Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer

Donald Buckingham
(LL.D., Dip. Int. Law (Cambridge), LL.B.)

Before assuming the position of Chairperson of the Canada Agricultural Review Tribunal, Dr. Buckingham acted as a private lawyer, government lawyer, law professor, author and consultant in the areas of agricultural law, food law and international trade in agricultural products.

Dr. Buckingham has been a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada since 1988. Between 2006 and 2009, he worked as a Legal Counsel at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC). In his capacity, he advised AAFC officials and the Minister on specific matters affecting agriculture and agri-food. His career as a law professor spanned the period 1990 to 2009 at three universities: the University of Western Ontario, the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Ottawa. During this time, he taught courses and conducted research on agriculture law, food law, constitutional law, administrative law, international law and tort law. Prior to 1990, he was a lawyer with the Halifax firm of Patterson Kitz.

Passionate about the various aspects of agriculture and food since he was a child growing up on a Saskatchewan farm, Dr. Buckingham pursued his food and agriculture interests in a variety of contexts and locations. As an undergraduate, he travelled to Africa to work in Senegal on an agriculture and reforestation project. After completing his Bachelors degree in French and Philosophy at the University of Saskatchewan, he went on to complete a Masters degree in development studies at the Université de Liège in Belgium. His studies then took him into the study of law where he graduated with a Bachelor of Laws (with distinction) from the University of Saskatchewan; a diploma in International Law (with a thesis examining the international wheat trade) from the University of Cambridge; and a Doctorate in Law jointly from the University of Ottawa and Université Montpellier 1 (with field work in Canada, France and Ghana culminating in a thesis exploring national and international legal dimensions of food labelling).

Dr. Buckingham is the co-author of five books, including Agriculture Law in Canada (Butterworths: 1999), and is the sole author of Halsbury's Laws of Canada: Agriculture (LexisNexis: 2009) and Halsbury's Laws of Canada: Food (LexisNexis: 2009), as well as an extensive array of chapters and entries in other books and academic journals. Born in Lloydminster, Saskatchewan, he has resided in Ottawa for the past decade.