Mr. Ron Atkey P.C., Q.C. has been appointed by Justice Dennis R. O’Connor "Amicus Curiae" or "Friend of the Court" in respect of government requests for in camera hearings. The Amicus Curiae will act as counsel, independent from government, and his mandate will be to test government requests on the ground of National Security Confidentiality.

National Security Confidentiality

The Rules of Procedure permit the Attorney General of Canada or any other person to request to have specific information received in camera and in the absence of parties and their counsel because of National Security Confidentiality. The Amicus Curiae, as counsel independent of Government, will test these requests, and the Commissioner will rule as to what evidence should be heard in camera and what should be heard in public.

Ron Atkey’s background

A senior partner with the Toronto law firm of Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt LLP, Mr. Atkey was called to the Ontario Bar in 1969.  He was elected Member of Parliament for St. Paul’s in 1972-74, and again in 1979-80. In 1979, he was appointed Minister of Employment and Immigration in the government of the Right Honourable Joe Clark. 

Mr. Atkey has extensive experience in matters relating to National Security Confidentiality. From 1984 until 1989, he served as the first Chairman of the Security Intelligence Review Committee, a body established to oversee the activities of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). During his tenure, the Review Committee recommended the winding up of the CSIS Counter-subversion Branch and conducted an internal investigation after the Air India crash.

A graduate of University of Western Ontario and Yale University law schools, Mr. Atkey has also held teaching positions at Western, Osgoode Hall Law School of York University and University of Toronto. In 1970-72, he was special counsel to the Ontario Law Reform Commission.

Mr. Atkey co-authored Canadian Constitutional Law in a Modern Perspective which was widely used by Canadian law students in the 1970’s. He delivered lectures on national security, international terrorism and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms at Cambridge University, England in both 1989 and 1991. Then  in 1994 he produced  a novel "The Chancellor's Foot “, a political thriller set in Ottawa and Montréal. 

In community affairs, he serves on the boards of a number of organizations involved in music and the performing arts, and is the Vice-President – Ontario of the International Commission of Jurists (Canadian Section).