Richard Mahoney - Professional and Community Interests

Professional and Community Interests

Early in his legal career, Mahoney directed much of his energy towards practicing refugee law, in front of the Immigration Refugee Board and the Federal Court of Canada. After his law practice evolved into other areas, he remained involved as a volunteer, assisting a number of refugees including as volunteer counsel to the SOS Viet Phi, who remained stateless in the Philippines until 2005, Vietnamese refugees after fleeing their country in the wake of the Vietnam War. He also worked, for seven years, as a director of the Royal Ottawa Hospital's fundraising foundation.

Mahoney has pursued a number of personal interests at the professional level as both a lawyer, sometime lobbyist and business executive. He was a senior vice president and of Borealis Capital, an investment firm owned by the OMERS pension fund. He practised business, public, regulatory and immigration law at Fraser Milner Casgrain, one of Canada's "leading business law firms" and sat on the board of the Canadian-American Business Council. Mahoney has represented numerous clients, including Rogers Cable. He represents corporations from sectors such as "telecommunications, broadcasting, transportation, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, high technology and financial services." Mahoney's role as a lawyer and lobbyist while simultaneously hoping to become an MP was, at times, controversial. An article in the Ottawa Citizen reported Mahoney successfully lobbied the Liberal government to lower Canadian content requirements for Canadian Satellite Radio prior to obtaining his lobbyist license. However, Mahoney attended the event in question as a Liberal Party donor and the nonpartisan Office of the Registrar of Lobbyists ruled there was no wrongdoing and that he had not, in fact, lobbied the government. Mahoney, also, resigned his position at Borealis in 2004 to prevent a conflict of interest during his turns as a candidate in general election campaigns.

Mahoney plays in an Ottawa-area band called The 20th Century Boys. The seven-member group includes Warren Everson, who had a decade-long career in the Mulroney government, bass player Darrel Reid, deputy director of policy and research for the Prime Minister's Office and Scott Bradley, director of business development at Bell Canada. Fluently bilingual, Mahoney has been a resident of Ottawa and Denholm, Quebec for over twenty years. He is married and the father of three children.