Anthony Merchant

Anthony Merchant
Member of the Legislative Assembly for Regina Wascana
In office
1975–1978
Preceded by Henry Baker
Succeeded by Clinton Oliver White
Personal details
Born Evatt Francis Anthony Merchant, Jr.
1944
Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada
Nationality Canadian
Political party Liberal
Spouse(s) Pana Merchant
Residence Saskatchewan
Alma mater University of Saskatchewan
Occupation Lawyer
Profession Lawyer

Evatt Francis Anthony "Tony" Merchant, Q.C. (born 1944) is a Canadian lawyer and former politician. He represented Regina Wascana in the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan as a Liberal member from 1975 to 1978. He has been referred to frequently in the media as Canada’s Class Action King.[1]

Merchant's family

Merchant is a 5th generation lawyer[2] and the three Merchant sons are similarly all lawyers. Merchant’s father, grandfather, great grandfather, and great great grandfather were all lawyers in Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia. His father was killed towards the end of hostilities in WWII, just after Tony was born. Captain Evatt F.A. Merchant had attended the Nova Scotia Catholic University, St. Francis Xavier, and later met Tony’s mother, then Sally Smith at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Smith and Merchant families have long traditions in Nova Scotia and at St. FX. Later generations followed the example of Tony’s father, his Grandfather Smith, his uncle Adrian Smith, all of whom attended St. Francis Xavier. His father, Captain Evatt Francis Anthony Merchant, was a member of C Company of the The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders (died 18 November 1944 and buried at Mierlo War Cemetery, the Netherlands).[3] His mother, Maria Margharita "Sally" Merchant (d. 2007), was a television personality and political figure. He was raised by his mother as a single parent and became part of the Merchant political family in Saskatchewan. His maternal grandfather was Saskatchewan politician Vincent Reynolds Smith, and his niece (sister's daughter) is television personality Amanda Lang.[4] Tony’s father, Evatt graduated from law school at Dalhousie. Sally, also a Dalhousie graduate, whose father was a Dalhousie law graduate, and whose father in turn was also a Dalhousie law graduate practised in Parrsboro, Nova Scotia and his father before him read law and practised in Amherst, Nova Scotia. The Merchants and Smiths are prominent practising Catholics now spread into Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Ontario, although many Merchants and Smiths remain in Nova Scotia. He is a part of a law driven Kennedy-esque Saskatchewan political family. Tony, his mother, and grandfather, all served in the Saskatchewan legislature. Two of his brothers-in-law were Federal Cabinet Ministers.

Early years

Merchant was born in 1944 in Yorkton, Saskatchewan. Tony was raised by his mother in a single parent home.

Tony has broad community involvement over the years in various sports associations, church organizations, the Austrian Edelweiss Club, the Assiniboia Club, the Cub Movement, the Saskatchewan Civil Liberties Association, the MS Society, and the Voice of the Handicapped.

He studied at the University of Saskatchewan. He was admitted to the Saskatchewan bar in 1968, to the Alberta bar in 1976, to the British Columbia bar in 1977 and to the Arizona bar in 1987. He was also host for an open-line radio show in Saskatchewan and a freelance television interviewer. In 1976 he was a candidate for the leadership of the provincial Liberal party. That post went instead to Ted Malone.[5] Merchant ran unsuccessfully for the federal seat in Regina East in 1979 and 1980.

Career

Merchant was named a Queen's Counsel in 1995. He served as a Lieutenant in the naval reserve. Tony is a retired Lieutenant in the Navy Reserve and served until he was 45. He also serves as Austrian consul for Saskatchewan. In addition to careers in the law and politics, Merchant worked for years in the media and is active in a variety of businesses. Merchant hosted an open line radio program in Saskatchewan for four years in the 1980s and worked for CBC television as an interviewer and member of ACTRA. Tony has been active in businesses and business development in Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, and Arizona, and in recent years in family internet businesses centered in Europe.

Merchant Law Group

Merchant Law Group LLP offices, Regina, Saskatchewan location.

Tony Merchant founded the Merchant Law Group in 1986; it has grown to 14 offices across Canada and an office in New York. He is senior counsel at Merchant Law Group LLP, which has offices across Canada including in Toronto, St. Catharine's, Montreal, Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina, and Winnipeg. Several of the largest lawsuits in Canadian history have originated from Merchant Law Group LLP's offices, multi-Billion dollar class-action lawsuits concerning Celebrex/Bextra, Vioxx, 911 Fees, defective automobiles and shareholder class actions.[6]

Merchant has worked as an agent for the Solicitor General of Canada and Attorney General of Saskatchewan. He is on two advisory boards within the legal profession. He was the Western Canadian Corporate Counsel for a number of national firms, Corporate Counsel to a range of Saskatchewan and Alberta corporations, assisted thousands of new Canadians on immigration issues, acts in the development of First Nations law, and acts extensively in the family law area and class and mass proceedings fields.

Cases

Merchant has been involved as counsel in thousands of cases including cases argued at the trial level in Newfoundland Labrador, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, North Dakota, Montana, Oregon, and in the Northwest Territories, and trial and appeal cases in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Arizona, and before various administrative tribunals and cases in the Federal Court and the Supreme Court of Canada.

Residential schools

Merchant Law Group has major involvement in the residential school lawsuits. Merchant received $25 million from the federal government for his work on behalf of residential school survivors, leading to the $1.9-billion native residential schools settlement. Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada confirmed he could also "earn up to $40 million in legal fees, as well as tens of millions more for sexual and physical claims that are being handled by a special adjudicator and for which the government will add 15 per cent in order to cover legal fees." In January 2015 Merchant responded with a lawsuit against the federal government when the federal government filed a civil $25-million statement of claim accusing Merchant Law Group of "over-billing for legal services and falsifying documents to cover it up." Merchant "claimed $80 million for legal services to represent more than 7,000 former residential school students."[7][8]

Awards

In 2007, Merchant was voted the best lawyer in Regina by the Prairie Dog Magazine.[9] He was awarded the Queen’s Decoration 1976, the Canadian Long Service Medal 1984, the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Decoration 2002, the Saskatchewan Centennial Medal 2005, the Decoration of Honour in Silver by the Nation of Austria 2006, community service awards from the Knights of Columbus, and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal 2012. He also twice received awards from the Saskatchewan Action Committee for the Status of Women for exceptional contribution to the development of legal and political equality for women. Merchant was named a Queen’s Counsel in 1995. Merchant was awarded on two occasions Eagle Feathers by First Nations in recognition of work on behalf of First Nations[10] and residential school victims, and in 2008 was made an Honorary Chief in a War Bonnet Adoption as a member of the Black Foot Confederacy, named Flanking Warrior.

Publications

As a prominent lecturer and speaker, he has shared his advice at many speaking events across Canada. He has approximately 1,400 of his cases in leading law journals. Merchant’s recent legal publications and invitations to speak within the profession include:

Boards of Directors

In addition to being a former Member of the Saskatchewan Legislature, Merchant is an alumnus of the International Visitors Leadership Program (US State Department) and is a former member of the Boards of Directors of Brookfield Asset Management Inc., Team Canada Inc., and BF Realty, then Bell Canada Enterprise Development. He is a former Member, Prime Minister’s Council on Asia Pacific, previously a Name with Lloyd's of London and serves in leadership roles with family corporations in the real estate and oil business and various internet operations centered in the British Isles and Europe.

Philanthropy

Tony’s charitable and volunteer work has been extensive, including funding a recent 500 person fundraiser for Moving Forward Together, which is a Canada-wide campaign to bring fundamental and lasting change to Aboriginal communities in Canada by supporting healing and educational programs. It helps close the standard-of-living and opportunity gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities. Throughout his political, legal, and business career, Tony has maintained major involvement to bring justice to First Nations people.

He serves as the Honorary Austrian Consul for Saskatchewan and in 2012 was elected the Dean of the Saskatchewan Consular Corps by his 18 Corps colleagues. Mr. Merchant and his wife are long standing patrons of the Arts and particularly the visual arts. They have made numerous donations, and have encouraged the collections of various public institutions and galleries in each of the four Western Provinces, as well as art donations to the National Art Gallery (Ottawa) and to the National War Museum (Ottawa), and assisted in the support of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (Winnipeg). In 2012 Tony and Pana were recognized in an award ceremony sponsored by the Government of Saskatchewan for their steadfast contribution to the Arts in Saskatchewan and Canada.

Disciplined by Law Society of Saskatchewan

By 2013 Merchant had been disciplined by the Law Society of Saskatchewan five times.[11] From the mid-1980s through 2006 the Law Society of Saskatchewan had found Merchant guilty of conduct unbecoming a lawyer three times—"once for providing misleading information to former residential school students."

"Letters sent to former students said they had "nothing to lose" and that if students were victims of sexual assault, they could receive up to $150,000 in compensation."
— CBC 2006

Merchant insists he is not a rogue lawyer.[12][13]

In the spring of 2009, the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal confirmed a decision of the Law Society imposing a fourteen-day suspension for two counts of conduct unbecoming a member. The Supreme Court of Canada denied a motion for leave to appeal.[14][15][16]

Federal government over-billing charge 2015

In 2006 the federal government hired a retired Supreme Court judge to investigate Merchant's "$40 million share of Ottawa's $2-billion settlement of residential school lawsuits settlement.[12]

In January 2015 Merchant responded with a law suit against the federal government when the federal government filed a civil $25-million statement of claim accusing Merchant Law Group of "over-billing for legal services and falsifying documents to cover it up."[7][8]

Tax disputes with Canada Revenue Agency

Since the late 1970s, Merchant has repeatedly contested tax payments with the Canada Revenue Agency.[11] It was during the tax dispute that the Washington, D.C.-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists—who were undertaking an multi-year, global investigation of secret offshore tax havens—that Merchant's offshore accounts came to light in the "leaked documents, which show that he created an entity called the Merchant (2000) US Trust in 1998 and then put the $1.7 million into it." His wife, and their three sons were named in the documents as beneficiaries of the funds.[11][17]

Personal life

Merchant is married to Pana Merchant, a member of the Senate of Canada. They had three sons who are all lawyers. Their eldest son Evatt is the Saskatchewan president of the Liberal Party.

References

  1. ↑ Zalac, Fréderic; Shprintsen, Alex; Cashore, Harvey. "Tony Merchant of Regina, dubbed Canada's class-action king because of the large settlements he has won for his clients". CBC News. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
  2. ↑ "5th Generation Lawyer, Tony Merchant". Lawyers Weekly 24 (#35). January 28, 2005.
  3. ↑ Sands, Richard, The Queens Own Cameron Highlanders
  4. ↑ "Sally Merchant", The Globe and Mail, 13 March 2008, retrieved 5 April 2016
  5. ↑ Quiring, Brett (2006). "Malone, Edward Cyril (Ted) (1937–)". Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan. Canadia Plains Research Center. Retrieved 15 May 2009.
  6. ↑ "Class actions", Merchant Law Group LLP
  7. 1 2 Allen, Bonnie (30 January 2015), "Tony Merchant's law firm files lawsuit against Ottawa following $25M claim: Ottawa alleges overbilling, falsified documents", CBC, retrieved 5 April 2016
  8. 1 2 Raj, Althia (3 April 2013), "Tony Merchant, Senator Pana Merchant: More About Canadian Couple Named In Leaked Documents", Huffington Post, retrieved 5 April 2016
  9. ↑ "BEST OF 2007". Prairie Dog Magazine. 26 April 2007.
  10. ↑ "Killing the Indians: Canada’s Indian Residential Schools". 60 Minutes II. CBS News. 8 May 2001. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  11. 1 2 3 Zalac, Frédéric; Shprintsen, Alex; Dubinsky, Zach; Cashore, Harvey (3 April 2013). "Canadian Senator's Husband Shifted Money Into Offshore Tax Havens: Lawyer Tony Merchant, Canada’s 'class action king,' sought secrecy for Cook Islands trust". International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  12. 1 2 "Potential huge payday coming for lawyer Merchant", CBC, 21 September 2006, retrieved 5 April 2016
  13. ↑ "Costly decision: A B.C. court has issued a $300,000-plus judgment against the Merchant Law Group (MLG) for collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in contingency fees the firm wasn’t entitled to receive", Leader Post, 7 March 2007, retrieved 5 April 2016
  14. ↑ "E. F. Anthony Merchant, Q.C. v. Law Society of Saskatchewan". Supreme Court of Canada. 23 July 2009.
  15. ↑ Woolley, Alice (May 12, 2014), Ethical vs. Unethical: The Troubling Tales of Tony Merchant, retrieved 5 April 2016
  16. ↑ "E. F. Anthony Merchant, Q.C. v. Law Society of Saskatchewan" (PDF), Saskatchewan Court of Appeal, p. 62
  17. ↑ Gatehouse, Jonathon (April 4, 2013), "The residential schools settlement’s biggest winner: A profile of Tony Merchant", Macleans, retrieved 5 April 2016
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