Yves Fortier (ambassador)
Louis Yves Fortier PC CC OQ KC (born September 11, 1935) is a Canadian diplomat, trial and appellate lawyer, arbitrator and corporate director.
In August 2013, he became a member of the Security Intelligence Review Committee and the Queen's Privy Council for Canada.
After Fortier earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the Université de Montréal in 1955 and was considering a legal career, his father encouraged him to apply to the law school at McGill University in Montreal to improve his English.
[1] While at McGill, Fortier met his future wife, Carol Eaton, who was studying for her Bachelor of Arts degree.
[1] Fortier has said that he does not like being called an avocat (advocate) and prefers the term plaideur, meaning one who seeks to persuade.
One of his other colleagues has described him: "Bien des plaideurs oublient que leur objectif est de convaincre.
[3] He has been described as humble, treating junior lawyers with respect, and always willing to share credit on major files with other people who have worked on them with him.
While at Ogilvy Renault, he developed a friendship with another young lawyer, Brian Mulroney, who went on to be Prime Minister of Canada.
[2] On November 15, 2010, Ogilvy Renault LLP joined with London-based law firm Norton Rose.
[10][11][12][13] In 1988, Fortier was contacted by his old law partner, now Prime Minister Mulroney, who offered him an appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Fortier turned it down, explaining later: "Juge à la Cour suprême, ça n'était pas dans mon ADN.
He was constantly using his skills as an advocate and mediator, advancing Canada's position while responding to initiatives from the ambassadors of other countries.
[15] After his term as Canada's Ambassador to the United Nations, Fortier decided he would concentrate on acting as an arbitrator in international commercial matters, rather than returning to his civil litigation practice.
The outgoing president of the National Hockey League, Gil Stein, had been elected to the Hall, but rumours arose that he had put undue pressure to ensure his induction.
Gary Bettman, the commissioner of the NHL, retained Fortier and an American lawyer, Arnold Burns, former Deputy Attorney General of the United States, to review the issue.
The arbitration involved a major dispute between the shareholders of Yukos, a Russian energy company, and the government of Russia.
The shareholders argued that the Russian government had improperly expropriated the company, allegedly to satisfy unpaid back-taxes.
In 2016, the District Court ruled that the panel did not have jurisdiction under the Energy Charter Treaty, and set aside the award.
That in turn triggered a request from the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, one of the parties to the complaint, that Fortier recuse himself because he had formerly sat on the board of Trans Canada Pipelines, which was now one of the proponents of the project, and also held a large number of shares in that company.
There were considerable debates and negotiations on the proposed resolution, which resulted in an amendment being moved by Fortier and Bryan Williams, the incoming president of the BC Branch.
The amendments removed the language calling for the CBA to support national unity and to reject provincial separatism.
[33] The resolution called for the Constitution to be re-written "so as better to meet the aspriations and present-day needs of all the people of Canada and to guarantee the preservation of the historical rights of our two founding cultures.
"[34][35] The resolution also set out the mandate for the Committee, which was to undertake "the search for a definition of the essential constitutional attributes of a Canadian federalism", with a final report to be presented at the next Annual Meeting of the CBA in 1978.
[40] Fortier and ten other past-presidents of the CBA then wrote an open letter to The Globe and Mail, criticising the Prime Minister's conduct.
of Regina; Susan McGrath of Iroquois Falls; Bernard Amyot of Montreal; Guy Joubert of Winnipeg; D. Kevin Carroll, Q.C.
In 2015, Fortier was one of seventeen past-presidents of the Canadian Bar Association who wrote an open letter to the Globe and Mail, criticising plans to locate a proposed Memorial to the Victims of Communism immediately adjacent to the Supreme Court of Canada.
of Charlottetown; Simon V. Potter of Montreal; Susan T. McGrath of Iroquois Falls; Brian A. Tabor, Q.C.
Guy Joubert of Winnipeg; D. Kevin Carroll, Q.C, of Barrie; Rod Snow of Whitehorse; Trinda L. Ernst, Q.C.
[18][44] In 2009, Fortier set up an entrance scholarship and made a substantial donation to fund a lecturer series at McGill Law School.
In 2003, Fortier had been the first speaker in the lecture series, which was named after a former dean of McGill Law School who worked in the area of arbitration.
