Eugene Meehan, Q.C.

I was born in Baillieston, Scotland in 1952. My christened name, Eugene, is an uncommon one in Scotland. My grandmother, Madeleine Thorel was French from Normandy. She married a Scottish soldier named John Doig at the end of World War I. She insisted on only two conditions to her new husband: that the children be raised Catholic and that their names be French. As it turned out, whenever she spoke English, I learned French (because she generally could not remember the English word).

After graduating from the University of Edinburgh (LL.B., 1975), I was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship to pursue an LL.M. (1977) at McGill University. In the Québec milieu, I (mis)treated Montréalers to French spoken with a Celtic accent. People thought I was from northern Québec … way north (some figured I came from Abitibi Temiscamingue). I did a second LL.B. (1978) at the University of Ottawa, and then a Doctorate in Civil Law (1984) back at McGill.

A teaching opportunity drew me to Edmonton where I was a Law Professor at the University of Alberta. During eight years in western Canada, I also articled and practised law in Edmonton. After that, Law Professor and Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Ottawa, when Chief Justice Lamer asked me to be his (first) Executive Legal Officer.

My spouse Giovanna was appointed to the Superior Court of Justice, sitting in Ottawa, on April 11, 2003.

And one last thing: a photo of my grandmother (she hand wrote “juillet 1955” on the back) is always on my desk – as well as of course a photo of Giovanna and the kids on the wall.