Justice William Guy Mahaffy, QC
(October 24, 1941 – August 17, 2022)
It is with great sadness that we announce that Guy Mahaffy died peacefully on Wednesday August 17, 2022, surrounded by family at Health Sciences North in Sudbury. He was 80 years old.
He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Wendy (nee Brunton), as well as children Shannon (Mark), Rob, and Guy (Rachel), grandchildren Emmett, Abby, Jack, Aoife, and Max, sister Sherry (Norman), brother-in-law Dick, and a plethora of cousins, nieces, nephews and in-laws.
Guy was born in Sudbury, Ontario and attended Alexander Public School. He went on to complete high school at Ridley College in St. Catharines, where he also captained the hockey team. His post-secondary career started, perhaps at the encouragement of his mother, in pre-medicine at Western University. However, after a couple of less than stellar performances in biology and the like, he switched to the faculty of Arts, where he completed his bachelor’s degree. He then went on to obtain his law degree at Osgoode Hall Law School (“back when that meant something” he would often add).
He was called to the bar in 1968 and began his legal career as a crown attorney in Sudbury. After marrying Wendy in 1969, he transitioned to criminal defence in the early 1970s and became a partner of the Sudbury law firm of Desmarais Keenan, practicing there until 1982, when he was appointed as a Justice of the Ontario Criminal Court. He served just under 35 years as a judge, stepping down in 2016.
His long tenure as a judge was driven by his defining professional trait: He was passionate about the law. At the same time, he recognized its shortcomings, but only let his thoughts be known to those who might be sitting at the Mahaffy family dinner table.
Guy attracted media attention over the years, with the occasional front page Sudbury Star picture (such as receiving a pie in the face as referee for local Flying Fathers charity hockey game) or Toronto Star front page news article (quoted telling a defendant charged with stealing a CP locomotive “Next time you want to take a train, buy a ticket”). Those occasions would pale in comparison, of course, to the news story about his early spring cross country skiing in which his name was never mentioned (“Skier rescued after plunge through ice on Nepahwin”).
Guy did not really have hobbies. Unless, of course, you count “putzing around at Pog.” Pog, of course, being his family camp on Lake Pogamasing, where he spent every summer since the day he was born. It was where he grew up with his immediate family and his many Plaunt uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces, and nephews. When once asked by his sister if he was planning on travelling now that he was retired, his immediate response was: “Why would I do that when there is Pog?”
Although by no means a simple man, Guy was certainly a man of simple wants. He placed little value on material items and had no interest in fancy clothes or fast cars. In terms of dress, his signature outfit, which he wore on his last day on Earth, was a pair of cut off jean shorts paired with a ratty decades-old hockey jersey with the sleeves cut off in similar fashion. His only act of unintentional fashionable attire was his ubiquitous Australian outback hat and, although it came to define him in an Eastwood-esque manner, he wore it only for practical purposes.
As for cars, he was best known for spending the late 70s and early 80s behind the wheel of his legendary light blue 1976 Dodge Monaco station wagon. This car was the means by which Guy delivered countless neighbourhood kids to school in the morning or to Peachy’s Pizza Parlour on the weekend.
Not all were impressed by his taste in vehicles. When first appointed as a judge, it was noted by some of his peers that the car was “not very judgey.” He did not care one bit and took no heed based on his colleagues. Surely to their dismay, after a succession of mini vans through the 80s, his preferred means of commuting to work became his beat up 12 speed bike, which he rode to work while wearing a top-to-bottom bright yellow “sewer suit” on days when it rained.
Family was ultimately his passion in life, followed closely by friends. He put his children’s interests before his own, he cherished his 52 years with Wendy, and he marvelled in the blessings that were his grandchildren. As for friends, he had a core group of lifelong friends that were drawn together by a love of camp, cross country skiing, and laughter.
This is the man that was Guy Mahaffy. He was humble, loyal, funny, principled and so much more. The legacy that he leaves behind is a life lived that is a model for anyone wanting to live a full life with no regrets.
Many thanks to the staff on sixth south at HSN, whose compassion in their delivery of care made his last days as comfortable as they could have been. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Parkinson Canada. A celebration of life is planned for the fall.