{{Short description|Canadian politician}} {{for|the English footballer|John Sissons (footballer)}} {{Use Canadian English|date=September 2021}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = John Sissons | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_name = John Howard Sissons | birth_date = {{Birth date|1892|7|14|mf=y}} | birth_place = Orillia, Ontario, Canada | death_date = {{death date and age|1969|11|11|1892|7|14|mf=y}} | death_place = Edmonton, Alberta, Canada | spouse = Frances Hewitt Johnson<br />(m. 1929) | children = | riding = Peace River | term_start = 1940 | term_end = 1945 | predecessor = René-Antoine Pelletier | successor = Solon Earl Low | profession = barrister, author, judge | party = Liberal Party of Canada | party colour = | footnotes = | predecessor2 = | successor2 = | website = }} '''John "Jack" Howard Sissons'''<ref>Judge of the Far North by Sissons, Jack</ref> (July 14, 1892 – November 11, 1969) was a Canadian barrister, author, judge and federal politician.<ref name="federal">[http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Files/Parliamentarian.aspx?Item=e67e2669-e3c2-4454-9f10-a0a4fd515167&Language=E&MenuID=Lists.Members.aspx&MenuQuery=http%3A%2F%2Fwww2.parl.gc.ca%2FParlinfo%2FLists%2FMembers.aspx%3FParliament%3D%26Riding%3D%26Name%3Ds%26Party%3D%26Province%3D%26Gender%3D%26New%3DFalse%26Current%3DFalse%26Picture%3DFalse SISSONS, John Howard]</ref>
==Early life== Sissons was born in Orillia, Ontario and, at the age of four, contracted polio, which injured his leg and he walked with a limp for the rest of his life.<ref name="arctic">[http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic43-4-404.pdf John Howard Sissons at The Arctic Instuite of North America]</ref> His father worked at the Orillia Mental Asylum and Sissons was also employed there during the summer.<ref name="ohof">[http://www.scenicorillia.com/orilliahalloffame/halloffame7.html Orillia Hall of Fame] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080306144007/http://www.scenicorillia.com/orilliahalloffame/halloffame7.html |date=2008-03-06 }}</ref> Having left Orillia to teach in both Ontario and Alberta Sissons then moved to Kingston to attend Queen's University. In 1917 he returned to Alberta and passed the bar examination at Edmonton in 1920.<ref name="arctic"/> He then moved to Grande Prairie to practice law.<ref name="arctic"/>
==Federal politics== Sissons was elected to the House of Commons of Canada for the Peace River electoral district in the 1940 Canadian federal election. Representing the Liberal Party he defeated incumbent René-Antoine Pelletier to win a term in office. Sissons was defeated in the 1945 Canadian federal election by Social Credit leader Solon Earl Low.<ref name="federal"/>
==Judge== After losing the 1945 election he was made a judge of the Alberta District Court and became the chief judge in 1950.
Sissons was appointed as the first judge to the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories (then called the Territorial Court of the Northwest Territories) in 1955. He became the first judge to serve on the Supreme court since 1905.<ref>''Images of Justice: A legal history of the Northwest Territories as traced through the Yellowknife courthouse collection of Inuit sculpture'' by Dorothy Harley Eber {{ISBN|978-0-7735-1675-5}}</ref> He made many landmark decisions, and was very fair in his rulings. One intriguing move he made was to hire an Inuk carver to make soapstone carvings of prominent murder cases he presided over throughout the Far North; he was inspired to do this when he ruled in the favour of traditional justice in the case of a young boy, and the boy presented him with a soapstone carving after the trial. These carvings are on display in the present day Yellowknife Court House, and the collection continued to be added to by Justice William Morrow when he took Justice Sissons' place.
===Notable Inuit cases=== * Kikkik * Stephen Angulalik
==Heritage== Sissons Lake, Sissons Court (the street, not the hall of justice), and the Ecole J.H. Sissons School in Yellowknife are named after him.
==References== {{Reflist}}
== Further reading == * {{cite journal |last1=Morrow |first1=W. G. |title=Mr. Justice John Howard Sissons |journal=Alberta Law Review |date=1967 |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=254–262 |doi=10.29173/alr1994|doi-access=free }} * {{cite book |last1=Sissons |first1=John Howard |title=Judge of the Far North: The Memoirs of Jack Sissons |date=1968 |publisher=McClelland and Stewart |isbn=978-0-7710-8174-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/judgeoffarnorthm0000jack |language=en}}
==External links== * {{Canadian Parliament links|ID=10761}} * [http://www.pwnhc.ca/timeline/index_winIFix.asp?forward=http%3A//www.pwnhc.ca/timeline/1950/Sissons_1964.html 1962 Regina v. Sikyea] NWT historical Timeline, Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sissons, John}} Category:1892 births Category:1969 deaths Category:Judges in the Northwest Territories Category:Liberal Party of Canada MPs Category:Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Alberta Category:People from Orillia Category:Writers from Yellowknife Category:Canadian lawyers with disabilities Category:Canadian politicians with disabilities Category:Writers from Simcoe County Category:Canadian writers with disabilities Category:20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada Category:Lawyers from Simcoe County Category:Politicians from Simcoe County