Person

Forsey, Eugene A. (Eugene Alfred), 1904-1991

1904-1991

One of Canada's foremost authorities on constitutional law, Eugene Forsey was born in Newfoundland, and received his B.A. in 1925 and his M.A. in 1932 from McGill. He was a lecturer in economics and political science at McGill from 1929 to 1941, when he received his Ph.D. from the University, and won a Guggenheim Fellowship. Forsey was one of the authors of the Regina Manifesto of 1933 and a pioneering member of the C.C.F.; his socialist views caused some difficulties for him at McGill. In 1942, Forsey became director of research for the Canadian Congress of Labour, and worked for this organization (after 1955, the Canadian Labour Congress) until 1966. He was a member of the Canadian Senate from 1970 until 1979. Forsey wrote several books and essays on social, political, and economic issues, among them the Royal Power of Dissolution of Parliament in the British Commonwealth (1943) and Freedom and Order (1974). He passed away in 1991.