MOVES
; In Toronto, Leslie Wittlin has
joined Heenan Blaikie LLP as a
partner in the financial services
law group. Wittlin focuses his
practice on bankruptcy and insol-
vency, secured and unsecured
lending, enforcement of creditor
and debtor rights, corporate
reorganization and debt restruc-
turing, insurance regulatory advice
for carriers and intermediaries,
mining and commercial real estate
transactions, and general cor-
porate and commercial work. Ken-
neth Hood has joined Baker
Schneider Ruggiero LLP. His prac-
tice is focused on corporate and
commercial litigation, with par-
ticular expertise in mortgage and
debt enforcement, contractual dis-
putes, shareholder and partnership
disputes, professional negligence
matters and real estate, including
condominium litigation, commer-
cial landlord and tenant disputes
and enforcing and defending for-
eign judgments. He was previously
with Lawrence, Lawrence, Ste-
venson LLP.
; In Vancouver, Michael Weiler
has been admitted as a share-
holder at Boughton Law Corpora-
tion. Weiler joined Boughton in
January 2009 as leader of the
employment and labour practice
group. He represents a wide var-
iety of employers in labour rela-
tions matters, and also acts for
employers and employees in
wrongful dismissal and other
employment-related actions.
A watchdog that barks, sometimes bites
CHRISTOPHER GULY
As a jock, André Marin was
somewhat of a late bloomer. He
became a serious runner 20
years ago, when he used to join
his fellow Crowns for a daily jog
around Ottawa’s Rideau Canal
to relieve stress. Since then,
maintaining a fitness regimen as
a serious athlete is now as much
a disciplined passion for
45-year-old, Montreal-born
Marin as has been his career for
the past 19 years as a doggedly
determined watchdog out to
sniff out maladministration in
the public sector.
By the time he became Canada’s military ombudsman as a
boyish-looking 33-year-old, fluently bilingual Marin had already
impressed the legal community
with his work at the Toronto-based special investigations unit,
where he fast-tracked 89 cases,
prepared reports on another 200
and established 30-day deadlines
for investigations—in just 19
months on the job.
Marin has proven his mettle
over the years.
Even when he seemed to be
down for the count this past spring
amid questions about his office
expenses (all legitimate, he insists)
and accusations that he runs a
toxic work environment forcing
employees to flee— with a few filing human rights complaints—Marin “took it on the
chin” while quietly reapplying for
his job after his term of five years
(it used to be 10) ended.
“I run a tight ship—I’ve never
made any qualms about that,” he
says, noting that he also received
hundreds of e-mails and letters
from people supporting him.
“I don’t micromanage employ-
ees—I give them a tremendous
amount of freedom, but I expect
them to produce. I run a small
group of elite investigators that are
required to have a very high level
of analytical skills. If you don’t cut
it, you don’t cut it.”
He certainly made the cut in
the view of a committee of MPPs,
LAWYER OF THE WEEK
Name:
André Marin
Law school:
University of Ottawa
Called to the Ontario Bar:
1991
Career highlights:
1991 Became an assistant
Crown attorney
1993 Became a part-time law
professor at University of Ottawa
1996 Named director of the
special investigations unit for the
Ontario Ministry of the Attorney
General
1998 Named Canadian Forces
ombudsman for the Department
of National Defence
2005 Appointed Ombudsman
of Ontario
André Marin
who voted unanimously in June to
reappoint Marin for another five-
year term as Ontario’s sixth—and
first two-term — ombudsman.
Having “emerged with an even
greater position of strength” as
Canada’s highest-profile — and
arguably most tenacious— watch-
dog, Marin credits his hardwork-
ing staff (including his deputy,
Barbara Finlay, who has worked
with him since his days at the
Crown’s office in Ottawa) in earn-
ing the Ontario ombudsman’s
office global respect for facilitating
systemic change while not being
afraid to “ruffle feathers.”
Among the cases he is most
proud of is his March 2007 report
on the Ontario Lottery and Gam-
ing (OLG) Corp. and its findings of
millions of dollars in prize money
paid to retailers selling the tickets.
The OLG agreed to 23 recommen-
dations, including a regulation
that requires customers to sign
their tickets before a retailer can
validate them, and the A Game of
Trust report spawned similar lot-
tery-scam inquiries as far away as
California and Australia.
2009 Received the Ontario
Bar Association’s Tom Marshall
Award of Excellence for out-
standing contribution to the prac-
tice of public sector law in Ontario
2010 Became the first Ontario
ombudsman reappointed for
another term
APPOINTMENTS
; Robert Tchegus, a partner of
Kingston, Ont. firm Cun-
ningham, Swan, Carty, Little &
Bonham LLP, has been named one
of Ontario’s two representatives
on the Payments in Lieu of Taxes
Dispute Advisory Panel. The panel
gives advice to the Minister of
Public Works and Government
Services in the event that a taxing
authority disagrees with the prop-
erty value, property dimension or
effective rate applicable to any
federal property, or claims that a
payment should be supplemented
under the Act.
justice and change in society,
there’s nothing like it.”
Eventually, he would like to fol-
low in the footsteps of his father,
retired Federal Court Judge René
Marin, and sit on the bench. “But
right now, I just have too much
piss and vinegar left in me.” ;
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