LANDMARK LEGACY
Canadian legal giant dead at 71
Joseph James Arvay, a high-profile lawyer in B.C. for decades and one of Canada's leading constitutional litigators, died Sunday of a heart attack. He was 71.
The holder of law degrees from the University of Western Ontario and Harvard University, Arvay was called to the bar in B.C. in 1982 and became known over the ensuing years for a series of cases that went to the Supreme Court of Canada.
“I'm gutted, everybody's gutted who knew him,” said Craig Jones, a professor of law at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops. “He was far and away the most successful and storied constitutional litigator in Canadian history.”
Jones, who was a student at the University of B.C. when Arvay acted for him at the APEC inquiry into the police crackdown on demonstrators at the Vancouver conference in 1997, said Arvay changed the law about gay rights, samesex marriage, assisted suicide and safe-injection sites.
“You just go down a list of progressive legal advances and he was behind almost all of them, always about a decade ahead of his time. And to have worked with him was unbelievable,” he said.
“He was a fantastic mentor to a generation or two of litigators inclined in that direction. Just a hell of a guy.”
Earlier this year, Arvay, who became an officer of the Order of Canada in 2017 and was awarded the Order of B.C. in 2018, came to Kamloops and delivered an address to students, said Jones.
“It was the first time I'd actually heard him speak retrospectively about his career and sort of look back. It wasn't a victory lap, but he was sensing some satisfaction I think with what he'd done. And he stayed around for an hour afterwards, just chatting with students one on one, completely inspirational that way.”
B.C. Attorney General David Eby, who studied Arvay's work in law school and aspired to work with him as a law student and young lawyer, said he was “profoundly saddened” by news of his death.
“Joe was one of the finest constitutional lawyers in this country and was a tireless advocate for human rights, Indigenous Peoples and countless other marginalized or disadvantaged groups. He donated thousands of hours of his time to defend the rights of people who are on the margins, and he did so to make our country a better and more equal place,” Eby said in a statement.
Grace Pastine, litigation director for the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, worked with Arvay on a number of landmark cases in the past decade, including the Carter case that decriminalized physician-assisted dying in Canada.
“I would say Joe was a tireless and brilliant advocate. I've always been so impressed by his tireless advocacy for justice. I admired him deeply as a lawyer and I also valued him as a friend.”
One of the things that was so remarkable about Arvay was that he worked at the “absolute pinnacle of the profession,” added Pastine.
“What drove him was a strong and abiding belief in justice and equality. Joe had deep wells of compassion for people. He translated that into the fiercest constitutional advocacy.”