Michel Huart

L. Michel Huart joined the firm in 2006 after many years in the railway industry, which led him to a position as General Counsel for Canadian National (CN). He has solid expertise in transportation law at both the contractual and regulatory levels. Over the years, he has been involved in a number of binding arbitration and mediation cases. He has practical experience managing projects requiring environmental approval or environmental impact assessments, and has shepherded many such applications through the regulatory approval process. He has also been involved in environmental incident management and environmental assessments.

Michel boasts an impressive railway industry career. He was Solicitor for the Canada Labour Relations Board and for the Canadian Transport Commission, then joined VIA Rail shortly after its creation in 1978. At VIA, he was Solicitor and Deputy General Secretary until 1984, when he became VIA’s General Superintendent, Transportation, for Québec. He later held the position of Director, Internal Audit and Special Examination.

Recruited by CN in 1989 as Legal Advisor, Michel went on to become General Counsel. In this capacity, he was in charge of legal issues related primarily to Operations, Marketing, Environment and Risk Management for Canada. He represented CN before the Canadian Transportation Agency, the Federal Court of Appeal, and the Standing Committee on Transport with respect to the proposed revision of the Railway Safety Act. He also appeared before a number of judicial review bodies to challenge decisions by health and safety officers and Transport Canada officials.

For several years, Michel gave a 45-hour course on environmental legal issues and environmental assessments at the continuing education department of the École Polytechnique in Montréal.