Category Archives: News Items

S Fine: The new face of judicial defiance

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SEAN FINE – JUSTICE WRITER

KITCHENER, ONT. — The Globe and Mail

PublishedFriday, Dec. 13 2013, 10:46 PM EST

Last updatedFriday, Dec. 13 2013, 10:46 PM EST

Justice Colin Westman still remembers when, as a young lawyer who had barely outgrown a pampered childhood in Shawinigan, Que., he first read the pre-sentence reports that contain the life stories of convicted men and women.

“It was like fiction,” the 70-year-old father of two tells a reporter in his Kitchener, Ont., office during a morning break from court. “I couldn’t believe the tragic backgrounds of some of these people. From the day they were born, they were behind the eight-ball.”

Today, after more than two decades of seeing a steady procession of those people, whom he calls broken souls, in his courtroom, Justice Westman has become one of many in several provinces defying the spirit, and sometimes the letter, of the Conservative government’s tough-on-crime agenda. Continue reading →

R Mendleson: Javad Heydary case prompts questions about law society’s policy of secrecy

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Rachel Mendleson

Toronto Star, published December 16, 2013

Embattled Toronto lawyer Javad Heydary has never before faced disciplinary action from the Law Society of Upper Canada, but it is impossible to know whether he has been the subject of previous investigations, because the regulator does not disclose that information.

That would not be the case if Heydary, who fled the country in November amid allegations that more than $3 million in trust funds was missing, had practised in Oregon. In that state, a list of every complaint lodged against lawyers, subsequent investigations and the outcome of those probes is only a phone call away for clients, journalists or anyone else who wants to know.

For the complete story on the Toronto Star website, click HERE.

Continue reading →

A Salyzyn and A Woolley receive OBA Fellowships in Legal Ethics and Professionalism

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The 2013-14 OBA Foundation Chief Justice of Ontario Fellowships in Legal Ethics and Professionalism have been awarded to Professor Alice Woolley of the University of Calgary Faculty of Law (Fellowship in Research) and Amy Salyzyn, a graduate student at Yale University Law School (Fellowship in Studies).

Professor Woolley’s research project will consider the significance of the lawyer’s status as a fiduciary in defining the lawyer’s duties, in particular duties of loyalty and confidentiality.

Amy Salyzyn’s project will study the ethical implications of lawyers’ pre-litigation demand letters.

The OBA Foundation, the charitable arm of the Ontario Bar Association, administers the fellowships.  The Fellowship in Research is a grant of $15,000, awarded annually to full-time teachers at a Canadian university or college.  The Fellowship in Studies, a grant of $5,000, is awarded to OBA members who are not eligible for the Fellowship in Research.

Media inquiries contact: Lee Akazaki  lakazaki@gilbertsondavis.com

Background:

The 2013 Selection Committee for the Fellowships consisted of two members of the practicing bar, Susannah Roth (Sullivan Estate Lawyers) and Jacqueline King (Shibley Righton LLP); and two members of the legal academy, Douglas Ferguson (University of Western Ontario) and Adam Dodek (University of Ottawa).  The Fellowship is administered by OBA Foundation Trustee Lee Akazaki (Gilbertson Davis Emerson LLP).

The OBA Foundation is the charitable arm of the Ontario Bar Association.  It raises funds for the advancement of education and the encouragement of research related to the efficacy, understanding and application of the law and legal processes, as well as the improvement of the justice system.  Established in 1987, it was previously known as the Advancement of Legal Education and Research Trust (ALERT).

The OBA Foundation is a registered charity and may issue charitable receipts.

 

 

M Love: Donation to charity gets Manitoba Crown fired

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Myron Love posted the story on Legal Feeds (the blog of Canadian Lawyer and Law Times), posted July 16, 2013

t may be a case that is unique in legal annals in Canada.

Sean Brennan, a Manitoba Crown prosecutor since 2000, was fired in early July after he reported a situation in which a leading Winnipeg aerospace company made a substantial donation to a charity dear to Brennan’s heart at about the same time that Brennan dropped charges against the company charged with failing to follow required safety guidelines — which resulted in a workplace accident.

“It’s an unusual case,” says Allan Fineblit, CEO of the Law Society of Manitoba. “This was not a situation where the lawyer personally benefitted. The money went to a good cause.”

Professor Arthur Schafer, director of the Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics at the University of Manitoba, however doesn’t see Brennan’s actions as differing substantially from any other “garden variety” conflict-of-interest situation despite the former prosecutor not gaining anything personally.

For the rest of the story on Law Feeds, click HERE.

T Taddese: Defence counsel not alter egos of clients: judge

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Posted on the Law Times June 3, 2013.

Yamri Taddese has an interesting piece on the Law Times website on the discussion in R v Faulkner that considers the relationship between client and solicitor.  Taddese’s analysis of Justice Michael Code’s judgment highlights the way in which “[t]he lawyer erred in thinking she had to get a green light from Faulkner before making every move”.

For the full article and link to the decision, click HERE.  

A Dodek: The Curious Case of the Non-Lawyer Attorney General: White Tiger of the Legal System

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On May 29, 2013, on the SLAW website, Adam Dodek recently posted his thoughts on the implications of an non-lawyer assuming the role of AG.  For the original version with some very interesting comments, click HERE.

Must the highest legal officer in the land be a lawyer? Surprisingly, the answer is no.

Recently, the B.C. Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal from a decision of the BC Supreme Court that held that the appointment of a non-lawyer Attorney General (the Honourable Shirley Bond) did not breach that province’s Legal Profession Act. In Askin v. Law Society of British Columbia, 2012 BCSC 895, Madam Justice Stromberg-Stein held that “the Legal Profession Act cannot be read in a manner which limits the Lieutenant Governor’s absolute and unfettered right to appoint members to the Executive Council and assign portfolios, including that of the Attorney General.”

One must admit that the petitioner had a point. It seems strange that the occupant of the highest legal office of the province could be a non-lawyer. It seems strange further still that this person is charged by statute with many important legal responsibilities, including acting as the official legal adviser to the Lieutenant Governor and to the Cabinet. Continue reading →

CBC: Articling law students caught plagiarizing

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From CBC News Online: Work stolen for ethics essay

Posted: Apr 24, 2013  12:51 PM CST; Last Updated:  Apr 24, 2013  12:39 PM CST

Two law grads have been caught plagiarizing an essay on ethics while they were articling.

The students were caught stealing material for an assignment that’s part of the bar exam process.

Law dean Sanjeev Anand sat on the Law Society of Saskatchewan committees that looked at the cases.

Both Darby Jane Bachynski and Joanie Stephanie Paquin were found guilty of stealing material.

In one decision, Anand quoted another case that said, “next to stealing, cheating and lying are the most egregious activities a lawyer can engage in.”

Anand writes that he’s mystified by the students’ behaviour.

“It is baffling why students who have successfully completed a law degree, in what can only be hoped is a singular instance of profoundly poor judgment, decide to gamble their reputation by cheating on what is acknowledged by most as a relatively straightforward evaluation.”

The students had submitted the essays last October.

But plagiarism detection software, used on all the essays that had been submitted, revealed that the papers were similar to an essay done a year earlier by another student.

Bachynski and Paquin must write a new ethics paper, write another essay outlining what they did wrong, and push back any applications to become lawyers by three and four months.

Grandfather of eyewitness in police assault trial files complaint against defence lawyer

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Written by Joe Lofaro, Metro Ottawa,  and published online May 7, 2013.

The grandfather of a key witness in the Ottawa police assault trial has filed a formal complaint against defence lawyer Michael Edelson, calling his cross-examination “excessively aggressive and intimidating.”

Norm Doucette filed the complaint with the Law Society of Upper Canada on May 3 after sitting in on the first days of the trial of Constables Thanh Tran and Colin Bowie.

The officers are accused of assault causing bodily harm during the Aug. 13, 2011 arrest of a homeless man, Hugh Styres. They have pleaded not guilty.

“Mr. Edelson repeatedly badgered and harassed my granddaughter over relatively minor details in a blatant attempt to upset and confuse her regarding events took place two years ago when she was only 17,” wrote Doucette following testimony from his granddaughter, River Doucette.

He also wrote that his granddaughter and daughter, Tasha, were doing a “civic duty,” when they reported the alleged abuse.

For the rest of the story, click HERE

C Schmitz: “Supreme Court of Canada to look at issue of ex-judges representing clients in court “

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By Cristin Schmitz and posted in Lawyers Weekly, April 12, 2013.  For the original article on the Lawyers Weekly website and photos, click HERE.

Should ex-judges be forever banned from appearing as counsel in their former courts – or indeed in any courts?

Charles Huband of Winnipeg’s Taylor McCaffrey, who sat on the Manitoba Court of Appeal for 28 years before he retired in 2007, doesn’t think so. Manitoba’s Law Society takes the same position — although the opinion of legal regulators across Canada is not unanimous. Continue reading →

Killer officer’s lawyer owes Ont. thousands

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Published in the Windsor Star – for the website, click HERE
The Canadian Press| Apr 04, 2013 | Last Updated: Apr 04, 2013 – 7:10 UTCThe Canadian Press| Apr 04, 2013 | Last Updated: Apr 04, 2013 – 7:10 UTC

An assessment of the taxpayer-funded legal bills of a former Toronto police officer who killed his lover has found that one of his lawyers overbilled the province by nearly $200,000.

Richard Wills was convicted of first-degree murder in 2007 for killing Linda Mariani then stuffing her body in a garbage can and sealing it behind a wall in his basement. Wills was once a millionaire, but he systematically divested himself of his assets, then ran up a $1.2-million legal bill to Legal Aid Ontario and the Ministry of the Attorney General.

The ministry asked the court to assess the legal bills of two of the several lawyers Wills went through and the court found Wednesday that of the approximately $770,000 that Munyonzwe Hamalengwa billed, about $178,000 was “excessive.”

The government did not pay Hamalengwa, who represented Wills on many pre-trial motions, for the last bill he submitted, so that leaves Hamalengwa owing the province $86,000.

The bills for the other lawyer, Raj Napal, have not yet been assessed and a lawsuit launched by the government to recover money spent on Wills’ defence was put on hold until both assessment proceedings are finished.