Heenan founded law firm, loved art
Roy Heenan, nationally renowned labour lawyer, Officer of the Order of Canada, chairman emeritus of the Trudeau Foundation and cofounder of the Montreal law firm that would bear his name until its spectacular collapse in 2014, died Feb. 3 after a lengthy illness. He was 81.
The Trudeau Foundation acknowledged his death this week in a statement that described Heenan as “one of the driving forces behind the creation of our organization” and “one of Canada’s leading labour lawyers.”
Born in Mexico City in 1935, Heenan came to Canada in 1947 where he attended Trinity College and then studied law at McGill University.
In 1973, reportedly backed up with nothing more than a handshake, Heenan founded along with Donald Johnston and Peter Blaikie a Montreal-based law firm that would become a key player in Canada’s political landscape for four decades.
It would also become a firm where former Quebec politicians were a common sight — former prime ministers Pierre Trudeau and Jean Chrétien and former Quebec premier Pierre-Marc Johnson worked for the firm.
The firm became Heenan Blaikie after Johnston was elected as a Liberal MP in 1978 and seemed to be going from strength to strength, Heenan receiving the Order of Canada in 1999 for being “one of the country’s leading labour lawyers who has also made significant contributions to academic life and the art world.”
However, in February of 2014, the firm suddenly collapsed, sending shock waves throughout the legal community. In an interview with the Montreal Gazette, Heenan blamed the firm’s demise on squabbling, saying disagreements stemmed partly from rivalries between the offices and between practitioners of the different specialties within the firm, including employment and labour law.
“Sometimes the rivalries are between the different types of law. (It was said) ‘if we were only doing this we would be more profitable.’ And this type of rivalry caused problems,” he explained. “We did a lot of public policy, which is why we had Pierre Trudeau, Jean Chrétien and (Pierre-Marc Johnson). But as you can see, the squabbles between regions often cause problems.”
A patron of the arts, Heenan was chairman of the board of directors of the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art and sat on the Board of Trustees of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. He was a world-class art collector and his collection was considered one of the finest in the country.
Visitation will take place Thursday from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Kane and Fetterly funeral home at 5301 Décarie Blvd. A funeral service will be held on Friday at 1 p.m. at St. George’s Anglican Church at 1001 Canadiens-de-Montréal Ave. (corner Stanley St.).
So rivalries are between the different types of law … And this type of rivalry caused problems.