Background
He was born in Rosetown, Saskatchewan and his career included law and education. He was a descendant of Sir Matthew Hale, Lord Chief Justice of England.
He was born in Rosetown, Saskatchewan and his career included law and education. He was a descendant of Sir Matthew Hale, Lord Chief Justice of England.
He was shadow Justice Minister and Chairman of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs. Woolliams first represented Alberta"s Bow River electoral district. In the 1960s Woolliams was one of the Rt Honorary
Chiefly, as Shadow Justice Minister, Woolliams in many speeches warned of the Napoleonic legal philosophy of the Liberals.
This socio-political engineering was warned against with the move to Trudeau"s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Woolliams saw it as a move towards the erosion of ancient British guarantees of individual rights in favour of a politically correct philosophy of group rights and legislation from the Supreme Court that would cause troubles in the future for the maintenance of democracy and true justice and freedom.
lieutenant was a singular blow therefore that he would not be given the Justice Ministry under the new Conservative leader Rt Honorary Joe Clark in 1979. He warned as well Mr Clark upon leaving out the Quebec Creditistes from his minority government that proved to be exactly the case when the merely 9-month Clark government was defeated on the 1980 budget.
He therefore left national politics in 1980 and did not campaign in that year"s national elections after serving eight successive terms from the 24th to the 31st Canadian Parliaments.
The Clark government was defeated by a rejuvenated Liberal regime again under Pierre Trudeau. After the return of the Tories under Brian Mulroney, Eldon M Woolliams served in the capacity of emeritus adviser and Chairman of the Justices Commission, which were given more financial resources for their time on the bench. He studied at Saskatchewan Teacher"s College and the University of Saskatchewan and was appointed Queen"s Counsel.John Diefenbaker called Woolliams the best defense trial lawyer in Canada during his day.
He also was made special Lecturer on Peace through Law in Belgrade, Yugoslavia during his service in Canada"s Parliament.
A scholarship fund in his name exists at the University of Saskatchewan College of Law.