William Ian Corneil Binnie, Q.C.

Ian Binnie, Q.C., is a well known constitutional expert in Canada. He currently practices law with the largest national law firm in the country, McCarthy Tétrault, 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.

A number of cases make Ian Binnie well suited to review the proposed text of Term 17 as it relates to education in Newfoundland and Labrador. 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 litigated several constitutional cases for the Senate of Canada, including litigation in the Supreme Court of Canada in respect of the conflict between Parliamentary privilege and freedom of the press. He was legal counsel to the House of Commons Charest Committee on the Constitution, and also appeared before international tribunals in cases such as the Gulf of Maine boundary dispute.

Mr. Binnie is no stranger to issues which affect Newfoundland and Labrador. He represented the provincial government at Senate Committee hearings on education last fall in Ottawa; he argued for Canada before the International Court of Arbitration against France in the St. Pierre and Miquelon boundary dispute; and he was retained by the provincial government in the past to provide legal advice on aboriginal issues.

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. Prior to this, he was in private practice with Wright & Mctaggart and successor firms.

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.