Richard Chartier was born in St. Boniface, Manitoba.  BA from l’Université de Saint Boniface (1979); LLB from the Université de Moncton (1982) and Manitoba Bar (1983).   Appointed to the Provincial Court of Manitoba (1993); Manitoba Court of Appeal (2006); Chief Justice of Manitoba (2013) until retirement end of October 2022.

Prior to appointment to the bench, he was a partner at MLT Aikins.  He has presided over numerous commissions and boards. His 1998 report Above All, Common Sense was tabled in the Manitoba Legislative Assembly and transformed French language services by creating linguistic security zones and six Bilingual Service Centres.

He was founding chair of the Centre de santé de Saint-Boniface (1999-2005). In 2005, he was a member of the team that received the Gold Medal for Innovative Management from the Canadian Institute of Public Administrators for the “Domestic Violence Front-End Project” and in 2006, that project was recognized in New York with the United Nations Public Service Award.

He chaired both the federal and provincial Electoral Boundaries Commission of Manitoba (2012 fed and 2016 prov).  He also chaired the Judicial Education Committee of the Canadian Judicial Council (2018-2020).

A few months ago, he received the Order of Canada.