Groups of mourners visited the body of former chief justice at the Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa Wednesday afternoon.

Lamer died at age 74 Saturday after spending several weeks in hospital.

Former Supreme Court chief justice Antonio Lamer lay in repose in the court's Grand Hall, accompanied by an honour guard.
(CBC)

On Wednesday, an honour guard from the Governor General's Foot Guard accompanied his casket, draped with a Canadian flag, into the Grand Hall of the building where he served as chief justice from 1990 until his retirement in 2000.

There it lay in repose, a formal ceremony where the public can pay respects to a dignitary.

A religious ceremony is to be held Friday at Marie-Reine-du-Monde Cathedral in Montreal, and a private memorial ceremony will be held at the Supreme Court on Monday.

Lamer began his legal career in 1957 after graduating from the Université de Montréal. He went on to become a law professor at the school as well as a practising lawyer at the firm Cutler, Lamer, Bellemare and Associates.

He was appointed to the Quebec Superior Court in 1969 and to the Quebec Court of Appeal in 1978.

He joined the Supreme Court in 1980, two years before the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was enacted, and was named its 16th chief justice a decade later.