Ted McWhinney
Edward Watson McWhinney was a Canadian lawyer and academic specializing in constitutional and international law. He was a Liberal Party Member of Parliament from 1993 to 2000 for the electoral district of Vancouver Quadra.
Life and career
Born in Lismore, New South Wales, Australia, McWhinney, received his secondary education at North Sydney Boys High School, which he followed by study at the University of Sydney, becoming President of the Sydney University Liberal Club and Student Representative Council. McWhinney was a professor emeritus at Simon Fraser University and an expert on the Canadian Constitution who was often called upon to advise the Canadian government. He reportedly advised successive Canadian prime ministers since John Diefenbaker, as well as several governors general.He held professorships at Yale, the Sorbonne, Toronto, McGill, Indiana, the Collège de France, and at the Meiji University in Tokyo. He was a legal consultant to the United Nations; constitutional adviser to the Premier of Ontario and to the Premier of Quebec; chief adviser to the Canadian government's Task Force on National Unity ; Royal Commissioner of Enquiry to the Government of Quebec; Special Commissioner of Enquiry for the Government of British Columbia; special adviser to the Canadian delegation to the United Nations General Assembly, as well as constitutional and international law adviser to a number of foreign governments.
The author of 24 books, editor of 11 symposium volumes, and author of several hundred scientific articles, he was the first jurist from Canada to be elected to the century-old Institut de Droit International. He was a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague and was a member of the Institut Grand-Ducal of Luxembourg, and of the Académie Internationale de Droit Comparé in Paris. He died on May 19, 2015.