84 | LEXPERT December 2014 | www.lexpert.ca
DEFAMATION AND MEDIA
Counsel. One of Canada's most respected advocates, the Honorable Ian Binnie served
for nearly 14 years as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. Binnie authored more
than 170 opinions, including on landmark cases involving issues of patent interpretation
and validity, protection of trade-marks, media law, commercial disputes, punitive damages,
expert evidence and many aspects of constitutional, criminal and administrative law. Over
the course of three decades as a litigator, he argued cases in most of the common-law prov-
inces and appeared regularly before the Supreme Court on a range of constitutional, civil
and criminal matters.
Chair of Torys' Litigation and Dispute Resolution Practice. Trial and appellate counsel
litigation practice, acting as counsel on a wide range of leading cases before all levels of
court in Canada and in international arbitrations. Chair, Touching Tiny Lives Founda-
tion; President, Fox Education Fund; Trustee, Foundation for International Arbitration
Advocacy, Geneva; President's Council, University of Ottawa; and Advisory Board, Eth-
ics and the Law, University of Toronto. Ranked by Lexpert® as one of Canada's top 25 cor-
porate litigators. Taught advocacy in North America and Europe, New Zealand, El Salva-
dor, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Brazil, India and Singapore. Awards include: Law Society
Medal; Advocates' Society Medal; Laidlaw Medal for Advocacy; Toronto Lawyers' Asso-
ciation Award of Distinction; OBA Award for Excellence; Meritas Tabaret Award, Uni-
versity of Ottawa; Fellow, ACTL, ISOB. Member, Common Law Honour Society, Uni-
versity of Ottawa. LLB (Gold Medalist), 1972, University of Ottawa. Ontario Bar, 1974.
Honorary LLD, 2014, University of Ottawa.
Senior litigation counsel and Fasken Martineau's principal Toronto contact for defama-
tion matters. Peter Downard has acted as defamation counsel in the Supreme Court of
Canada, Ontario Court of Appeal and trials and in many mediations and advisory matters.
He is author of the legal text Libel (third edition, 2014; second edition, 2010; fi rst edition,
2003), referred to as authority in numerous court decisions, and sole author of the vol-
ume Defamation in Halsbury's Laws of Canada (2009 and 2013 Reissue). In 2010 he was
appointed as one of three members of the Ontario Attorney General's Advisory Panel on
Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation (SLAPP). He also has extensive experi-
ence in commercial and public interest advocacy and was lead counsel to former Ontario
Premier Mike Harris in the Ipperwash Inquiry (2004–06). Included in e Canadian Le-
gal Lexpert® Directory 2010–2014 for Litigation - Defamation & Media.
Ian Binnie,
CC, QC
Lenczner Slaght
Royce Smith
Griffi n LLP
Tel: (416) 865-3737
Fax: (416) 865-9500
Toronto
Sheila
R. Block
Torys LLP
Tel: (416) 865-7319
Fax: (416) 865-7380
Toronto
Peter A.
Downard
Fasken
Martineau
DuMoulin LLP
Tel: (416) 865-4369
Fax: (416) 364-7813
Toronto
ibinnie@litigate.com
sblock@torys.com
pdownard@fasken.com
DEFAMATION
AND MEDIA
