Mr. Donald Revell

This interview with Don Revell chronicles his journey from teaching to becoming Ontario’s Chief Legislative Counsel. Born in Toronto in 1945, Revell graduated from Carleton University (1967) and Queen’s Law School (1974) before articling at Gardiner Roberts. Finding corporate practice unsuitable, he joined the Legislative Counsel’s office in 1977 under Arthur Stone.

Revell details the complex legislative drafting process, from receiving Cabinet instructions to final passage. He played key roles in developing Ontario’s gender-neutral drafting style in the 1980s, working with Cornelia Schuh to implement non-sexist language that influenced national standards. As Chief Legislative Counsel, he oversaw the challenging transition to official bilingual legislation under the French Language Services Act, managing massive translation projects and establishing production targets.

The interview explores the office’s evolution from manual drafting to computerization, its dual role serving government and opposition members, and constitutional challenges in legislative drafting. Revell also discusses his contributions to the Uniform Law Conference of Canada, promoting both gender-neutral and bilingual drafting conventions that influenced legislative practice nationwide.

This description was written by AI and may contain some inaccuracies.