The Honourable JOHN C. MURRAY
John C. Murray opened his practice as a full-time arbitrator and mediator in January, 2015. Since that date, Mr. Murray has conducted a significant number of mediations and arbitrations in a wide field of subject areas.
In addition to being selected to mediate andor arbitrate cases by agreement of the parties, Mr. Murray has also been appointed by judges of the Superior Court to mediate disputes in matters before the court. For example, in 2016 a Justice of the Commercial Court appointed Mr. Murray as Chief Arbitrator at EssarAlgoma Steel in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario with authority to resolve outstanding claims by USW Local 2251, USW Local 2724 against EssarAlgoma.
Prior to opening his mediationarbitration practice, from 2004 2014, Mr. Murray was a judge of the Superior Court of Ontario in the Central West Region. As a trial judge, he regularly dealt with criminal, family and a wide variety of civil matters. Justice Murray also sat on the Ontario Divisional Court hearing appeals and applications for judicial review.
Prior to being appointed to the Superior Court, Mr. Murray was a highly regarded senior lawyer with over thirty years experience practicing on Bay Street. Mr. Murray was a founding partner, managing partner and Chair of the Toronto litigation firm Genest Murray and was Vice-Chair, partner and a member of the Executive Committee of Heenan Blaikie. As a practitioner, Mr. Murray regularly provided strategic, legal and management advice to major private and public sector corporations. His practice was primarily devoted to civil and constitutional litigation, administrative law, education law and labour and employment law.
Both as a lawyer and as a judge, Mr. Murray has been an advocate of early and efficient dispute resolution. He acted as counsel in numerous significant disputes that were resolved in mediation including the restructuring of Air Canada and the reorganization of Ontario Hydro.
Prior to his appointment to the bench, Mr. Murray regularly acted as an arbitrator and was a pioneer in establishing ADR services in Toronto. As a judge, he conducted many case conferences and judicial mediations that resulted in resolution of litigation and also – at the invitation of litigants – acted as a mediator in numerous disputes outside the Central West Region including the mediation of class actions.
Mr. Murray is a former Chair of the Labour Law Section of the Ontario branch of the Canadian Bar Association and former Director of the Advocates Society. At the time of his appointment, he was an Editor of the Canada Labour and Employment Law Journal. He has lectured at various faculties of law and at continuing legal education conferences for judges and lawyers with emphasis on advocacy, administrative law, labour law and dispute resolution. He also served as a member of the Canadian delegation pursuant to the North American Agreement on Labour Cooperation – an agreement negotiated as part of NAFTA that came into force on January 1, 1994.
On February 17, 2015 the Government of Ontario announced the appointment of the Honourable John C. Murray as one of two Special Advisors to lead consultations on how the Labour Relations Act, 1995 and the Employment Standards Act, 2000 could be amended. The task of the Special Advisors was to consider how “to best protect workers while supporting businesses in our changing economy”. After extensive consultations, an Interim Report was issued in July 2016 and, in May of 2017, the Special Advisors released the Changing Workplaces Review Final Report containing 173 recommendations for amendments to Ontario’s Employment Standards and Labour Relations legislation.
Mr. Murray is a graduate of the University of Toronto having received his B.A. in 1966 (History and English) and his LL.B. from the U. of T. Faculty of Law in 1969. He was called to the Ontario Bar and admitted to the Law Society of Upper Canada in 1971.
Firm Mailing
Ontario
Fellow Since
March 13, 1999
Practice Areas
- Mediation
Chapter
- Ontario
Contact Info