Happy as an Atlantic clam
We spoke with Basile Chiasson, Q.C., winner of the CBA’s 2022 Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award, about his journey from the shores of Shippagan to becoming one of Canada’s top legal researchers.
For Basile Chiasson, it has taken a long career, hard work, a great deal of help and a bit of luck to become what he is today: the 2022 recipient of the Canadian Bar Association’s prestigious Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award, being recognized for his contributions to academic legal research. Even though Chiasson’s grandfather Ferdinand Savoie never had the opportunity to learn to read or write, he and Chiasson’s grandmother Ida Poirier, who was a teacher, both instilled in him the critical importance of education.
He also owes a large part of his success to the support of an academic community that was determined to ensure young Francophones in New Brunswick had somewhere to study challenging subjects.
A seasoned lawyer, Chiasson has taught at the Université de Moncton and has a wealth of experience in academic research.
He grew up in the small town of Shippagan on the Acadian Peninsula, and can’t help but grin as he describes how his mother Anne‑Marie reacted when he told her he would be receiving an award for excellence in the legal profession. “She’s barely five feet tall, but with the way she’s been walking tall since then, you would swear she’s at least six foot six!”
He says he is honoured to receive the Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award. “It feels good to have all these years of work, research and action be recognized.”
Chiasson was called to the bar in New Brunswick in 1983. He works in private practice as part of Chiasson & Roy in Bathurst, New Brunswick. From 2012 to 2014, he was also an instructor of tort law in the Université de Moncton’s faculty of law.
He finds common law fascinating, a “particularly down‑to‑earth” legal system. “It’s not the exclusive realm of philosophers,” he says. “It’s a system that’s been shaped not by thought, but by practice,” ever since the days of William the Conqueror.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty in common law to research and ponder—an endeavour that Chiasson has thrown himself into with great enthusiasm, with regular publications in several law reviews and newsletters in New Brunswick and across Canada. “I just enjoy what I do so much. It makes me happy as a clam, and I don’t want to get out of the water!”
In addition to his published articles, Chiasson is the author of the Rules of Court of New Brunswick Annotated, now in its eighth edition and widely used and cited by members of the bar and bench, as well as the book Summary Judgment: The Shifting Culture. He is also the editor of the Solicitor’s Journal, a quarterly publication produced by the New Brunswick Branch of the CBA.
He takes a special interest in jurisprudence, which requires jurists to take a step back, analyze the situation and anticipate the future. He calls it exciting, then jokes that if you ran into him at the bar on a Friday night, you would probably think he’s the most boring person alive.
Chiasson fell in love with law in his first year of studies. And he is keenly aware that his career, accomplishments and teaching work would not have been possible if it were not for the Université de Moncton’s faculty of law.
Founding the law school and then the faculty of law in the mid‑1970s was an uphill battle, fought by the likes of former Supreme Court justice Michel Bastarache, the late Fernand Landry and his wife Aldéa Landry (lawyers both), and Justice Alexandre Deschênes. “Any time I receive an award or any kind of recognition, I never, ever lose sight of the fact that I owe it all to the Université de Moncton and its law school.”
A long‑time member of the CBA, Chiasson almost never misses a meeting. He can recall one Mid-Winter Meeting where Eugene Meehan, Q.C., a Supreme Court lawyer and former CBA president, gave a speech that left him deeply moved. “That day, he stepped up to the podium and told us how proud we should feel to be lawyers,” he recounts with emotion in his voice. “Proud of the role we play for people, individuals, institutions and corporations, and why we should be proud.”
He describes receiving the Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award as “a humbling experience, because when I look at the names of past recipients, I see people who were famous names in my law school textbooks. For a kid from Shippagan, I would say I’m in pretty good company.”
Company that would make his grandparents proud.
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The Ramon John Hnatyshyn award is given to recognize outstanding contribution in law reform, legal scholarship and/or legal research.
