Bob Rae is an arbitrator and mediator exclusively with ADR Chambers.
Mr. Rae is a partner at Goodmans LLP, one of Canada's leading international law firms. His Canadian clients have included companies, trade unions, charitable and non-governmental organizations, and governments themselves. He has extensive experience in negotiation, mediation and arbitration and consults widely on issues of public policy both in Canada and worldwide.
He served as Premier of Ontario from 1990 to 1995, and was elected eight times to federal and provincial parliaments before his retirement from politics in 1996. He led the New Democratic Party of Ontario from 1982 to 1996, and served as Leader of the Official Opposition before becoming Premier.
Mr. Rae has a B.A. and an LL.B. from the University of Toronto and was a Rhodes Scholar from Ontario in 1969. He obtained a B.Phil degree from Oxford University in 1971 and was named a Queen's Counsel in 1984. Mr. Rae received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the Law Society of Upper Canada in 1998, and was appointed to Her Majesty's Privy Council for Canada in the same year. He also received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Toronto in 1999. In 2000 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada and appointed an Officer of the Order of Ontario in 2004.
Mr. Rae is a panel member of the Canadian Internal Trade Disputes Tribunal, and is on the international commercial arbitrators list of the Canadian Council for International Business.
Mr. Rae is the past president of the Forum of Federations where he remains a fellow and consults on issues of post conflict governance. He also serves as director of the Canadian Ditchley Foundation, the Trudeau Foundation, the Institute of Research on Public Policy, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and is a member of the International Council of the Asia Society. Mr. Rae is the Chairman Emeritus of the Royal Conservatory of Music, and the National Spokesperson of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada. He was the Chief Negotiator of the Canadian Red Cross Society in its restructuring, and also served as a member of the Canada Transportation Act Review and the Security and Intelligence Review Committee for Canada. He has served on the boards of a number of public companies.
Mr. Rae completed a review of Ontario's Postsecondary School Education for the Ontario Provincial government, with a report entitled Ontario: A Leader in Learning, which in turn led to significant policy and budgetary change.
In the spring of 2005, Mr. Rae was appointed a special advisor to the Canadian Minister of Public Safety on the Air India bombing of 1985. His report, Lessons to be Learned was published in November of 2005 and led to his further appointment as Independent Counsellor to the Prime Minister of Canada and Chair of the Air India Inquiry and review.
In 2006, Mr. Rae campaigned for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada, a post won by the Hon. Stéphane Dion. Mr. Rae now serves as Co-Chair of the Liberal Party Policy Platform Committee.
Mr. Rae's books From Protest to Power, The Three Questions, and Canada in the Balance are published by McClelland & Stewart.
Mr. Rae is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto and Senior Fellow of Massey College.
