Dr. Donald F. Bur is one of Canada’s foremost constitutional law scholars and practitioners. He has produced two of the most authoritative and widely consulted volumes on the subject: Law of the Constitution: Distribution of Powers (LexisNexis, 2016), and Laws of the Constitution: Consolidated (University of Alberta Press, 2020).  He is also the Editor of Canadian Constitutional Law: Cases, Notes and Materials (3d ed.) (Butterworths/LexisNexis). Distribution of Powers is an 1,800 page treatise which deals with all judicial decisions on the topic at the time and illustrates that the courts can and must do a much better job in interpreting the distribution of powers provisions of the Constitution Act, 1867.

Donald has appeared as counsel before courts at all levels, including the Supreme Court of Canada, in important public law cases.

Donald was called to the Alberta bar in 1978, the Quebec bar in 1991 and the Law Society of Upper Canada in 1991. From 1991 until 2013 he was employed by the Ontario Ministry of Attorney General. He has taught the bar admission course for a number of years and practised at the Constitutional Law Branch of the Ontario Ministry of Attorney General. He now has a private practice that includes a number of constitutional cases.

He has five law degrees: an LL.B. (U. of Alberta), LL.M. (U. of Toronto), Diplôme (Institut international des Droits de l’Homme), B.C.L. (McGill University) and a Ph.D. in 1990 (U. of Cambridge).