Anthony Merchant

Merchant is a 5th generation lawyer[1] and the three Merchant sons are similarly all lawyers. Merchant's father, grandfather, great grandfather, and great great grandfather were all lawyers in Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia. His father was killed in action towards the end of hostilities in WWII, just after Tony was born. Captain Evatt F.A. Merchant had attended the Nova Scotia Catholic University, St. Francis Xavier, and later met Tony's mother, then Sally Smith at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Smith and Merchant families have long traditions in Nova Scotia and at St. FX. Later generations followed the example of Tony's father, his Grandfather Smith, his uncle Adrian Smith, all of whom attended St. Francis Xavier. His father, Captain Evatt Francis Anthony Merchant, was a member of C Company of the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders (died 18 November 1944 and buried at Mierlo War Cemetery, the Netherlands).[2] His mother, Maria Margharita "Sally" Merchant (d. 2007), was a television personality and political figure. He was raised by his mother as a single parent and became part of the Merchant political family in Saskatchewan. His maternal grandfather was Saskatchewan politician Vincent Reynolds Smith, later a judge, and his niece (sister's daughter) is television personality Amanda Lang.[3] Tony's father, Evatt graduated from law school at Dalhousie.

Merchant was born in 1944 in Yorkton, Saskatchewan. He studied arts and law at the University of Saskatchewan and business administration at the University of Regina. He was admitted to the Saskatchewan bar in 1968, to the Alberta bar in 1976, to the British Columbia bar in 1977 and to the Arizona bar in 1987. He was also host for an open-line radio show in Saskatchewan and a freelance television interviewer with the CBC. In 1976 he was a candidate for the leadership of the provincial Liberal party. That post went instead to Ted Malone.[4] His wife Pana was a member of Canada's senate (2002–2017).

Anthony (Tony) Merchant's law firm—Merchant Law Group—dealt with over seven thousand claims, through trials and appeals of Indigenous peoples in Canada, who had been students in the Canadian Indian residential school system—a system which closed its last schools in 1996.[5]^:1[6][7]

In October 2020, the Law Society of Saskatchewan (LSS) announced a decision that Merchant faced a pending suspension from practicing law, from February to September 2021.[8]

A disciplinary panel found that he had used intimidation to press a client into signing over to him $21,310.83 of a settlement that she had received as a residential school survivor in order to cover unrelated legal bills owed to Merchant by her son.[9] Merchant had threatened his client with being able to "seize your assets, your car, your bank account, or whatever" if she refused to sign over the money.[9] The Supreme Court of British Columbia had previously held that this amounted to an attempt to circumvent a prohibition in the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement against assigning settlement payments to third parties, which was put in place to protect vulnerable residential school survivors, and ordered that the money be repaid with interest.[10]

In late October, 2020, Merchant's counsel filed an Appeal with the Court of Appeal for Saskatchewan, requesting that both the proposed suspension and the factual findings of the LSS be overturned. The Court of Appeal has not yet set a date for hearing of Merchant's Appeal. In the meantime, Merchant continues to practice law without restrictions and the proposed suspension does not take effect.[11]

Merchant was previously suspended from practicing law for three months in 2012, also in relation to payments from a residential school claim.[8]

In 2007, Merchant was voted the best lawyer in Regina by the Prairie Dog Magazine.[12] Merchant was named a Queen's Counsel in 1995.