Justice John H. Gomery

Justice John Gomery is the blunt, no-nonsense Montrealer leading the Gomery Inquiry, the independent public inquiry into the Canadian federal government sponsorship program scandal. Irregularities in the $250-million sponsorship program to boost the federal government profile in Quebec after the sovereignty referendum in 1995 have been in the public spotlight since 2002, when the Auditor General released a special audit and recommended RCMP investigations.

Commissioner of Inquiry into the Sponsorship Program and Advertising Activities

Appointed February 19, 2004. The Commissioner's report and recommendations are scheduled to be made by February 2006.

August 9, 1932 in Montreal, Quebec

• BA - McGill University, Montreal

• BCL - McGill University, Montreal

• John Gomery was admitted to the Quebec Bar in 1957.

• John Gomery joined the law firm now called Fasken, Martineau, Dumoulin in 1957 and specialized in family law, commercial litigation and bankruptcy. Gomery became a partner in Fasken, Martineau, Dumoulin in 1966.

• He was named Queen's Counsel in 1972.

• In 1982, John Gomery was appointed to the Quebec Superior Court for the district of Montreal.

• He was appointed president of the Copyright Board of Canada in 1999. His appointment was renewed for another three years in 2002. John Gomery continued as a Justice of the Superior Court at the same time.

• John Gomery has been active in committees of the Canadian Bar Association and the Quebec Bar.

• He has been President of the Comité Général des Juges de la Cour supérieure du Québec, President of the Family Law Committee from 1983 to 1993 and a member of the Rules of Practice Committee since its inception.