Marc Noël, a former tax lawyer and judge of the Federal Court of Appeal, has been appointed chief justice of the appeal court.
Noël replaces the Pierre Blais, who retired on June 23.
Tax lawyer Steve Suarez of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP worked with Noël at the Montreal tax boutique firm Verchere Noël & Eddy in the late 1980s.
“I’m delighted to see a highly respected jurist with a very strong tax background chosen to lead the Federal Court of Appeal, which is a critically important court in the world of federal tax as it hears appeals from the Tax Court of Canada,” says Suarez.
Prior to his appointment to the Federal Court in 1992, Noël was a partner in the Montreal office of Bennett Jones Verchere. He also served as governor of the Canadian Tax Foundation and as president of the Canadian Bar Association tax subsection for Quebec.
University of Ottawa law professor Vern Krishna, who is counsel at TaxChambers LLP in Toronto, says he has appeared before Noël and notes he is “a respected jurist.”
“Professionally speaking, this is a laudable appointment,” he says.
Noël was appointed to the Federal Court of Canada, trial division, as it was then, and ex officio member of the Court of Appeal and judge of the Court Martial Appeal Court in 1992. He was appointed a member of the Competition Tribunal in 1993 and judge of the then-Federal Court, Appeal Division in 1998. It became known as the Federal Court of Appeal in 2003.
Noël graduated from the University of Ottawa with a BA, both common and civil law degrees, and was called to the bars of Quebec and Ontario. In 1990, he was appointed Queen’s Counsel.
