Tony O'Donohue

Early life Born in The Burren, County Clare, Ireland, O'Donohue graduated as a civil engineer from University College, Galway in 1954.

O'Donohue was returned to City Council following a by-election after the death of City Councillor George Ben in 1980. He spent the next 14 years working to address the many energy and environmental problems facing urban areas.

In April 1989, O'Donohue moved a by-law at City Council to ban the manufacture, sale, distribution and use of ozone depleting substances. It was the first such legislation anywhere and became a model for other cities. As a result, he was invited to make a presentation on the Toronto by-law at the Beckman Institute of the National Academies of Science and Engineering, in Irvine, California. While there, he consulted world-renowned chemist and later Nobel laureate Frank Sherwood Rowland on how to help prevent the dumping of ozone depleting substances into the atmosphere.

In 1992, he presented a motion to City Council to adopt a by-law prohibiting anyone from lying, sleeping or blocking city sidewalks. He argued that the city paid millions of dollars to make sufficient beds available for the homeless and there was no need for anyone to lie or sleep on the sidewalks. The motion lost and sleeping on the sidewalks has remained part of the landscape in downtown Toronto streets.

In the 1994 Toronto municipal election, he was defeated in Ward 3 by 28-year-old Mario Silva. The result was very close and subject to several recounts before the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that Silva had won by 15 votes.

After politics Since leaving politics, O'Donohue operated his own company until 2004, Environmental Probe Ltd., which helped developers fulfil the requirements of environmental assessments and laws.

O'Donohue's son, Daniel, works for the city of Toronto as an evaluator of expropriated land.

Republicanism An active supporter of replacing the British monarch with a Canadian head of state, he was a member of Citizens for a Canadian Republic, before founding Republic Now and joining its executive board. O'Donohue made news in 2002 as a result of his legal challenge to the Act of Settlement barring Roman Catholics from the throne of Canada. He filed an application to the Ontario Superior Court, O'Donohue v. Her Majesty The Queen, calling on the court to strike down the discriminatory sections of the act as being in violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. His case was dismissed in 2003 and his appeal was subsequently denied.

Toronto Atmospheric Fund Following the Changing Atmosphere Conference in July, 1988, O’Donohue embarked a plan to make Toronto a leading world city in urban environmental issues. He convinced City Council to apply to the province for special legislation to set up the Toronto Atmospheric Fund (TAF). In December 1992, approval was given.

As a member of the City Executive Committee, O’Donohue convinced City Council that $23 million – 20% of the moneys received by the City from the sale of its Jail Farm – should be given to TAF and he was appointed chairman.