Law Times

LAW TIMES 16 COVERING ONTARIO'S LEGAL SCENE | MARCH 4, 2019 www.lawtimesnews.com SITE LAUNCHED FOR SOP SUPPORTERS Toronto lawyer Corey Shefman has launched a website listing bencher candidates who pub- licly support the Law Society of Ontario's statement of principles requirement. Shefman, an associate at Olthuis Kleer Townshend LLP in Toronto, created the site statementofprinciples.ca amid controversy over the law society's rule that lawyers must complete a statement related to promoting diversity in the profession. Shefman says he created the website to make it easier for vot- ers to find information ahead of the April 30 election for the Law Society of Ontario's next board. The launch of Shefman's site comes after other candidates in the election said they were planning to run as part of a slate of people who want to see the requirement nixed. To be part of Shefman's site, candidates must publicly support the law society's Equality, Diversity and Inclusion program, as well as the LSO Statement of Principles. They also must be against re-opening the debate on the SOP, says Shefman. The website listed 32 candidates who supported the statement of principles, as of Feb. 28. "My fear was we'd have this organized group . . . getting out the vote and really organizing the opposition, while the rest of us sort of sat on our hands," says Shefman. TRIBUNAL DENIES BID TO SUSPEND LAWYER The hearing division of the Law Society Tribunal did not grant the Law Society of Ontario's request to temporarily suspend the licence of a lawyer accused of making, distributing, possessing and accessing child pornography. According to the Jan. 31 decision, Law Society of Ontario v. Rooney, 2019 ONLSTH 19, the licensee, Brandon Keven Rooney, may continue to work in accordance to his "very restrictive" bail con- ditions. The decision, written by tribunal members Janis Criger, Eva Krangle and Frederika Rotter, says Rooney's charges arose from chat messages, supplemented by pictures, rather than the "acts referred to during the chats." Rooney, a tax, wills and estates lawyer called to the bar in 2015, who is no longer employed, has restricted internet use under his bail conditions. ZORDEL TAPPED FOR OSC Gardiner Roberts LLP partner Heather Zordel has been ap- pointed to Ontario Securities Commission, CEO Maureen Jen- sen announced on Feb. 27. Zordel, who is also a bencher at the Law Society of Ontario, will serve a two-year term, Jensen said in the announcement. LAW TIMES POLL Some bencher candidates say they would scrutinize the Law Society of Ontario's $2,201 annual fee for lawyers if they are elected. Law Times asked readers if the fee is too high. A majority of respondents, 74 per cent, said the fee is too high for lawyers such as sole prac- titioners and recent law school graduates. A minority, 26 per cent of respondents, said the fee is reasonable when weighed against the total income of most lawyers. LT The Inside Story BY VIOL A JAMES COW-TIPPING T-SHIRTS NIXED OKLAHOMA CITY – The mayor of Oklahoma City is cel- ebrating the completion of a personal mission: ridding the city's airport of cow-tipping T-shirts, reports AP. Mayor David Holt said on his Twitter account that after months of trying to end sales of shirts reading "Nothing Tips Like A Cow" at Will Rogers World Airport, the clothing has sold out and won't be restocked. Airport spokesman Josh Ryan said the shirts with the shape of the state and a cow lying on its back were "pretty popular" for more than 10 years but that "the joke has run its course." Cow tipping is a largely debunked leg- end in which rural youths sneak into a pasture at night and push over a cow that is standing but asleep. Debunkers point out the practice is unlikely to suc- ceed, largely because cows don't sleep standing up. LEGAL TROUBLE FOR IMPERSONATOR HANOI — An Australian comedian who impersonates North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said on Feb. 25 authorities were deporting him from Viet- nam, some 24 hours before the real Kim was due to arrive for a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, reports Reuters. The Kim lookalike, who goes by the name Howard X, popped up in Vietnam's capital of Hanoi on Feb. 22 along with his part- ner who impersonates Trump, drawing crowds and media. The two real leaders were due to meet in Hanoi recently for their second nuclear summit. "Satire is a powerful weapon against any dictatorship," the impersonator told reporters be- fore heading to Hanoi's airport to leave the country. The impersonator visited Singapore in June, when Trump and Kim held their first summit, and performed satirical stunts. He said he was brief ly detained by authorities there. He also showed up at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Ko- rea, where he danced in front of an appalled North Korean cheer squad before security hauled him away. Vietnamese foreign ministry officials were not immediately available for comment. Howard X said earlier authorities had questioned him and warned him not to create any disturbance. Vietnam has tightened secu- rity around the capital ahead of the summit. Howard X said his partner, Trump impersonator Russell White, was allowed to stay on in Vietnam, but he was not allowed to do make any more public ap- pearances. TAX RECORDS DON'T LIE MADRID — Colombian singer Shakira has been called to ap- pear in a Spanish court on June 12 to face accusations of failing to pay 14.5 million euros ($21.7 million) in tax, the court in the Catalonia region said on Feb. 26, reports Reuters. A court statement dated Jan. 22 summoning her was published on Feb. 26. Prosecu- tors filed charges in December claiming Shakira had failed to pay tax on income earned be- tween 2012 and 2014, during which time they say she lived in the region. Shakira's representatives said in a statement after the accusa- tion was filed that the singer did not live in Spain until 2015 and had met all of her tax obliga- tions. The singer of "Hips Don't Lie" and "Clandestino" regu- larly attends soccer matches of her partner, Gerard Piqué, who plays for Barcelona. Piqué and Shakira, a couple since the start of the decade, have two children. Spanish authorities have pur- sued other major celebrities over tax. Piqué's Argentinian Barce- lona teammate Lionel Messi was found guilty, along with his father, of a 4.1-million-euro tax fraud in 2016 and was fined 250,000 euros as well as paying back the missing tax plus inter- est. On Jan. 22, Portuguese in- ternational Cristiano Ronaldo, who left Real Madrid for Juven- tus this year, was fined a total of almost 19 million euros for tax fraud. THE SCIENCE OF STRIPES WASHINGTON — Scientists are providing new evidence to answer the long-standing ques- tion about why zebras have stripes. It appears stripes make terrible landing strips, bamboo- zling the fierce blood-sucking f lies that try to feast on zebras and carry deadly diseases, re- ports Reuters. Researchers described exper- iments demonstrating that horse f lies have a difficult time landing on zebras while easily landing on uniformly coloured horses. In one experiment, the researchers put cloth coats bearing striped patterns on horses and observed that fewer f lies landed on them than when the same horses wore single-colour coats. "We showed that horse f lies approach zebras and uniformly coloured horses at similar rates but that they fail to land on ze- bras — or striped horse coats — because they fail to decelerate properly and so f ly past them or literally bump into them and bounce off," said behavioural ecologist Tim Caro of the Uni- versity of California-Davis, lead author of the research published in the journal PLOS ONE. Close cousins to horses and donkeys, the world's three zebra species, known for their black- and-white striped bodies, roam Africa's savannas eating a vari- ety of grasses. Their stripe pat- terns vary among individuals, with no two alike. There had been four main hypotheses about the advan- tages zebras accrued by evolv- ing stripes: camouf lage to avoid large predators; a social func- tion like individual recognition; thermoregulation, with stripes setting up convection currents along the animal's back; and thwarting biting f ly attacks. "Only the last stands up to scrutiny," Caro said. "Most bi- ologists involved with research on mammal coloration accept that this is the reason that zebras have stripes." African horse f lies carry dis- eases such as trypanosomiasis and African horse sickness that cause wasting and can be fatal. The researchers videoed horse f lies as they tried to prey on captive zebras and domestic horses at a livery in North Som- erset, England. LT Corey Shefman launched a website for bencher election candidates to voice their support for the statement of principles, after continued controversy over the requirement. Bizarre Briefs CREDIT: JAMES WESTON/SHUTTERSTOCK 5)&6-5*."5&4063$&For Today's Legal Profession 4VCTDSJCFUPEBZ Canlawyer.lawtimes@tr.com | 416.609.3800 | 1.800.387.51640OMJOF bitly.com/CanLawyer-Subscription 0/&:&"346#4$3*15*0/*/$-6%&4 ǎ JTTVFT print and digital editions ǎ '3&&FYDMVTJWFBDDFTT to $BOBEJBO-BXZFS digital edition archives ǎ '3&&XFFLMZFOFXTMFUUFS $BOBEJBO-FHBM/FXTXJSF THE TOP MOST INFLUENTIAL $ 1 1 . 9 5 A u g u s t 2 0 1 8 MAKING AN IMPACT MEET THE CANADIAN LAWYERS AND JUDGES WHO ARE SPECIAL SECTION: CANADIAN LAWYER 4STUDENTS P.51 CHANGEMAKERS HUMAN RIGHTS, ADVOCACY AND CRIMINAL CORPORATE COMMERCIAL YOUNG INFLUENCERS GOVERNMENT/ NON-PROFITS/ ASSOCIATIONS M PM AGREEMENT # 40766500 Untitled-17 1 2019-02-27 9:18 AM 74 % YES, I AGREE 26 % NO, I DO NOT AGREE

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