Murray Rankin (born 26 January 1950) is a Canadian lawyer, politician and public law expert who serves as British Columbia's Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation. A member of the New Democratic Party, Rankin represents the riding of Oak Bay-Gordon Head in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. Rankin previously served as the federal Member of Parliament for Victoria from 2012 to 2019, with senior roles including Justice and Attorney General Critic, Health Critic, and NDP House Leader. From 2019 to 2020, Rankin was head of Canada's National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA), overseeing all national security and intelligence activities carried out by the Government of Canada. Previously, he was a professor of law at the University of Victoria, where he taught environmental and administrative law.
Background
Rankin was born in Belleville, Ontario, the only male of five children, to Eleanore, a school teacher, and McKinley Rankin, a teacher and insurance agent. He went to university on scholarships, grants and loans, completing his undergrad at Queen's University and the Université de Montréal and his law degrees at the University of Toronto and Harvard University, where he graduated summa cum laude with a master's degree in law.
Rankin is a founding member and former president of the British Columbia Public Interest Advocacy Centre, an NGO that provides legal services to marginalized groups in British Columbia. He is also former president of West Coast Environmental Law, past chairman of The Land Conservancy of British Columbia, and co-chair of the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria, a student-run legal clinic doing public interest work in environmental law.
Rankin is a vegetarian, lives in Victoria, British Columbia, and is married to Linda Hannah, whom he met at a founding board meeting of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee. They have two children, Benjamin and Mark.
Academic and legal career
According to the Vancouver Sun, Rankin "has fought for gay marriage rights in B.C., acted for governments, industry and First Nations on aboriginal land issues, and has taken a lead role on major environmental court cases in areas like sewage treatment, contaminated sites and environmental assessment." Rankin has appeared before all levels of court in British Columbia and in the Supreme Court of Canada. Rankin was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1999.
After finishing graduate school at Harvard Law School, Rankin taught at the University of Victoria as a professor of law until 1990. Rankin returned to the law school in 2004 to teach part-time as an adjunct professor of law, donating his salary to charity.
In 1990, Rankin joined up with his friend Joseph Arvay to become managing partner for the boutique law firm Arvay Finlay. In 1994, Murray Rankin was appointed by Premier Mike Harcourt as the lead treaty negotiator for the province of British Columbia. As treaty negotiator for the Province of British Columbia Rankin negotiated the first agreement in principle under the auspices of the British Columbia Treaty Commission with the Sechelt Indian Band. He also represented the Blueberry River First Nations in the negotiation of the first economic benefits agreement relating to natural resources revenues in British Columbia. He also advised BC Hydro in the landmark agreement with two tribal councils related to the construction of the Lower Mainland Transmission Project. Rankin also successfully defended B.C. Forest Appeals Commission's jurisdiction in aboriginal rights case before Supreme Court of Canada (2003).
Rankin joined the national firm of Heenan Blaikie in 2006 as a partner in their Victoria office. He left the law firm in 2011 in order to pursue an independent practice that focused on environmental, aboriginal and public law.
National Security & Intelligence career
While at Harvard Law School Rankin did his graduate thesis on freedom of information and national security matters and in the 1980s worked at the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris on Transborder Information Flows. Rankin was later integrally involved in the consultations leading up to the enactment of the federal Access to Information Act and Privacy Act (Canada). For his efforts, Rankin received the House of Commons Award of Merit for his contributions to the development of freedom of information and privacy. Rankin was later retained as a special advisor to Colin Gabelmann, the former Attorney General of British Columbia and was a key architect of BC's own Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.