Everything you need to know about Justice Ilio Anthony Vannini

From the archives of the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library:

Justice Ilio Anthony Vannini, Q.C. was a prominent Sault Ste. Marie citizen, whose contributions to the city – and, in particular, the Italian community – persist to this day.

Growing up in Sault Ste. Marie, Vannini attended St. Mary’s Separate School and Sault Collegiate Institute. Upon graduating high school, he pursued his post-secondary education at the University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall. In 1940, he graduated from Osgoode Hall, was called to the bar, and began an almost 50-year career in law.

Initially, he was a defense lawyer. In 1960, he was appointed Queen’s Counsel.

Then, in 1966, he was appointed to the court of Algoma as a judge, a trailblazing role.  He was the first Sault-born man to become a judge, and he was also the first judge of Italian descent in Ontario – the second across Canada.  A 1967 Sault Star article proclaimed him “the first of his race” to become a judge.

His success made him a role model, encouraging local Italian children to pursue careers in the legal field.

Across Vannini’s legal career, he was involved in a number of high-profile decisions including a commission over a case of police brutality in Toronto. Mounted police rode into a crowd protesting the visit of Alexei Kosygin, the Soviet Premier and his report found that the police’s actions were unjustified. In another case he made a landmark decision to allow an accused person access to the reason why police tapped his phone line, something that Vannini felt would “[protect] the civil liberties of the accused.”

He also was involved in a case that garnered him considerable criticism and controversy when he sentenced a man to 90 days in jail, to be served on weekends for beating and sexually assaulting a woman. His decision was made on the grounds that the victim “did not suffer any lasting emotional or psychological harm.”

As well, he felt that the accused was from a good family with a decent chance of rehabilitation, and he noted that the accused had developed an ulcer due to the stress of the incident. His decision in sentencing the man sparked angry reactions from women’s advocacy groups and even then-leader of the Provincial Opposition, Bob Rae. His decision was ultimately appealed and overturned.

He was a widely respected member of the legal community. On two occasions, he was invited to serve on the Ontario Appeal Court; he refused the offer, opting instead to stay in Sault Ste. Marie. All told, he was a judge for 25 years, retiring in 1990.

In 1991, the Sault Ste. Marie Police Services Building was dedicated in his honour. He unveiled a plaque at the building, and performed a variation on a ribbon-cutting ceremony: he unlocked a pair of handcuffs to officially open the building. In the Sault Star, he was quoted as saying that the dedication “[marked] the culmination . . . of the close association [he’d] had with the police forces” over the past decades.

He passed away in 1998, at 82 years of age. Just months later, the legal library, neighbouring the courthouse on Queen Street, was renamed I.A. Vannini Law library. The ceremony was attended by approximately 40 people: friends, family, and members of the legal community. The Sault Star interviewed a number of attendees, who spoke of the respect they had for Vannini and the significance of a library named after him. According to Rudy Peres, who counted Vannini as an uncle and law partner, “His life was his law books and his profession.”

Vannini has also been remembered with an award in his honour, presented by the G. Marconi and Elettra Marconi Societies, presented yearly since 1998. The Justice I.A. Vannini Award recognizes the accomplishments of Italian descendants from Sault Ste. Marie and surrounding areas in the fields of academia, culture, or athletics; it also recognizes “outstanding contributions” from the local to the international level.

In a 1998 article, the Sault Star described Vannini as “a man of integrity, dignity and eloquence.”  

Today, his legacy lives on – through his contributions to the legal profession and those he inspired along the way.

Each week, the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library and its Archives provides SooToday readers with a glimpse of the city’s past.

Find out more of what the Public Library has to offer at www.ssmpl.ca and look for more Remember This? columns here