Renowned attorney and former Saskatchewan MLA, Anthony (Tony) Merchant, has passed away at the age of 81 in his Regina residence on Thanksgiving Monday, Oct. 13, as confirmed by his son, Evatt Merchant. A funeral is set to take place in Regina next week.
Merchant commenced his esteemed legal profession post his admission to the Saskatchewan bar in 1968. Subsequently, he gained admission to the Alberta bar in 1976 and the British Columbia bar in the following year. He went on to establish his own legal firm, Merchant Law Group, which presently operates across various provinces including British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta, Quebec, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan.
In 1975, Merchant was elected as an MLA in Regina Wascana, representing the Liberal Party of Saskatchewan until 1978. Gord Kuski, a close confidant and lawyer of Merchant, lauded his entrepreneurial acumen, attributing it to his success in initiating class-action lawsuits. Kuski highlighted that Merchant’s dedication and fearlessness in legal proceedings earned him the moniker of “Canada’s class-action king.”
One of Merchant’s notable achievements was his firm’s representation of former residential school students in a class-action lawsuit against the Canadian government, leading to the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement in 2006, amounting to nearly $2 billion. More recently, his firm secured a $6-million settlement in a case against Ticketmaster earlier this year.
Despite his legal successes, Merchant faced controversies throughout his career. Notably, in 2020, he received an eight-month suspension from the Law Society of Saskatchewan for pressuring a residential school survivor to utilize settlement funds for unrelated legal expenses. However, the suspension was overturned by the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal upon Merchant’s appeal.
Merchant, a recipient of various accolades including the Queen’s Decoration and Queen’s Counsel title, leaves behind his wife Pana and three sons who have followed in his legal footsteps. His passing marks a significant change in Saskatchewan’s legal landscape, with many acknowledging his influential presence in the legal domain over the years.
