BRIAN FLEMMING, LLB '62, CM, QC, DCL 

Brian Flemming, CM, QC, DCL, an international lawyer, writer and policy advisor, has been selected to be the recipient of the Dalhousie Law School Alumni Association’s 27th Weldon Award for Unselfish Public Service.

Throughout his multifaceted career, Flemming has given generously of his time and energy to many causes and organizations. In the 1960s and 1970s, while practising at Stewart MacKeen & Covert (now Stewart McKelvey), he taught the first advanced course in public international law at Dalhousie Law`School, wrote many legal articles, advised the Canadian government at the Third United Nations Law of the Sea Conference and lectured in international law at many universities, colleges and conferences in North America and Europe. He gave prestigious “name” lectures at the University of Virginia, Louisiana State University and the Technical University of Nova Scotia. He also taught commercial law for 12 years at Saint Mary’s University. In 2004, he was made an honorary fellow of the Marine and Environmental Instititute at the law school.

While a member of the Bar Council of the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society in the 1970s, Flemming founded the Nova Scotia Law News which is still published regularly by the Barristers’ Society. He was also active in the Canadian Bar Association and chaired the Maritime Law Section at one point. He was the founding president of the Dalhousie Law Alumni Association and, since 1985, has been the honorary national chairman of the association. He has been a Governor of Dalhousie, the first lay chairman of the Board of Canada’s oldest university, University of King’s College and a Trustee of Pearson College of the Pacific. He was national chairman of the successful Bicentennial Campaign for King’s that built and endowed the university library. King’s awarded Flemming an honorary doctorate in 1991. He and his friends endowed an annual lecture at King’s when he left the chair.

Brian Flemming (‘62) recognized for dedication to community and profession From 1976 to 1979, Flemming, at considerable personal sacrifice, interrupted his law practice and became Assistant Principal Secretary and Policy Advisor to Rt. Hon. Pierre Trudeau in Ottawa. He worked closely with Trudeau on patriation of the Canadian constitution and advised Trudeau to appoint the Macdonald Royal Commission. That commission’s report led to the negotiation of the free trade agreement with the United States.

He was an unsuccessful candidate for Parliament in Halifax in the 1974 and 1979 general elections. In 2000-1, he was made chairman of the Canada Transportation Act Review Panel, the statutorily-mandated decennial review of Canada’s transport policies. His report was widely hailed by the transport community and earned Flemming the 2003 annual National Transportation Week’s “Award of Achievement”. After the tragedy of 9/11, the Government of Canada appointed him founding CEO and Chairman the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA), Canada’s principal governmental response to that event. At his request, when he left CATSA, the organization endowed annual scholarship in his name. In 2005, he was appointed a founding director of the federal Advisory Council on National Security. He has been on the boards of many national not-for-profit organizations and has served on many public company boards.

Locally, Flemming has been a passionate supporter of the arts. He was the founding president of Symphony Nova Scotia and chairman of the committee that established the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra. He was a founding director of the Scotia Festival of Music, a director of Neptune Theatre Foundation and chair of the Maritime Conservatory for the perfoming Arts. In the early to mid 1970s, he was, first, a member, then vice chairman and acting chairman of the Canada Council, now the Canada Council for the Arts and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. He has also been chairman of several social welfare agencies in Halifax. His current passion is Halifax Humanities 101 which brings learning to low income and disadvantaged people in his community. He regularly attends lectures and events with the students of that program.

As a writer, he has written hundreds of columns and articles for local, regional and national newspapers and magazines. He has spoken at dozens of local, national and international conferences and meetings.

In 1989, Flemming was made a Member of the Order of Canada. In 1991, he was awarded the Canada 125 medal and, in 2002, the Queen’s Golden Jubilee medal. The Weldon Award for Unselfish Public Service, sponsored by the Dalhousie Law Alumni Association, was established in 1983 to serve as a tribute to the ideals of Richard Weldon, the law school’s first dean. The award will be presented to Flemming by the dean of law at the 2010 Schulich School of Law annual alumni dinner on October 22nd.