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Presented by Upcoming Conferences EXECUTIVE ASSISTANTS August 14 -15, 2008 | Toronto IP SUMMIT September 8 – 9, 2008 | Vancouver DUTY TO ACCOMMODATE September 15 – 16, 2008 REGULATORY COMPLIANCE September 18 – 19, 2008 | Toronto E-DISCOVERY September 22 – 23, 2008 | Halifax ENERGY CONTRACTS September 23 -24, 2008 | Calgary PRODUCT RECALL September 25 – 26, 2008 | Toronto E-DISCOVERY October 1 – 2, 2008 | Montreal COMMERCIAL INSOLVENCY AND RESTRUCTURING October 17, 2008 | Toronto MAJOR BUSINESS AGREEMENTS October 27 – 28, 2008 | Chicago ABORIGINAL LAW October 28 – 29, 2008 | Toronto ENROLL TODAY! 1 888 777-1707 www.insightinfo.com Media Partner hard blow to public health care, open- ing the door to privatized medicine. "We weren't against public health," says Pratte, "but, as we say, it has to work; otherwise give it up." Pratte uttered a now-famous line on the steps of the Supreme Court after the decision: "Health care delayed is health care denied." He admits saying it, but says someone else on the CMA le- gal team dreamed it up. Quebec judges remember Pratte for representing Justice Jean-Guy Boilard, who recused himself during a big biker trial after the Canadian Judicial Council scolded him publicly for his testy behav- iour in court. The Quebec attorney gener- al said Boilard couldn't just recuse himself and ordered him back to work. The trial had already cost millions and the govern- ment didn't want to start over. Tremblay remembers the case. It took all 26 mem- bers of the Canadian Judicial Council, gathered on a Sunday afternoon, to make the precedent-setting decision that the CJC has jurisdiction over the conduct, but not the judicial decisions, of judges, which have to be appealed through the courts. They reversed the AG's decision 26-0 in Boilard's fa- vour. "That was a good one," recalls Tremblay. "It went right to the basis of law." As a litigator, Pratte is also dedicated to pro bono work and spearheaded the cre- ation of a pro bono program in Montre- al. He also gives seminars to judges. "For me, teaching is advocacy," he says. "At the end of my career I would like it for some university to allow me to teach law pro bono. I find it invigorating to be with students." Tremblay marvels that, after only a few years with his Quebec bar, Pratte is already giving comparative law courses to civil law practitioners. "That's not easy." In Ottawa he is active with the Na- tional Arts Centre and with Opera Lyra, raising hundreds of thousands of dol- lars for the two cultural institutions. The NAC connection came about when he represented the centre in a weird case with Ottawa Senators hockey star Alexei Yashin. Yashin had given a $1-million donation to the NAC and obtained a tax receipt. It was later discovered that, as part of the deal, the NAC had to hire 36 JULY 2008 www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com ntitled-5 1 6/6/08 1:05:31 PM his mother for 10 years at $85,000 a year with little clear stipulation about what she would be doing. It was an illegal tax receipt, recalls Pratte. The donation was returned and Mrs. Yashin was fired — nobody ever went to court. Pratte admits he is a driven when it comes to law, but he's never figured out why. "I'll ask myself why until I die," he laughs. "The only thing is that I inherited from my father a sense of satisfaction in doing one's best, and that is paramount and will always be for me and whether one gets accolades or not, is not important." Another BLG colleague, Peter K. Doody, who represented Chrétien at the Gomery inquiry, also describes Pratte as driven. "He wants to master every one of his cases," says Doody. "He wants to get it absolutely right every time, and leave nothing undone. And he expects the same energy and com- mitment from those who work with him. He's very intense. When he joined the Quebec bar in 2002, he had to pass the transfer exam, which is very diffi- cult. Eighty per cent fail. Pratte studied all the time, every spare second he had, and he passed. Once he decides some- thing, he doesn't give up. Sheer com- mitment." He does take a break now and then and Pratte's idea of a good time is run- ning marathons or going on a long bike ride with his 23-year-old son, Michel, who is studying business at the Lon- don School of Economics. So far, the son's shown no interest in law. Pratte has been married to his wife Mary, a noted expert on peonies, for 31 years. "I have this theory that if a hard- working, dedicated, hard-nosed lawyer has a lovely wife, there must be some redeeming feature in that guy," says David Scott. "She's a sweetheart and she looks after him." He may have been discouraged about politics, but it has not discouraged him from fighting for politicians. What poli- tics has lost, the law has won. In the hearing room he is nothing sort of fear- some, defending clients with every ounce of energy. Could it be because of, as he says, what he's seen, or is it rather a boy still fighting a battle he was too young to fight so long ago?