Government Home Search Sitemap Contact Us

NOTE TO EDITORS:

As noted by Premier Tobin in recent media interviews, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is consulting with an expert constitutional lawyer, Ian Binnie, Q.C., regarding the proposed text of Term 17 as it relates to education in the province. The following is a brief outline of Mr. Binnie's accomplishments.

WILLIAM IAN CORNEIL BINNIE, Q.C.

Ian Binnie, Q.C., is a well known constitutional expert in Canada. He is a leading partner with the largest national law firm in the country, McCarthy Tetrault, which has more than 560 lawyers practising in offices in several Canadian cities, and London, England. The firm is recognized as one of Canada's strongest litigation firms.

In the early to mid 1980s, Mr. Binnie was Associate Deputy Minister of Justice for Canada where one of his roles was constitutional advisor to the Government of Canada, which included Charter and Aboriginal Rights issues. Since his return to private practice, he has advised the Government of Canada, and others, on a wide variety of constitutional issues.

He acted as legal counsel to the Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Commons on the Meech Lake Accord, and was retained by the federal government to defend the constitutional validity of the Free Trade Agreement. He has appeared before the Supreme Court on a wide range of constitutional cases, including the conflict between Parliamentary privilege and freedom of the press. He was legal counsel to the House of Commons Charest Committee on the Constitution. He appeared before the International Court of Justice (World Court) at the Hague to represent Canada in its dispute with the United States over the Gulf of Maine boundary.

He argued for Canada before the International Court of Arbitration against France in the St. Pierre and Miquelon boundary dispute. He was also retained by the provincial government in the past to provide legal advice on aboriginal and constitutional issues.

Mr. Binnie was called to the English Bar and was Member of the Middle Temple Inns of Court (England) in 1966. The next year he was admitted to the Ontario bar, was admitted to practice before the International Court of Justice at the Hague in 1984, and since then was called to several other provincial and territorial bars.