Aidan O’Neill practices primarily in the fields of copyright, media and communications law. Frequently advising on copyright issues related to the communications, education and media sectors, he has assisted clients with tariff-setting proceedings conducted before the Canadian Copyright Board.
Since 1987, Aidan has acted as legal counsel in a wide variety of proceedings before the Copyright Board to establish the royalties payable for the use of musical works, sound recordings and other copyrighted works by both private and public broadcasters, as well as for the use of published literary works by K-12 and post-secondary educational institutions, and provincial and territorial governments in Canada.
Aidan also advises a broad range of clients on their regulatory dealings with the CRTC, including the licensing of new television and radio broadcasting services, and the distribution in Canada of foreign satellite services.
Aidan regularly represents clients in judicial review applications arising from Copyright Board and CRTC decisions before the Federal Court of Appeal, and on any subsequent appeal proceedings before the Supreme Court of Canada.
Aidan’s experience also extends to legal issues related to Canadian constitutional law, particularly those affecting the protection of official language rights. He has represented clients before both federal and provincial courts in relation to the linguistic guarantees set out in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Official Languages Act
Aidan is a member of both the Québec and Ontario Bars, which he joined in 1982 and 1985 respectively.
During the 2017 winter term, Aidan taught the introductory copyright law course at the Faculty of Law at Queen's University.
