HONOURABLE JOHN C. CROSBIE, P.C., Q.C.

Honourable John Crosbie, P.C., Q.C., has had 29 years of experience in political life at the municipal, provincial and national levels. During his political career, he was federal Minister of Finance during the Clark administration and presented the government's budget in December 1979. He became Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada in 1984, and subsequently was appointed Minister for International Trade where he was responsible for directing Canada's global trade activities, including the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement.

On April 21, 1991, Mr. Crosbie was appointed federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and Minister for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA). During this time, he introduced a major overhaul of the fish stock assessment process through the establishment of the Fisheries Resource Conservation Council, introduced a new National Aboriginal Fisheries Strategy, established a Foreign Vessel Advisory Panel with respect to the use of foreign vessels in Canadian waters, and established the Northern Cod Adjustment and Recovery Program to assist some 25,000 fishermen and plant workers affected by the Northern Cod moratorium.

Mr. Crosbie also held a number of positions in the Newfoundland House of Assembly.

Mr. Crosbie obtained a degree in political science and economics from Queen's University in Ontario, and in 1956 he graduated from Dalhousie Law School in Halifax as the University Medallist in Law. He was awarded the Viscount Bennett Scholarship by the Canadian Bar Association that same year, and in 1956-57, he undertook postgraduate studies at the Institute for Advanced Legal Studies of the University of London and the London School of Economics. Mr. Crosbie was called to the Newfoundland Bar in 1957, and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws Degree by Dalhousie University in May 1984.

Since leaving public life in 1993, Mr. Crosbie has joined the St. John's office of the Atlantic Law Firm of Patterson Palmer Hunt Murphy as Counsel. He was installed as Chancellor of Memorial University in 1994, and in 1996 was appointed Honorary Consul for Mexico in Newfoundland and Labrador. He is also a Director of a number of Canadian and Newfoundland companies.