Anthony (Tony) Merchant, a well-known lawyer and former Saskatchewan MP, has died.
His son, Evatt Merchant, confirmed that the 81-year-old died at his home in Regina on Thanksgiving Monday, October 13.
A funeral is planned to be held in Regina next week.
Merchant’s illustrious legal career began after he was admitted to the Saskatchewan bar in 1968.
He was subsequently admitted to the bar of Alberta in 1976 and to the bar of British Columbia the following year.
He eventually formed his own law firm, Merchant Law Group, which now has offices in British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta, Quebec, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
He was elected MLA in the riding of Regina Wascana in 1975. He served under the banner of the Saskatchewan Liberal Party until 1978.
Gord Kuski was Merchant’s friend and attorney. He said he believes Merchant had an entrepreneurial spirit that helped him launch his career in class action lawsuits.
“He was the first one out and he had the opportunity to have a lot of interesting litigation, some of which was very lucrative for him,” Kuski told host Peter Mills on the CBC Radio show. 306.
That specialty would help Merchant become known as Canada’s class action king because of the large settlements he won for his clients.
Merchant is likely best known for his firm’s representation of former residential school students in a class-action lawsuit against the Canadian government.
The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement was reached in 2006, and the Canadian government agreed to pay nearly $2 billion, one of the largest class action settlements in Canadian history.
Most recently, his firm represented plaintiffs who sued Ticketmaster and reached a $6 million settlement that was finalized earlier this year.
A controversial figure
Merchant was no stranger to controversy during his long career in the courts.
He once represented fellow MLA Colin Thatcher in a protracted custody battle with his ex-wife JoAnn Wilson over the couple’s daughter.
The merchant was convicted of criminal mischief for his role in trying to have Thatcher’s daughter handed over to him after Wilson’s death. Thatcher was eventually convicted of murder for Wilson’s death.
While Merchant’s biggest success may have been the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, it nearly led to the high-profile attorney’s suspension.
In October 2020, the Saskatchewan Law Society gave Merchant an eight-month suspension after he sent a letter pressuring a residential school survivor to use her settlement money to pay unrelated legal bills.
The suspension was eventually stayed by the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal after Merchant appealed the decision, successfully arguing that the law society judge misinterpreted the law.
The Law Society of Saskatchewan has found merchant gGuilty of conduct unbecoming a lawyer several times throughout his career.
In more recent years, Merchant, whose spouse is former Liberal senator Pana Merchant, was identified in Offshore Leaks published in 2013.
Records showed Tony Merchant invested $1.7 million in offshore tax havens while fighting with the Canada Revenue Agency over his taxes.
Kuski said Merchant handled the controversy like “water off a duck’s back,” noting that the attorney was undeterred by authority.
Kuski said Merchant was probably the best-known lawyer in the province – everyone had a story about him – and that means his death will change the legal landscape in Saskatchewan.
“He was front and center in our profession for many, many years and it will be much less interesting without him,” Kuski said.
Merchant received several awards throughout his life, including the Queen’s Decoration, the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Decoration, the Saskatchewan Centenary Medal and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal.
He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1995.
Merchant is survived by his wife Pana and three children, all of whom followed their father’s path into the legal profession.
