Charles Alan Harnick, (born October 14, 1950) is a former
politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...
in Ontario, Canada. He was a
Progressive Conservative member of the
Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1990 to 1999, and served as a senior
cabinet minister in the government of
Mike Harris
Michael Deane Harris (born January 23, 1945) is a Canadian retired politician who served as the 22nd premier of Ontario from 1995 to 2002 and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC Party) from 1990 to 2002. During his time ...
.
Background
Harnick has a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...
degree from
York University
York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...
, and a law degree from the
University of Windsor
, mottoeng = Goodness, Discipline and Knowledge
, established =
, academic_affiliations = CARL, COU, Universities Canada
, former_names = Assumption College (1857-1956)Assumption University of Windsor (1956-1963)
, type = Public universi ...
. He was called to the bar in 1977, and worked as a civil litigation lawyer with the firm of Feigman and Chernos and with the firm of Malach and Fidler before entering political life. Harnick was certified as a Specialist in Civil Litigation in 1991; he was appointed a
Queen's Counsel
In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister o ...
in 1992 and in 2005 he was awarded the Law Society Medal. He has also been a member of the
Canadian Jewish Congress
The Canadian Jewish Congress (, , ) was, for more than ninety years, the main advocacy group for the Jewish community in Canada. Regarded by many as the "Parliament of Canadian Jewry," the Congress was at the forefront of the struggle for human ...
and
B'nai Brith
B'nai B'rith International (, from he, בְּנֵי בְּרִית, translit=b'né brit, lit=Children of the Covenant) is a Jewish service organization. B'nai B'rith states that it is committed to the security and continuity of the Jewish peop ...
.
Politics
Harnick ran for the Ontario legislature in the
1987 provincial legislature, losing to
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
Gino Matrundola by 4,034 votes in the
North York riding of
Willowdale.
He ran in the same riding in the
1990 election, and defeated Matrundola by 834 votes.
The Progressive Conservatives won a majority government in the
1995 provincial election, and Harnick was re-elected in Willowdale by a landslide.
He was appointed
Attorney General and
Minister responsible for Native Affairs on June 26, 1995.
As Attorney General, he presided over a series of cuts to legal services enacted by the Harris government. These cuts were criticized for reducing legal services available to women in vulnerable domestic situations. He also reduced civilian oversight of Toronto's police services, and called for a restoration of
capital punishment
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
.
In June 1996, Harnick was asked in the legislature to comment about a racist remark that Premier
Mike Harris
Michael Deane Harris (born January 23, 1945) is a Canadian retired politician who served as the 22nd premier of Ontario from 1995 to 2002 and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC Party) from 1990 to 2002. During his time ...
had allegedly made regarding the
Ipperwash crisis
The Ipperwash Crisis was a dispute over Indigenous land that took place in Ipperwash Provincial Park, Ontario, in 1995. Several members of the Stoney Point Ojibway band occupied the park to assert claim to nearby land which had been expropriated ...
. Opposition NDP member
Bud Wildman
Charles Jackson "Bud" Wildman (born June 3, 1946) is a Canadian politician. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a New Democratic Party Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) from 1975 to 1999, representing the riding of Algoma, ...
asked him, "
o, if anyone, said 'get the fucking Indians out of the park'?" Harnick replied, "I can tell you I have no information as to the fact that remark was ever made. I have no knowledge that remark was ever made." The next day he said, "I have found no one who knows anything about that particular comment. That's all I have to say."
At the Ipperwash Inquiry in 2005, Harnick said Harris had in fact uttered the phrase that Wildman asked about in 1996. Harnick admitted that he had lied to the legislature out of loyalty and friendship to Harris, adding that he was under oath at the inquiry, not in the legislature."
Harnick was responsible for the creation of the Ontario Mandatory Mediation Program and
Legal Aid Ontario
Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) is a publicly funded and publicly accountable non-profit corporation, responsible for administering the legal aid program in the province of Ontario, Canada. Through a toll-free number and multiple in-person locations suc ...
. Harnick spent several years as a land claim negotiator and he is a trained and accomplished mediator. He was instrumental in bringing the major legal organizations in Ontario together with paralegal organizations, culminating in legislation that has made the Law Society of Upper Canada the regulator of paralegal activities. He did not run for re-election in 1999.
Cabinet positions
Later life
Harnick is a founding Principal of Counsel Public Affairs Inc. He is a former board member and Vice Chairman of St. John's Rehabilitation Hospital and he is an ''ex officio'' Bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada. He is the Senior Adjudicative Officer of the General Insurance Ombudservice, an independent service that adjudicates disputes between consumers and member insurance companies. He served as chair of the Police Costing Review committee in Toronto, and has been involved in negotiations relating to aboriginal self-government.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harnick, Charles
1950 births
Attorneys General of Ontario
Jewish Canadian politicians
Lawyers in Ontario
Living people
Politicians from Toronto
Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario MPPs
Canadian King's Counsel