Anthony Merchant

E.F. Anthony "Tony" Merchant, Q.C. (born 1944 in Yorkton, Saskatchewan) is a lawyer and former politician. He represented Regina Wascana in the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan as a Liberal member from 1975 to 1978.

Life and career

Merchant was born in 1944, the son of Captain Evatt Francis Anthony Merchant who was a member of C Company of the The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders (died 18 November 1944 and buried at Mierlo War Cemetery, Holland^[1]) and Maria Margharita "Sally" Merchant (d. 2007). He was raised by his mother as a single parent and became part of the Merchant political family in Saskatchewan.

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.^[2] Merchant ran unsuccessfully for the federal seat in Regina East in 1979 and 1980.

Merchant was named a Queen's Counsel in 1995. He served as a Lieutenant in the naval reserve. He also serves as Austrian consul for Saskatchewan. 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.^[3] Merchant Law Group has major involvement in the residential school lawsuits.

Residential schools

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."^[4] Tony Merchant, senior partner with the Merchant Law Group confirmed in an interview with the Star Phoenix that his firm "could gross $100 million handling lawsuits filed by survivors of Indian residential schools."^{[5] [6]}

Despite his professional success, Merchant and the Law Society of Saskatchewan were in a secretive battle for years.^[7] 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.^[8] In 2012, he was found liable by the Law Society of Saskatchewan of conduct unbecoming a lawyer for a breach of a court order in a 4 June 2003, and counselling a client to act in defiance of a judge’s order. His appeal of the decision to suspend him for three months was denied as he "acted to breach the court order in a calculated manner." ^[9]

Offshore banking

Tony Merchant has contested tax payments with the Canada Revenue Agency for many years. In April 2013, the Washington, D.C.-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists shared offshore financial data with media outlets in three dozen countries including CBC News. Tony Merchant, his wife Senator Pana Merchant and their sons are among the most prominent Canadians of the 450 Canadians whose secret accounts were mentioned. ^[10]

References