly to promote the equal and just treatment of women in the legal profession and in 1993, she became the founder and first president of New Brunswick’s Women in Law. In 2015, she received the Muriel Corkery-Ryan Q.C. Award from the Canadian Bar Association’s New Brunswick branch in recognition of her outstanding work in the legal profession.

Judith was also a strong proponent of the importance of the equal status of the French and English languages in New Brunswick, and she worked to promote Indigenous issues through her role as provincial chair of the Working Group on Truth and Reconciliation in New Brunswick.

She was appointed chief legal advisor to the premier on aboriginal and intergovernmental affairs in 2013 by former Premier David Alward and served as chief legal advisor to former Premier Brian Gallant.

She retired from the New Brunswick public service in 2017 and was appointed to the senate by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on January 31, 2020.

On behalf of all New Brunswickers, I offer my sincere condolences to Judith’s family, friends and colleagues.