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PAGE 2 NEWS January 11, 2010 • Law Times Ont., from their counselling ser- Lawyers cry foul as funding for Cornwall victims ends T BY TIM SHUFELT Law Times he province is scheduled to cut off victims of child sexual abuse in Cornwall, vices this week, a move that has dismayed victims' advocates. As part of the Cornwall in- quiry into historic allegations of widespread sexual abuse in the eastern Ontario community, the province funded counselling for survivors who may be forced to relive their trauma. Against the recommenda- tions of the inquiry's commis- sioner, that funding is set to end on Friday. "It's very puzzling," says Da- vid Bennett, who represented the Men's Project, a counsel- ling organization for male survivors, at the inquiry. "We've got the rec- ommendations and we've got the attorney general all of a sudden doing nothing." 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Cutting-edge legal affairs, news and commentary for just 37¢ a day! Make the time for Law Times and keep up with all the developments in Ontario's legal scene. Subscribe today and receive: • Unlimited access to the Law Times digital editions and to our digital edition archives...FREE • Canadian Legal Newswire, a weekly e-newsletter from the editors of Law Times and Canadian Lawyer...FREE www.mckellar.com www.mckellar.com 1-800-265-8381 $3.55 • Vol. 20, No. 13 Covering Ontario's Legal Scene April 20, 2009 BY ROBERT TODD Law Times F dicial Council's decision to call for his ouster, saying he was compelled to resign due to his pending retire- ment, despite finding aspects of the council's report "troublesome." Cosgrove tells Law Times in an interview that once the CJC issued its recommendation to the justice minister, "My options were pretty narrow." While he believes he could have appealed an earlier committee report at ormer Ontario Superior Court justice Paul Cosgrove has spo- ken out on the Canadian Ju- month after the CJC issued a final re- port stating that his actions in a late- Cosgrove people in public office, and they were given little weight, according to the decision." Cosgrove's final criticism is the CJC's determination that the issue of public confidence was central to its decision. He suggests that it remains unclear what evidence is required to make such a determination. inquiry the Federal Court, he says a decision was un- likely before his mandatory retire- ment took hold in December. resigned earlier this Former Superior Court justice Paul Cosgrove tells Law Times that his pending mandatory retirement compelled him to resign from the bench rather than battle a call for his ouster. 1990s murder trial led to the conclusion that he "failed in the execution of the duties of his judi- cial office and that public confidence in his abil- ity to discharge those duties in future has been irrevocably lost." The decision made him only the second federal judge to meet such a fate. But the former judge says parts of the CJC's the senior regional judges in Ottawa since I've been here for the last 24 years, all wrote very positive recommendations, and they also were aware of the trial," says Cosgrove. "So to say that these letters, the people had final report could have been challenged. The council did not use a set of 32 letters of given rise for us to challenge," he says. "The problem with that is, of course I'm retired — manda- tory retirement in December of this year. And the process, for ex- ample, dealing with the constitu- tional issue, took three years." He says he did not want to "So, all of those issues may have Financial Matters with 20,000 pages of evidence likely put forth. The 74-year-old former judge, who will gamble and let the matter play out before Parliament, where an un- precedented joint resolution would have been required to finalize his ouster. Doing so may have proved cumbersome, suggests Cosgrove, no knowledge of what was going on was not accurate." Cosgrove also suggests the council should support written by judges and retired judges, law- yers, and members of the public when coming to its decision, saying they were irrelevant, he notes. "Personally, I found that difficult because, for example, there were my supervising judges, have used the letters from community mem- bers when considering whether he had lost the public's confidence. "It would seem to me that it's logical to test collect an annual pension of about $170,000, says that before the decision he was reason- ably confident that the council would not call for his dismissal. Independent counsel Earl Cherniak, a partner at Lerners LLP, had previ- ously told the council such a stern punishment was not necessary. "It was shock and disappointment," Cos- what the public's demeanour is; you ask people who are knowledgeable in the public," he says. "And there were a number of letters from See Cosgrove, page 4 9 Focus On ADR/ Mediation together we have all the tools. TitlePLUS title insurance and you, TitlePLUS title insurance and you, together we have all the tools Inside This Issue 3 Fight Over Fees 6 Quote of the week grove says of his reaction to the final decision. He says he has been dealing with the fall- out by responding to media inquiries, and BY TIM NAUMETZ For Law Times OTTAWA — The possible closure of McCarthy Tétrault LLP's high- profile office in the nation's capital is unrelated to dire economic cir- cumstances that have hit home for some Canadian law firms, a senior McCarthys partner says. zation we review our business plans on an ongoing basis," Boake tells Law Times when asked of the Ot- tawa office closure possibility. She adds the firm wants to meet the needs of its clients, and that each of its offices have a practice and focus which aligns with McCarthys' over- all strategy. "So it's in that context "Yeah, I guess, like any organi- staff, remains undecided. "It's really just a question of the fact that we are in discussion with lawyers there as part of an overall strategic review," she tells Law Times. "These discussions have been decisions" because of a drop in busi- ness due to the economy, letting go less than 20 of its 650 lawyers across the country. She would not give the specific number or other details. Gowling Lafleur Henderson going on for a while and are not related to the economy," she says. "I would call it a strategic review. Our firm really focuses on integrat- The financial crisis that has hit directly New York and London, being financial centres of the world, and the financial institutions based there, has not hit to the same degree in Canada, primarily because of the strength of the financial institutions in Canada. McCarthys' Ottawa contingent is a "strategic review" based on the firm's national business plan, and the role played by all of its six loca- tions across Canada, says Barbara Boake, national leader, profession- als, at McCarthy Tétrault. Consideration of the future of that we're currently reviewing the Ottawa office, but no decision has been made to close it," she says. Boake would not divulge fur- ther details and said the fate of the office, along with the employ- ment of its seven partners, two associates, and 11 administrative ed practices; we have offices right across the country. We have a very diversified practice geographically and our overall strategy is to inte- grate those practices and develop client teams on a firm-wide basis." Boake, however, confirmed Mc- Carthys has taken "difficult staffing "It is now incumbent on sports federations in selection disputes to show they had the proper criteria set up and that it was properly applied . . . The onus is now on the organiza- tion not the athlete. It wasn't quite as clear a few years ago." LLP also confirmed to Law Times the firm released staff last week. But Gowlings chairman and CEO Scott Jolliffe said the shakeup did not involve partners or associ- ates. Jolliffe says the firm is shifting toward a "pod" model where law- yers and associates share a smaller number of secretaries, but he would not say how many were affected. The move not only economizes, but also creates a team atmosphere among secretaries that is useful for mentoring and sharing workloads. Sources in the legal community say McCarthy Tétrault's Ottawa re- view may be related to a management See Ottawa, page 4 WHICH DIRECTION IS BEST FOR YOU? RainMaker Group 110 Yonge Street, Suite 1101 Toronto, Ontario M5C 1T4 Tel: 416-863-9543 Fax: 416-863-9757 www.rainmakergroup.ca www.lawtimesnews.com inquiry submitted its report to the province after an almost four- year investigation into institutional re- sponses to years of abuse allega- tions at a cost of $53 million. In 1992, a man came forward to complain a Catholic priest and a probation offi cer had sexually abused him when he was an altar boy in Cornwall. Many other complainants, 'We've got the recommendations and we've got the attorney general all of a sud- den doing nothing,' says David Bennett. several of them men, later came forward with similar tales. In recognition of the complex emotional issues that testifying before the inquiry may resurrect for victims, the inquiry made counselling services available to survivors and their families. While the Cornwall area al- ready had many counselling re- sources, like other cities, few were geared towards helping male vic- tims, Bennett says. Th e Men's Project received of- fi cial standing at the inquiry and established a Cornwall branch, he says. "Th ere are almost no specifi c services aimed at men," Bennett explains. "Men react diff erently. Th ey're more reluctant to talk about it because of socialization." Having specialized services available to those men involved with the inquiry was of immea- surable value, he adds. A total of 388 individuals were approved for counselling by the inquiry at a cost of approxi- mately $3 million by the end of the 2008-09 fi scal year. In his fi nal report, inquiry Commissioner G. Normand Glaude, noting that more than 150 individuals were still actively using the services, called for an extension of funding for coun- selling over a fi ve-year period. Attorney General Chris Bent- ley has said he would wait for the commissioner's recommenda- tions on the issue before making a decision. "I would have thought they q Send me 1 year of Law Times for only $135.00 (Total with GST: $141.75) Name: __________________________________________________________________________ Company: _______________________________________________________________________ Address: ________________________________________________________________________ City: ____________________________ Prov: _______________ Postal Code: __________________ Tel: ( ) _______________________ Fax: ( ) ______________________ Email: ____________________________________________________________________________ q Payment enclosed q Charge my: q Visa q Mastercard q American Express Card #: __________________________________ Expiry Date: ___ / ___ (mm/yy) Signature (required): ________________________________________________ Date: ________________ 240 Edward St. Aurora, ON. L4G 3S9 Tel: (905) 727-0077 Fax: (905) 841-4357 Mail or fax this form to Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com LT_1-4sub.indd 1 12/16/09 11:04:45 AM would want to maintain the status quo in the interim," Bennett says. But it appears as though the province is inexplicably going to cut funding for counselling services in Cornwall back to pre-inquiry levels, he adds. When asked if funding will end this week as scheduled, the Ministry of the Attorney General said in an e-mailed re- sponse that it is still reviewing the recommendations. For a period of six months, it will provide funding to the Family Counselling Centre of Cornwall & United Counties to meet with survivors and as- sess their needs. "Th e centre will be provid- ing counselling services and will work with other community agencies to co-ordinate referrals to existing counselling services," a ministry spokesman said. However, as Glaude noted, those existing services are inad- equate to handle the demand. "Th ere was some capacity in the Cornwall area to absorb counselling clients, more for women than for men, but it would be unrealistic and unfair to expect the absorption of up to 150 clients," Glaude wrote. "In addition, having to switch counsellors would be a setback for many individuals and lead to very serious outcomes for some, such as harm to themselves or others or a return to debilitating addictions." Dallas Lee, a London, Ont., lawyer who represented a group of about 50 victims at the inquiry, says dozens of his clients who re- ceived counselling are concerned they are going to be cut off . "Th e fact that everybody has been left hanging is really bother- ing my clients," Lee says. Th ose clients are perplexed that they may not be able to continue with counselling ses- sions, especially considering that the inquiry was so "survi- vor friendly," he notes. But Lee has high praise for the work of the inquiry itself and the commissioner's recom- mendations. Among the most important aspects of the report is the no- tion that historic sexual abuse complaints should be treated with the same priority as recent allegations, Lee says. "Th at hasn't always been the case. And that's where cases re- ally fall apart." Further, when authorities be- come aware of rumours of sexu- al abuse, they need to act on the information early despite pos- sible liability issues, Lee adds. "At some point, privacy con- cerns have to take a back seat over the protection of children." Among the recommendations for the province and Crown at- torneys on how to properly pros- ecute sexual abuse cases, most of them related to simple policies and procedures, according to Lee. For example, Crowns should communicate properly with in- vestigating offi cers and must keep complainants apprised of how matters are proceeding. "It sounds ridiculous, but these are the things we're dealing with," Lee says. LT www .lawtimesnews.com Includes a FREE digital edition! 'Shock and disappointment' Cosgrove says 'life goes on' after the bench Future uncertain for McCarthys' Ottawa office

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