Clayton Ruby, a lawyer who made his mark on important civil rights and individual rights cases in Canada, died Tuesday at the age of 80, his firm confirmed.
In a statement, Toronto firm Ruby Shiller Enenajor DiGiuseppe said Ruby died Tuesday afternoon surrounded by his family.
The cabinet said it mourned the loss of its leader and mentor, a “dedicated defender of human rights and of the oppressed, and a loyal friend”.
Over a decades-long legal career, Clayton Ruby has been involved in many landmark cases in Canada.
He notably defended Montreal doctor Henry Morgentaler, defender of the right to abortion, as well as Guy Paul Morin, who had been falsely convicted of the murder of Christine Jessop, before being cleared in 1995.
Me Ruby also represented the survivors of the “Dionne twins” in negotiating a settlement with the Ontario government, which removed them from the care of their cash-strapped parents in the 1930s. government then exhibited the quintuplets to tourists in a kind of attraction, in front of the family home. The sisters eventually won a $4 million government settlement in the 1990s.
He also represented Svend Robinson, who was present at Sue Rodriguez’s bedside in 1994 when she availed herself of physician-assisted death, illegal at the time. The federal NDP MP was ultimately not charged.
Mr Robinson wrote on Twitter on Wednesday that he was ‘heartbroken’ over the death of his ‘great friend’, a ‘giant in the legal profession, pillar of the progressive community, a good and honest man, a mensch’ (a “good guy”, in Yiddish).