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Rick Dearden is a senior litigation partner in Gowlings' Ottawa office, practising primarily in the areas of international trade, media and defamation law, freedom of information, and administrative law.
Rick’s accomplishments have been recognized in the Best Lawyers in Canada, Legal Post’s Top 100 Canada-U.S. Litigators, the Canadian Who’s Who, Lexpert's Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada, the International Who’s Who of Trade and Customs Lawyers, and the Chambers Global Client’s Guide To The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business.
For over 30 years Rick has acted as counsel in anti-dumping and countervail inquiries, customs cases (classification, valuation, seizures) before the Canadian International Trade Tribunal, the Federal Court of Canada, the Federal Court of Appeal and binational panels established under the North America Free Trade Agreement. He is a former Chapter 19 panelist and served as Chair of one of the Softwood Lumber III panels. In addition, he provides strategic advice regarding trade and customs matters governed by laws such as the Special Import Measures Act, the Customs Act, the Customs Tariff, the Export and Import Permits Act and the Foreign Extraterritorial Measures Act.
He also served as Vice-Chair of the International Bar Association's Trade Law Sub-Committee and as a member of the ABA's Council for the International Law and Practice.
In his media law practice, Rick has acted as counsel in leading defamation trials and appeals, Canadian Charter of Rights freedom of the press cases and freedom of information cases. He has acted before every level of court in Ontario, the Federal Court of Canada, the Federal Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada.
He acted as counsel for the Ottawa Citizen before the Supreme Court of Canada in the seminal cases of Cusson v.Quan and Grant v.Torstar that created the new "public interest responsible communication" defence to libel actions in Canada. He served as Chair of the International Bar Association’s Media Law Committee and as a member of the IBA’s Council for the General Practice Section. Rick is a recipient of the President’s Award from the Centre For Investigative Journalism for furthering the cause of investigative journalism in Canada.  Rick was a member of the legal team that represented the Government of Mexico during the negotiation and implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. He represented the United States Trade Representative during the negotiation of Chapter 19 of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and the implementation of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. He provides strategic advice about the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization’s Agreements, particularly the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.
Rick has represented the Ottawa Citizen for over 30 years in defamation and freedom of the press cases and acted as counsel for the Right Honourable Prime Minister Stephen Harper in libel cases. Rick also acts for the Information Commissioner of Canada in access to information matters and acted for the Office of the Auditor General during the hearings of the Commission of Inquiry Into The Sponsorship Program and Advertising Activities (the Gomery Inquiry). Rick has spoken frequently to national and international organizations. A prolific author, Rick’s publications include The Free Trade Law Reporter, The Canadian Trade Law Reporter, a chapter in Freedom Of Expression And The Charter and papers published in The Law Society of Upper Canada’s Special Lectures. His articles have been published in Lexpert, The World Trade Law Journal, ImportWeek, the ABA’s International Law News, and the Canada-United States Law Journal. |
