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Robert Donald Laing.Courtesy of family

Robert Donald Laing: Jurist. Sportsman. Family man. Bon vivant. Born Oct. 3, 1940, in Montreal; died Oct. 10, 2020, in Saskatoon, of lung cancer; aged 80.

Bob Laing used his catchphrases absently. You’d say “I’m going skiing,” and he’d reply, “That’s fair.” Or “I’m going to take my eyeballs out with an electric drill,” and he’d say, “Fair enough.”

But Bob was a fair man, who spent most of his adult life in pursuit of justice and the law. After graduating from McGill University, he joined the RCMP, became a lawyer, a judge and ended up as the Chief Justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench for Saskatchewan and awarded the Saskatchewan Order of Merit (SOM).

Early on, Bob’s eloquence earned him the label Bobby Bigmouth from one unimpressed teacher. As the only English-speaking boy on his block in Montreal, he quickly became fluent in French, if only to ask, “Veux-tu changez des comiques?” He loved a good argument and rarely backed down.

Bob made friends easily and kept them. At McGill, he joined a fraternity with a lot of foreign students. At Christmas, those who did not go home came to his parents’ house for dinner and a rousing party afterward. Calypso music would mix with traditional carols. In his third year at McGill, Bob quit to hitchhike to South America with a friend. They were arrested in El Salvador for crossing the border after hours and split in Venezuela when Bob ran out of money. He then worked as a waiter in Trinidad to earn enough money to return home and finish his degree.

The week Bob graduated at the top of his law-school class at the University of Saskatchewan he married Donna Sipko, a teacher who shared his sense of humour. He continued work with the RCMP in Toronto, but both of them missed the open skies of Saskatchewan. They moved back to Saskatoon in the late 1960s, where Bob joined a law firm. They had two children, Heather and Ian, who both followed him into successful law careers.

Both Bob and Donna loved entertaining. Bob was a generous host with a heavy hand at the liquor cabinet and Donna was a great cook. Bob could eat all day without gaining an ounce. His tastes were, to be kind, eclectic – including venison and single malt scotch, but also Velveeta cheese, which he mixed into scrambled eggs.

They were married 50 years. In the years before Donna’s death in 2017, Bob reinvented himself as a caregiver.

He worked hard, but he also used his leisure time well. Golf was almost a religion for him, one which Donna never shared. There were yearly golf holidays with friends in Osoyoos, B.C., as well as regular Saturday morning games in Saskatoon. When he and Heather and his son-in-law Scott built a vacation home on Lake Diefenbaker, it was … wait for it … next to a golf course.

Bob’s fall hunting parties in Northern Saskatchewan with his former fraternity brothers, who would travel from all over North America to attend, were legendary. One year, they were eating dinner in the RV they’d rented when smoke started coming out of the panels. While they were outside trying to figure out what was wrong, the fire reached their ammunition and the propane tank, triggering a series of explosions that brought the local First Nation to their rescue. Other hunting and fishing trips, often with his son, Ian, were less dramatic.

After Donna’s death, Bob enjoyed spending time with his granddaughters, Hannah and Sarah. Luckily, he re-met Joanne, a former neighbour who shared his zest for life. He planned to move to British Columbia to be with her, but illness prevented that. However, in the end, his only regret was that he didn’t have more time to enjoy life with her.

Bonnie Laing is Bob’s sister.

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Lives Lived celebrates the everyday, extraordinary, unheralded lives of Canadians who have recently passed. To learn how to share the story of a family member or friend, go to tgam.ca/livesguide

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