Richard Joseph Cashin PC OC ONL (born 5 January 1937), is a lawyer, former Canadian politician and trade union leader.
He won a major settlement for fishermen in Placentia Bay in a lawsuit against the Electric Reduction Company whose toxic waste damaged the local fishery industry.
Cashin moved to the left in the 1970s and supported candidates of the New Democratic Party.
Despite being appointed to the board of directors of government-owned oil company Petro-Canada by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, he led the union to endorse the NDP in the 1980s, and became a vice-president of the party.
[1] Cashin was sworn into the Queen's Privy Council for Canada in 1992 allowing him to use the style The Honourable.