Eward Hearn’s education in, and advocacy for, Newfoundland and Labrador’s rights on hydro issues never stopped.
'The prize is worth the fight," Edward Hearn wrote in a letter to the editor of the St. John's-based Telegram in April, 2011. The lawyer's argument was part of a back-and-forth with then-provincial resources minister Shawn Skinner, about Newfoundland and Labrador's right to reserve energy from the Upper Churchill development under the controversial contract that has pitted the province against Quebec since it was signed in 1969. The 65-year contract allows Hydro-Québec to buy energy from the province at decades-old flat rates and resell it at several times the price.
In one forum or another, over one project or another, the Labrador City-based lawyer had been fighting the fight for decades. His knowledge of energy issues was rigorous and detailed. He could argue peaking plants, cost overruns, kilowatt hours, pricing methodology, export quotas, energy production estimates and 50-year amortizations.
He understood the complex and confusing agreements arrayed around a huge project such as the Upper Churchill or Muskrat Falls, and could frame them for the judges of the Supreme Court of Canada or the readers of a daily newspaper.
Mr. Hearn died on July 24 in a Toronto hospital. He was 65, and suffering from cancer.
"He was an outstanding lawyer," said Richard Cashin, a former Liberal MP and labour activist. He first met Mr. Hearn in 1988, when the organization Mr. Cashin headed, the Fish, Food and Allied Workers union, was involved in what he called "a major legal kerfuffle." It was ending its affiliation with the national United Food and Commercial Workers union to join the Canadian Auto Workers, and was being sued by the UFCW.
Mr. Hearn represented the FFAW for what became one of the longest-running cases in Canadian legal history; it was resolved in 1996, mostly to the FFAW's satisfaction.
Over his four-decade legal career, Mr. Hearn was approached by Newfoundland premiers Brian Peckford, Clyde Wells, Brian Tobin and Danny Williams to act on behalf of the province. He also acted for the cities of St. John's and Labrador City, among other clients, and appeared many times before the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Supreme Court of Canada
Edward Michael Hearn was born in the town of Brigus, on Conception Bay, on Oct. 4, 1949, the youngest of three sons and two daughters of John Vincent and Mildred Frances (neé Shea). He went to school there, then graduated from Memorial University of Newfoundland before earning a law degree at Dalhousie University in Halifax.
In 1974 he was called to the bar and then, in a bit of a pioneering move, chose not to work with a St. John's firm but headed to Labrador City for a practice that became Miller and Hearn, with law partner Art Miller.
Beginning in the 1980s, Mr. Hearn was involved as either a legal counsel or public activist on two hydro mega-projects in Labrador: the Upper Churchill; and the Lower Churchill, or Muskrat Falls.
In 1984, at the behest of then-premier Mr. Peckford, Mr. Hearn was among a committee of lawyers who appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada on the Upper Churchill Water Rights Reversion Act case. Their argument was unsuccessful – although this hardly laid the matter to rest, at least in the court of public and political opinion in Newfoundland. Twice the province has taken the issue to Canada's top court, and twice it has lost; a number of attempts to renegotiate the energy contract have also failed.
Mr. Hearn's education in, and advocacy for, Newfoundland and Labrador's rights on hydro issues never stopped.
In particular, he tried to persuade the provincial government to use Section 92A of the Constitution as a means to bring additional revenue from Churchill Falls to the province. As he explained in an interview with the Montreal Gazette in 2005, Section 92A would allow the province to tax Hydro-Québec for the electricity it used, if it raised domestic power rates as well. Mr. Hearn thought Newfoundland residents would accept this as a fair means to address the lop-sided revenue profit flowing to Hydro-Québec (about $1.7-billion annually, compared with $63-million to the province). He was unsuccessful, to his great regret.
In 2010 came the $7.7-billion Lower Churchill project, also known as Muskrat Falls. Avidly pursued by former premier Mr. Williams, and secured by former premier Kathy Dunderdale, Muskrat Falls raised all kinds of red flags for Mr. Hearn in terms of economics and predicted costs to provincial consumers.
He joined a group of concerned lawyers, including Mr. Cashin, Cabot Martin, Bernard Coffey and Dennis Browne, to found and serve as president of the 2041 Group, which advocated for more public consultation.
"The title is symbolic," Mr. Cashin explained: 2041 is the year that the Upper Churchill contract will expire. "We thought Muskrat Falls was a folly." In a letter to the editor in the Telegram in 2012, Mr. Hearn called the project, and the approval process, "deeply flawed."
Mr. Hearn also had considerable expertise with constitutional, administrative, aboriginal and labour law. He appeared frequently before the Public Utilities Board representing Labrador City and other Labrador communities.
He was a master of the provincial Supreme Court; past president of the Law Society of Newfoundland and Labrador, where he reformed and reorganized the professional legal liability fund; and was appointed by both the Conservative government of Mr. Peckford and the Liberal administration of Mr. Wells to the board of Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro.
An athlete, Mr. Hearn liked to ski, run and play hockey. He loved to be outdoors. He also loved to play bridge and to read, especially biographies; and enjoyed socializing, with good food and wine and conversation.
He leaves his wife, Grace Ann (née Gushue), daughters Mikhaela and Natika, and extended family.
Mr. Hearn's opposition was always professional, never personal. He argued in court or at news conferences but as far as he was concerned, animosity stopped there.
Whip-smart and generous, Mr. Hearn was "exceptional, understated," Mr. Cashin said. "I don't mean he was shy. He was quiet. People who knew him all marvelled at his complete honesty. He really was a prince of a human being."