Fraser Abram McLeod Harland

Fraser has a general practice in civil litigation and public law, with a particular focus on administrative law and appeals. Fraser graduated as the gold medalist from McGill’s Faculty of Law, where he was also the recipient of numerous other awards and prizes. He then served as a law clerk to Chief Justice McLachlin and Justice Martin at the Supreme Court of Canada. Before joining Olthuis van Ert, Fraser worked as litigation counsel for Canada’s Department of Justice. He has extensive experience on public inquiries, having worked as commission counsel on the Ottawa Light Rail Transit Public Inquiry and participant counsel on the Public Inquiry into foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions.

Fraser has worked on a variety of public law matters including constitutional challenges, judicial reviews of administrative action, and statutory appeals.

Wright v. Yukon (Director of Public Safety and Investigations , 2024 YKSC 41: Fraser juniored Brent Olthuis KC on behalf of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association in this constitutional challenge to the Yukon’s Safer Communities and Neighbourhood Act , SY 2006, c7.

Mowatt v. British Columbia (Attorney General) , 2024 BCCA 157: Fraser was junior counsel (with Gib van Ert) for the Mowatts in this successful judicial review of a decision of the Deputy Attorney General of British Columbia to put land the Mowatts had lived on for twenty-five up for auction under the Escheat Act. The Court of Appeal agreed with the Mowatts that the Deputy’s decision was unreasonable in its disregard of the constraints imposed by the law of escheat and the factual context.

York Region District School Board v. Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario , 2024 SCC 22: Fraser acted for the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, intervening, in this appeal in which the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed the Charter’s application to Ontario school boards and clarified teachers’ privacy rights when searched by their employer.