Bob Rae is an arbitrator and mediator with ADR Chambers.
Mr. Rae is a Canadian lawyer, diplomat, and former politician whose career spans senior roles in public office, law, and international diplomacy. He built a distinguished career as a mediator, arbitrator, educator, and advocate on issues such as Indigenous rights, humanitarian crises, and constitutional reform and has consulted widely on issues of public policy both in Canada and worldwide.
In the late 1970s, Mr. Rae began his parliamentary career as a federal MP before shifting to provincial politics in Ontario. In 1990, he became leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party government and served as the province’s 21st Premier. He later entered federal politics as a Member of Parliament and served as interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.
In 2005, Mr. Rae was appointed a special advisor to the Canadian Minister of Public Safety on the Air India bombing of 1985. His report, Lessons to be Learned, was published in November of 2005 and led to his further appointment as Independent Counsellor to the Prime Minister of Canada and Chair of the Air India Inquiry and review.
In 2020, Mr. Rae was appointed Canada’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, where he has focused on global health, peacebuilding, human rights, and multilateral cooperation.
Mr. Rae has maintained a distinguished legal career. He has practiced at leading Canadian law firms, including Goodmans LLP, Torys LLP, and Olthuis Kleer Townshend LLP, where his work has focused on public law, governance, and Indigenous rights.
Mr. Rae is a former panel member of the Canadian Internal Trade Disputes Tribunal, and is on the international commercial arbitrators list of the Canadian Council for International Business. He was also the founding President of the Forum of Federations, and has served on many boards and commissions, both public and private. Mr. Rae completed a review of Ontario’s Postsecondary School Education for the Ontario Provincial government, with a report entitled Ontario: A Leader in Learning, which in turn led to significant policy and budgetary changes.
Mr. Rae has a B.A. and an LL.B. from the University of Toronto, and was a Rhodes Scholar from Ontario in 1969. He obtained a B.Phil degree from Oxford University in 1971 and was named Queen’s Counsel in 1984. In 2000 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada and appointed an Officer of the Order of Ontario in 2004. He has received numerous honourary degrees and awards from colleges and universities in Canada and overseas. He has written a number of books: From Protest to Power: Personal Reflections on a Life in Politics (1996), Three Questions: Prosperity and the Public Good (1998), Canada in the Balance (2006), Exporting Democracy: The Risks and Rewards of Pursuing a Good Idea (2010), What’s Happened to Politics? (2016), and Bob Rae – Learning from the Past, Imagining the Future: Reflections from a Political Life (2023).
