Edward Ratushny

Edward Ratushny had a distinguished career that spanned multiple areas of Canadian law over five decades. Born and educated in Saskatchewan, he obtained his law degree from the University of Saskatchewan in 1965 and later completed an LLM at the London School of Economics. After briefly working as executive assistant to federal cabinet minister Otto Lang in 1968, he joined the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law in 1976 where he taught evidence, criminal procedure, criminology, and administrative law, and pioneered a Sports and Entertainment Law course in 1994.

Ratushny became a prominent figure in sports law, serving as a registered NHL agent and representing players including his own son who was drafted by the Winnipeg Jets. His sports arbitration work included serving on international tribunals and handling high-profile doping cases, notably the controversial Eric Lamaze equestrian case in 2000, where his decision was later vindicated when Lamaze won Olympic gold in 2008. Concurrently, he established himself as a leading expert in judicial conduct, serving on the Canadian Judicial Council for 25 years and working on landmark inquiries including the Marshall case in Nova Scotia (1990), the Gratton Inquiry (1993), and the Bienvenue case, helping establish standards for judicial removal and conduct. His extensive consulting work covered human rights, civil liberties, police discipline, wrongful convictions, and various government departments, culminating in his appointment as Queen’s Counsel in 1985 and his role on the Lamer Commission investigating wrongful convictions in Newfoundland from 2003-2006.

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