Newton Wesley Rowell

Rowell, Newton Wesley (rou'əl), 1867-1941, Canadian jurist and statesman, b. Ontario. He was elected (1911) to the Ontario legislature and then served in the Canadian House of Commons (1917-21) and as a member of Sir Robert Borden's Union government (1917-20). In 1936 he became chief justice of Ontario, and in 1937 he was appointed by William Lyon Mackenzie King to head the royal commission on dominion-provincial relations. Ill health forced him to resign in 1938, and he was replaced as chairman by Joseph Sirois. The commission's findings, commonly called the Rowell-Sirois Report (1940), showed the need for an enlargement of dominion responsibilities-contrary to earlier Liberal party policies.