Founder of Freedoms Advocate and Crosson Constitutional Law

Debate is what started Carol thinking that law was where she wanted/needed to go.

While homeschooling their 3 beautiful daughters, Carol made music and debate competitions required learning. Carol received an award for her efforts and long list of achievements from the debate association in Saskatchewan.

Carol completed nearly 50 constitutional and human rights cases and won 93% of them.

During the 11 years prior to her passing, Carol was constantly taking on new cases and fighting for people who were having their rights and freedoms trampled on.

The fear and anxiety these people experienced were a constant struggle for Carol as she grew to deeply care for each and every one of them.

She threw herself into each case and dug deep into the law to form her arguments and find favourable precedents.

As time went by, she began to use her own cases as precedents.

Carol entered law school in her 40s and was struggling with Lyme disease at the time.

As she was completing her degree, she was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. She was told she would likely not survive as the type of cancer she had grew very rapidly. What was walnut size when they found it, grew to the size of a cantaloupe in only 6 weeks. Like everything else in her life Carol would not give up without a fight. She found a clinic with a 37% survival rate and there began an 11-year battle with cancer.

All through those years Carol was growing and expanding her law practice and gaining a deep understanding of constitutional law and how the courts handled them. There were times she would be getting fractionated chemotherapy in the morning at the clinic in the US and that afternoon be on a link back to a court in Canada fighting for her clients.

Her clients all knew she cared for them. What they didn’t see was the sleepless nights where she would be weeping for them. She saw how fear was driven into the soul of her clients by government officials going after them and taking their constitutional rights from them on a whim or from hatred.

Carol was an exceptional lawyer. One friend said she did more in 10 years than most lawyers do in 30. She poured herself into her work and gave herself to her clients. She became their biggest encourager, lifting them up and showing them just how strong they were and how much of a difference they were making in our land. Some said they always felt better after talking to Carol, prouder, stronger, and eager to face the fight.

And their courage to face their own fears and stand for what was right and true encouraged Carol and made her even more up for the fight. Carol had a 93% success rate for her Charter and Human Rights cases showing just how strong her commitment was to her clients and their Charter Rights and Freedoms.

All she did for her clients she did for everyone she knew. She never let anyone think they were not up for the task. She always saw each person as so much more than they could ever imagine.

And all this she did while dealing with the daily pain caused by the cancer treatments and infections. She attended court hearings on the verge of fainting. She arranged media interviews so that she would only be dealing with minimal pain.

At Carol’s Alberta Bar Call Ceremony, this passage from Isaiah 59 was read:

14 Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God) stands far off; for truth has fallen in the street (the city’s forum), and uprightness cannot enter [the courts of justice].

15 Yes, truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. And the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no justice. And He saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor [no one to intervene on behalf of truth and right];

At the heart of Carol Crosson was a strong belief in fighting for those who are being oppressed. Good people, or as she put it ‘People of Principle’, who had the courage to stand for truth and what is right. She would tell her clients that they were heroes.

Carol has always been, is now, and forever will be my Hero!

Randy Crosson
Executive Director
Freedoms Advocate