Frank Roncarelli

Frank Roncarelli (October 1, 1904 - September 1981) was an Italian hockey player. He was a member of the Italian National Team at the 1929 European Championship and the World Championships in 1930 and 1934.

Roncarelli was born in Bologna, Italy, and raised in Montreal, Canada, where he learned to play hockey and attended McGill University. He later returned to Italy and spent 10 years with the pre-eminent HC Milano club (1926-1936).

He eventually went back to Canada. Roncarelli was one of Jehovah's Witnesses and a restaurant owner in Montreal. He used his wealth to provide bail security for members who had been arrested by the municipal government.

At the time, tension and unprovoked violence by the dominant Roman Catholic community against Jehovah's Witnesses saw increasing arrests of Jehovah's Witnesses for distributing their magazines without the necessary permits under a city by-law which was later determined to be unconstitutional in Saumur v. The City of Quebec.

Roncarelli furnished bail for 375 of Jehovah's Witnesses in three years, many of whom were arrested multiple times.

The Chief Prosecutor of the city, Oscar Gagnon, overwhelmed by the number of Witnesses being arrested and then set free by Roncarelli's intervention, contacted the Premier who spoke to Edouard Archambault, Chairman of the Quebec Liquor Commission. Roncarelli's liquor licence was subsequently revoked. Extensive testimony showed the government actors believed Roncarelli was disrupting the court system, causing civil disorder, and was therefore not entitled to the liquor license. Roncarelli was told that he was barred from holding a liquor license and that the action was a warning that others would similarly be stripped of provincial "privileges" if they persisted in their activities related to the Witnesses.

Roncarelli received news of the revocation in December 1946, and while he tried to keep his business open without the license, it was not profitable and he put it up for sale within six months. Consequently, he brought an action against Duplessis for $90,000 in damages.

At trial, the Québec Court of Queen's Bench found in favour of Roncarelli, however it was overturned on appeal.

In a 6-to-3 decision, the Supreme Court of Canada reinstated the trial decision, holding that Duplessis wrongfully caused the revocation of Roncarelli's liquor license.

The six judges who sided with Roncarelli used different legal reasoning to reach their decision. Three judges wrote that Duplessis had ordered the cancellation which was outside his authority as premier; two judges stated that although Duplessis had the power to order the cancellation, he had done so in bad faith; and the sixth judge concluded the premier was not entitled to immunity as a public official.

Roncarelli was awarded $33,123.53 in damages, a fraction of his claim, plus costs in the Court of Queen's Bench and the Supreme Court of Canada. Roncarelli's son, however, maintained that it was a significant moral victory in his father's struggle against the system.

Roncarelli's legal counsel throughout were A.L. Stein and Professor Frank Scott.