FEATURE
Making a federal case by Philip Fine
From the days of the Hon. John Abbott, BCL 1854, and the Hon. Wilfrid Laurier, BCL 1864, McGill Law graduates have always shown a steadfast commitment to public service. We profile four alumni occupying major roles in the current federal government and learn how their time at McGill led them to the halls of power. The Hon. David Lametti, PC, QC, MP Minister of Justice and Attorney General MP for LaSalle-Émard-Verdun Professor David Lametti, BCL’89, LLB’89, took a pause from teaching at McGill in 2015 when he was elected to Parliament. The current Minister of Justice and Attorney General took some of his first political steps in Chancellor Day Hall, where he was president of the Law Student Association and left an enduring legacy as the founder of Coffeehouse.
It was while working with the late Professor
In 2015, Lametti faced a fork in the road. While he
Rod Macdonald that David Lametti realized academia
was content with his professorial career, he felt that
was his calling. Then a law student, he worked with
universities were being undermined and devalued by the
the former Dean on some seminal projects, including
government at the time, namely as he witnessed worthy
Office Politics, a paper of memos from a fictitious law
research projects going unfunded. He decided to throw
faculty, which explored authority, internal cultures
his hat in the ring and was elected as part of the Liberal
and decision-making.
government. That year, federal granting agencies saw
“I thought I’d move back to Toronto to practise on
increases, something for which he pushed hard.
Bay Street,” says Lametti. Instead, he continued to
In January 2019, Lametti was named Minister of Justice
explore academic issues, first at Yale Law School and
and Attorney General. His time in the role has required
then at Oxford University, focusing primarily intellectual
the former captain of the Oxford ice hockey team to
property theory.
stickhandle a number of delicate files, from medical
Lametti began to develop his expertise during a time
assistance in dying to extradition to family separation.
of major societal shifts. “I got to think about intellectual
Two years into his ministerial role, he remains dedicated
property at a critical moment in its evolution. There
to making a difference, and talks passionately of shameful
was a technological explosion happening, whether it
incarceration rates for Indigenous people in Canada,
was the arts, internet or biotech,” says Lametti, who
the need for criminal justice reform, and a legal system
returned to McGill as a law professor in 1997 and later
that’s more accessible to all. Still an academic at heart,
co-founded the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy
he remains true to his intellectual property roots, also
with Professor Richard Gold.
pushing to develop better norms for the digital world.
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