AP News, November 26th, 2007
Antonio Lamer, the former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada who was instrumental in denying Quebec the legal right to unilaterally declare independence, has died, a former aide and friend said Sunday. He was 74.
Renowned as an authority on criminal law, Lamer put in nearly 20 years on the high court and spent a decade as chief of the nine-member bench.
He had been in and out of hospital several times in recent years suffering from recurring heart problems.
He passed away peacefully late Friday or early Saturday while surrounded by family members, said Eugene Meehan, a former aide and longtime friend.
Lamer built a reputation on the bench as a man who could see through the legal maze to the human issues at stake in the courtroom.
"He was a champion of rights and liberties," said Bernard Amyot, president of the Canadian Bar Association.
Lamer said his most important case was guiding the court through the politically charged but unanimous ruling in 1998 that declared the French-speaking province of Quebec had no legal power to separate unilaterally from Canada. The ruling said the rest of the country had a duty to negotiate if the separatist side won a clear victory in a fair referendum.
The judgment was a prelude to passage of the federal Clarity Act under former Prime Minister Jean Chretien, setting tough new ground rules for any future plebiscite on independence.
At least one scholar, retired University of Toronto political scientist Peter Russell, said that leading the court through that morass "may well loom as his largest accomplishment."
Lamer became one of the youngest judges ever to sit on the Supreme Court when he was appointed at age 47 by then Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in 1969.
He was elevated to chief justice by conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in 1990. He retired in 1999.
