Hon. Brent Cotter: Honourable senators, I served as the chair of the admissions committee at Dalhousie University’s law school throughout the 1980s. It was highly competitive to get in. There were 10 applicants for every place. Kim Pate, as she then was, was accepted into the school. George Furey, as he then was, was accepted as well.

Yes, we made mistakes. I take full responsibility.

One, though, that was assuredly not a mistake was the admission of a young first-generation Canadian, Meinhard Doelle, originally from Dortmund, Germany, who came to the law school in 1986. Meinhard went on to earn a law degree, a master’s degree and a doctorate in law and he became an outstanding member of the Faculty of Law at Dalhousie.

Tragically, Professor Doelle died in a car-bicycle accident in September of this year in rural Nova Scotia. He was 58.

Professor Doelle’s specialist area was environmental law. He was a beloved professor, an outstanding scholar and an adviser who was much in demand to local, provincial and national governments, including on the Muskrat Falls Project. He was an adviser to international organizations and a mentor to colleagues around the world. He provided thoughtful, calm, balanced and insightful advice to all who sought him out, and there were many. Tributes have poured in from his local community, from current and former politicians of all stripes and from friends and colleagues around the world.

Perhaps the greatest thing about Meinhard was that he was a wonderful human being, a loving husband to his spouse, Wendy Jardine, and a great father to his three daughters, Klara, Alida and Nikola.

The Doelles also have a special connection with the Senate of Canada. Meinhard’s daughter Alida worked in the Senate for former Senator Day and for present Senator Dalphond. She is close friends with Chasse Helbin and Luis Medina.

Alida shared this message with me about her father:

A side of him that his colleagues may not know is that he was an incredible father. He was always there for us. He made my sisters and me feel special . . . . He really was my best friend.

Meinhard was a marvellous individual as well in the way he lived his values. Committed to a better world, he rode his bike almost everywhere, took mostly cold showers, did his thinking in the dark — some of you probably think that’s what I do, too — and he loved peaceful, rural Nova Scotia.

Whenever I visited the law school over the past 20 years, his door was always open. And no matter what I was interrupting, I had the sense that he had all the time in the world for me.

Meinhard’s family, the environmental law community, Dalhousie and the world are suffering a tragic loss with his untimely death, and I will miss those little chats with a lovely, lovely human being.

Thank you.