John Gomery

John H. Gomery QC (born August 9, 1932) is a retired Canadian jurist. He was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Career

Gomery was educated at McGill University where he received Bachelor of Arts (BA) and a Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) degrees. Gomery was a member of the McGill Law Journal.

Since 1957, Gomery worked at the law firm Fasken, Martineau and Dumoulin in the areas of family law, commercial litigation and bankruptcy and became a partner there in 1966. In 1972, he was appointed Queen's Counsel (QC). In 1982, he was appointed to Quebec Superior Court Montreal district and from 1999 to 2005 served as President of the Copyright Board of Canada (renewed in 2002).

Gomery has also been involved in the Canadian Bar Association and Chambre des notaires du Québec. He was also President of the Comité Général des Juges de la Cour supérieure du Québec, President of the Family Law Committee from 1983 to 1993 and has been a member of the Rules of Practice Committee since the beginning.

Gomrey retired from the court bench on August 9, 2007, after turning 75, the age of mandatory retirement.

Gomery Commission

Gomery was appointed on February 19, 2004 as Commissioner of Inquiry into the Sponsorship Program and Advertising Activities (informally, the Gomery Commission) to investigate the Sponsorship scandal. Gomery's mandate is set by Section IV, clause I of the Inquiries Act which states: "The Commissioner [is] directed to perform his or her duties without expressing any conclusion or recommendation regarding the civil or criminal liability of any person or organization and to ensure that the conduct of the inquiry does not jeopardize any ongoing criminal investigation or criminal proceedings." In other words, Gomery's mandate was only to determine whether there were problems with the federal sponsorship program in Quebec between 1995 and 2003; he was explicitly forbidden to name any individuals or organizations that may have been responsible for the alleged fraud that occurred during the sponsorship program. Gomery's report, available in several parts e.g. Restoring Accountability: Recommendations,^[1] assisted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police with further investigations, which led to criminal charges being filed and prosecuted against certain key figures in the scandal.

He has been criticized by many, in particular Chrétien supporters, who saw his dealings in the commission as biased. Others also criticized Gomery's terms of reference which did not allow the inquiry to investigate Paul Martin's contracting habits as finance minister.^[2]

In 2005, the Canadian Press named Gomery Newsmaker of the Year. Time magazine also named him its Canadian Newsmaker of the Year.

Jean Chrétien went to federal court to clear his name and have the Gomery report invalidated. On June 26, 2008, federal judge Max Teitelbaum criticized Gomery for making comments that indicated he judged issues before all evidence was heard and exhibited bias against Chrétien. The federal judge also ruled that Gomery's comments on "small town cheap" amounted to a personal insult against Chrétien. The court quashed the Gomery inquiry's conclusions that Chrétien and Jean Pelletier bore responsibility for the sponsorship scandal.^[3]^[4]

References

↑ "THE GOMERY COMMISSION REPORT, PHASE 2 - AN OVERVIEW"
↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20060322215509/http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2005/11/02/1289613-cp.html. Archived from the original on March 22, 2006. Retrieved June 28, 2008. Missing or empty |title= (help)
↑ MacCharles, Tonda. "Gomery was biased in report, judge rules", The Toronto Star, 27 June 2008.
↑ Clark, Campbell and Curry, Bill. "Absolving Chrétien, judge blasts Gomery", The Globe and Mail, 27 June 2008.

Garvey, Bruce (2005-05-05). "Don't Wait for Gomery". National Post. p. A26.

Canadian Newsmaker of the Year

Igor Gouzenko 1946 Barbara Ann Scott 1947 William Lyon Mackenzie King 1948 Louis St. Laurent 1949 Lester B. Pearson 1950–1953 Marilyn Bell 1954 Lester B. Pearson 1955–1956 John Diefenbaker 1957–1960 Joey Smallwood 1959 James Coyne 1961 Réal Caouette 1962 Lester B. Pearson 1963–1964 Lucien Rivard 1965 John Diefenbaker 1966 Lester B. Pearson 1967 Pierre Trudeau 1968–1975 René Lévesque 1976–1977 Pierre Trudeau 1978 Joe Clark 1979 Terry Fox 1980–1981 Wayne Gretzky 1982 Brian Mulroney 1983–1984 Steve Fonyo 1985 Rick Hansen 1986–1987 Ben Johnson 1988 Michael Wilson 1989 Elijah Harper 1990 Brian Mulroney 1991 The referendum on the Charlottetown Accord 1992 Kim Campbell 1993 Jacques Parizeau 1994 Lucien Bouchard 1995 Donovan Bailey 1996 Sheldon Kennedy 1997 Jean Chrétien 1998 Pierre Trudeau 1999, as Newsmaker of the 20th Century Pierre Trudeau 2000 Stockwell Day 2001 Jean Chrétien 2002 Paul Martin 2003–2004 John Gomery 2005 The Canadian Soldier 2006 RCMP 2007 Stephen Harper 2008–2009 Russell Williams 2010 Jack Layton 2011 Luka Magnotta 2012 Rob Ford 2013 Patrice Vincent and Nathan Cirillo 2014 Justin Trudeau 2015

Book:Canadian Newsmakers of the Year Portal:History of Canada

Authority control	WorldCat Identities VIAF: 75742543 LCCN: n2006045953

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