Evatt Francis Anthony "Tony" Merchant, KC (born 1944) is a Canadian lawyer, businessman, and former politician.
His law firm Merchant Law Group LLP, which he founded in 1986, is best known for representing former students of Indian residential schools in the $1.9 billion Indian Residential School Settlement in 2006, the largest class-action settlement in Canadian history.
[1] Prior to founding his law firm, Merchant represented Regina Wascana in the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan as a Liberal member.
He was also host for an open-line radio show in Saskatchewan and a freelance television interviewer with the CBC.
Merchant was convicted of criminal mischief and reprimanded by the Law Society of Saskatchewan (LSS) for an incident that evolved after Merchant visited the home where Ms. Wilson and Mr. Thatcher's daughter was residing and demanded that the daughter be surrendered to Mr. Thatcher after he murdered his wife.
[10] Merchant had been disciplined by the LSS with a three-month suspension from practicing law in 2012 in relation to a residential school claim.
[11] More recently, in January 2022, the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal dismissed a proposed citation and ruled that Merchant had not contravened Law Society regulations.