Thomas Berger, a legend in B.C.'s legal and social justice circles, also the lawyer who fought for groundbreaking Indigenous land claims, has died at age 88.
Berger, who died on Wednesday after battling with cancer, is also being remembered for his compassion and respect for Indigenous rights.
Former Dene National Chief Bill Erasmus recalled how Berger argued for the Nisga'a Nation in the landmark case Calder vs. British Columbia early in his law career in the late 1960s.
The eventual Supreme Court of Canada ruling in 1973 marked the first time the nation's legal system acknowledged the existence of Aboriginal title to land.
"As a young lawyer he stuck his neck out. Not very many people believed we had treaty or Aboriginal rights. Today, it's common," Erasmus said.
Appointed to the B.C. Supreme Court in the early 1970s, Berger also led an inquiry that put a pipeline project in the Mackenzie Valley on hold.
In that role, Berger visited 40 communities along the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories and Yukon, Erasmus said.
"He did that because he wanted to listen to the people who were on the land and knew the issues of ownership and so, on that, was really groundbreaking."
After Berger stepped down as a judge, he resumed his legal practice and worked on several high-profile court cases.
In 2017, the B.C. government retained Berger as outside counsel after the province said it would seek legal action against the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion launched by two dozen environmental groups and some First Nations challenging the federal government's approval of the project.
Berger also represented First Nations and environmental groups against proposed modifications to Yukon's Peel River watershed.
Thomas Berger, the former B.C. Supreme Court Judge, politician and lawyer, 'spent a lifetime moving all of us toward a just society,' said B.C. Premier John Horgan in a statement following Berger's death Wednesday.
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