OTTAWA—Beverley McLachlin left her position as the country's top judge Friday, cheering the work that the Supreme Court has done on Aboriginal issues while cautioning that more must be done to improve access to the legal system for all Canadians.

On the day she left the bench 28 years on the Supreme Court, including 17 as chief justice, McLachlin reflected on the court’s work, the country’s justice system and social trends that could imperil the independence and respect for the judiciary.

She deflected questions about her own legacy, saying only that she was especially proud of the work the court had done in developing Aboriginal rights.

“We’re all as a nation I think engaged in the project of reconciliation with First Nations. We know that historically — everybody knows that — that wrongs were done, that there was a policy of undermining . . . Indigenous cultures,” she said.

McLachlin — who started her tenure as chief justice with a news conference and said she wanted to end it that way — said she’s tried to be circumspect in public remarks, avoiding comment on past cases, potential future ones or anything political.

But she said too that she saw a role for the chief justice to comment on the justice system, shortcomings and all, and help explain it to Canadians.

McLachlin returned to one of those shortcomings on Friday, saying that while jurisprudence is solid in Canada, problems remain.

“We have a problem with access to justice, which is a broad term that covers delays, costs, anything that prevents people from getting ready access to justice,” McLachlin said, returning to an issue she has spoken out on before.

The top court itself has ruled on the issue, recently in the so-called Jordan decision that sought to put limits on time an accused had to wait for trial.

She said there have been “considerable” efforts made to make courts more accessible and timely, such as information in the courtrooms, access to legal advice, and pro bono work.

“There’s much being done and there’s much more we can do,” said McLachlin, adding that she hopes to remain active on the topic.

She did say that the courts have made progress in how they deal with offenders suffering from mental illness through diversion programs to direct them to medical treatment rather than the “revolving door” of prison.

She said there is increasing recognition that “we have to find other ways to deal with this considerable problem of mental health in the justice system.”

She stuck to her rules on not commenting on political matters, even old ones. McLachlin would not say much about her 2014 tussle with former prime minister Stephen Harper, who had suggested that McLachlin was guilty of improperly lobbying his justice minister against his pick of Marc Nadon to the top court.

It was an unprecedented spat to have a prime minister call into question the actions of the chief justice. But McLachlin defended herself at the time, saying she only sought to flag potential problems with the process.

On Friday, McLachlin declined to say anything more about the episode. “I have spoken about it as much as I was prepared to at the time, which is very little,” she said.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

She leaves just shy of 75, the mandatory retirement age. Governor General Julie Payette will swear in Richard Wagner, the senior Quebec judge in the court, as the next chief justice during a Rideau Hall ceremony on Monday.

McLachlin joined the Supreme Court in 1989, at a time when judges were dealing with the wave of cases prompted by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Today, she said the court grapples with issues arising from new technologies, such as privacy concerns.

“We live in a very rapidly changing society that is throwing up new problems all the time,” said McLachlin, who had been feted the previous night at an Ottawa event featuring tributes by former governor general Adrienne Clarkson and former prime minister Brian Mulroney, who named her to the top court.

Asked to pick the one case that she most wrestled with, McLachlin said she “struggled with almost every one.”

“The Supreme Court gets, by definition, only difficult legal issues. Almost always there are very good arguments on both sides,” she said.

But she singled out the court’s landmark ruling in 1998 around Quebec secession — a reference from the Liberal government at the time — as “very challenging.”

The court ruled that Quebec could separate from Canada, but only if a clear majority of Quebecers voted to secede on a clear question.

“It was at the fine line between constitutional law and political matters. We had to be very careful what we said and what we did. We had a very difficult question to answer,” she said.

McLachlin was asked to comment on trends seen in some countries to undermine the independence of the judiciary.

While she said there can be “subtle erosions everywhere,” she suggested that Canada is well-protected against such trends by constitutional safeguards, a “deep respect” for the charter and a public that values an independent judiciary.

Public support for judiciary “is the best way in a democracy to preserve the rule of law and judicial independence,” she said.