Jason Gratl litigates at all levels of Court, including the Supreme Court of Canada, where he was counsel on Vancouver Sun v. O.N.E., Charkaoui v. Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Editions Ecosocietee Inc. v. Banro Corp, SWUAV v. Attorney General of Canada, Carter v. Canada (Attorney General), R. v. Smith, Ewert v. Correctional Service of Canada and R. v. Zora.
Jason assisted Robert Latimer in obtaining release into parole, expanding his day parole and securing his right to international travel while on parole. Jason contributed to preventing Shell Canada Energy from engaging in Coal Bed Methane extraction in the Sacred Headwaters (Tahltan) territory of Northern British Columbia, and secured a 4.9 million dollar settlement from three levels of government for approximately 90 children of missing women murdered by Robert Pickton. He acted in contempt and injunction proceedings in respect of Occupy Vancouver, the Burnaby/SFU Trans Mountain protests, Raw Milk, and Sea Shepherd’s video recording of fish farming. Jason’s work before the BC Court of Appeal in Unifor 2301 v. Rio Tinto Alcan contributed to expanding the jurisdiction of the Environmental Appeal Board, and ultimately led to a consent order that refashioned the safeguards on Rio Tinto’s sulphur dioxide emissions permit. Jason worked with Laura Shaver to certify and settle a class action requiring reimbursement of clinic access fees deducted from income and disability assistance payments of persons receiving methadone treatment. Jason worked to secure wiretap disclosure rights in the extradition context before the BC Court of Appeal in USA v. Fraser and defeated (at trial and on appeal) a nasty defamation suit brought by waste disposal company Revolution Resource Recovery. Jason secured compensation and repatriation for Gurdev Dillon, a permanent resident who served prison time and was deported after being wrongly convicted of rape. Jason recently negotiated a $15 million settlement for (mostly Indigenous) victims of an abusive social worker employed by the Ministry of Child and Family Development.
Jason worked as Independent Counsel at the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry (BC) to represent the interests and perspectives of affected individuals and organizations within the Downtown Eastside, and represented Transparency International at the Cullen Commission of Inquiry into Money Laundering.
Jason is a graduate of University of Toronto Law School, where he was awarded the Torys Prize in Private International Law, the Jeffrey W. Egner Prize in Labour Law, and the Ting Sum Tang Prize in International Law and Finance. In 2009, the Canadian Association of Journalists presented Jason with the President’s Award for his work in defence of free expression. In 2014, Jason was nominated for the Canadian Lawyer magazine’s Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers.
Before law school, Jason obtained an M.A. in philosophy from the University of Waterloo. From 2005 until 2019, Jason served as Adjunct Professor at UBC Allard Law School, where he taught a seminar in Public Law. He is currently engaged in graduate studies at the University of Victoria Faculty of Law.
Jason serves on the Board of Directors of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (where he was President of the Board from 2005-2008), Frank Paul Society, Centre for Environmental Law and Litigation and Radix Theatre Society.
jason@gratlandcompany.com