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October 27, 2008

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Law Times Earlug Ad 1/16/08 4:06 McKELLAR STRUCTURED SETTLEMENTS INC. www.mckellar.com 1-800-265-8381 www.mckellar.com ckellar_LT_Jan14_08.indd 1 $3.55 • Vol. 19, No. 331/8/08 3:03:02 PM Covering Ontario's Legal Scene Lawyer battles complaints for a decade A 'My practice has been ruined' BY JULIUS MELNITZER For Law Times Arnprior lawyer Mary Martha Coady. On March 3 the LSUC began to hear those complaints, and the disciplinary panel's decision is currently on reserve. Meanwhile, Coady's practice has been decade has passed since a series of complaints were filed with the Law Society of Upper Canada against listed as "restricted" by the LSUC. The professional misconduct allega- tions were filed by a number of clients and lawyers including — Coady main- tains — members of an investment group headed by her former husband, Ottawa lawyer Brian Boyle. The cou- ple's split was — to put it mildly — bit- ter and protracted. Throughout the disciplinary pro- ceedings, Coady has maintained, and filed information and belief affidavits, that the complaints against her are the product of a conspiracy concocted by Boyle and his alleged business partners — whom Coady alleges include other Ottawa lawyers and a former member of the judiciary. Mary Martha Coady says her name is 'blackened' but 'what's going to come out is that I've been telling the truth all along.' The alleged conspiracy found its origins in the course of her dispute with Boyle, Coady says, when she attempted to investigate funds hidden offshore by Boyle and his group. Money from these funds, she claims, were used to pay wit- nesses who testified against her in the disciplinary proceedings. None of Coady's allegations have been proven in a court or tribunal. It's not for lack of effort on Coady's part. She has tried to file complaints with the LSUC, against those involved in the alleged conspiracy, "but the law society refused to even open a file," she says. She also says that the RCMP has provided information to the law society regarding the off- shore funds, but that LSUC has refused to provide disclosure about this information to her, at least partly, it seems, because the disciplinary panel has refused to hear evidence about the matter. Undaunted, Coady applied to the Federal Court for access to a Royal Canadian Mount- ed Police file called "Project Anecdote." The facie case" required for what amounted to a request for an Anton Pillar order, did not exist here. In response to the RCMP's position that an application for access to information was a necessary precondition to her obtaining the information she sought, Coady pointed out that such an application would require signed consents from the investigation's targets — consents which were not likely forthcoming. LaForme quits residential schools commission A BY ROBERT TODD Law Times and Reconciliation Commission expressed shock last week at the sudden resignation of chairman and prominent Ontario Court of Appeal Justice Harry LaForme. LaForme, a member of the boriginal leaders and fel- low members of the Indian Residential Schools Truth Mississaugas of New Credit First Nation and the first aboriginal person named to a Canadian ap- pellate court, cited "an incurable problem" within the commission in a resignation letter to Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl. "The two commissioners are unprepared to accept that the structure of the commission re- quires that the TRC's course is to reports that LaForme attempted to rule the commission with an iron fist, one commissioner told Law Times that a story suggesting he demanded the commissioners call him "your honour" is false. The TRC was created in June as part of the $1.9-billion, class-action be charted and its objectives are to be shaped ultimately through the authority and leadership of its chair," wrote LaForme, who was appointed to the position in April. The letter contained the only insight made public by LaForme on his decision, and his return to the Court of Appeal bench seems to handcuff him from speaking further. A spokesman for the judge tells Law Times that LaForme will not provide media interviews on the matter, as per court policy. While it's been suggested in news settlement with survivors of resi- dential schools, who endured physi- cal and psychological abuse. Some 150,000 aboriginal, Inuit, and Mé- tis children attended the schools. LaForme told Strahl in his let- ter that, while he expected them to assist the chairman, the commis- sioners "have chosen to compete for control of the commission by insisting that it is to be run on the basis of simple majority rule." He suggested the commissioners had retained legal counsel to "formally demand that I change the struc- ture of the commission by agree- ing to their majority rule." The judge acknowledged that struggles often occur within orga- nizations and can be overcome, but said a further complication arose. "The reason is that they and their supporters see the TRC as Coady maintained that the file might contain exculpatory evidence regarding the allegations of professional misconduct against her by members of Boyle's group. She also claimed that the file might assist her in a proposed application for judi- cial review of a 2004 Canadian Judicial Council decision dismissing her com- plaint against Chadwick after he resigned from the bench in December 2003. But, earlier this fall, Justice Luc Mar- tineau dismissed Coady's motion. He found that the "extremely strong prima motion followed on a similar motion brought in February 2008 which was dismissed by Justice Michel Beaudry of the Federal Court. According to Coady, Project An- ecdote focused on the syndication of moneys for real estate development by a group of Ottawa lawyers, and impli- cated in proceeds of crime offences. On Coady's version of events, her former husband and his alleged offshore deal- ings were a central figure in that inves- tigation, as was James Chadwick, a for- mer judge of the Superior Court. Again, none of Coady's allegations have been substantiated. titleplus.ca 416-598-5899 1-800-410-1013 TitlePLUS title insurance and you, together we make real estate real simple. October 27, 2008 Inside This Issue 3 Slip and Fall 8 Focus On Trusts & Estates Law 12 Eye On Hamilton Quote of the week "I think as people get older, you've got this group of baby boomers who are aging and you're getting more substitute decision making than you would [otherwise]. So, obviously that's going to give rise to litigation." –– Megan Connolly, lawyer, Hull and Hull LLP See Tribulations, page 2 See Powers, page 10 primarily a truth commission," wrote LaForme. "Unlike mine, theirs is a view that leaves much of the work of reconciliation for another day." LaForme said he was forced to step down because the dis- pute with the commissioners was about more than "a case of com- peting visions open to debate and beneficial resolution." He later wrote, "I cannot stay through a five-year term with a commission in which incurable structural defects are coupled with . . . conduct that can only ensure that my vision for the TRC's man- date will be unrealizable. Such a commission is not one to which I can make a useful contribution." While it is being debated wheth- er the chairman and two commis- sioners are to hold equal authority See Shock, page 2 Tel: 416.322.6111 Toll-free: 1.866.367.7648 www.doprocess.com Industry leader in legal software for real estate, corporate and estates for over a decade www.lawtimesnews.com

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