Law Times

Law Times ��� February 25, 2013 T Page 7 COMMENT Legislative issues languish as Liberals struggle to keep power he politicians at Queen���s Park are finally back. But it���s almost as if they never left. It���s a bit of a puzzle why there���s a debate over the location of a casino on Toronto���s waterfront. For my money, there has been a casino operating at full bore down at that lovely stone building on University Avenue for the last decade. The only difference is it���s open to members only and they gamble with your money. That���s members only as in members of provincial parliament and last week���s speech from the throne was a signal from Queen���s Park that the big poker game is back on. So far, the opening gambit is anything but a gamble. Premier Kathleen Wynne says she���ll work with the opposition parties and focus on the economy, growth, and jobs. It all sounds nice. More interestingly, Wynne wants to reach out to just about every special interest group, including First Nations. ���I would like to acknowledge that we are on the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the New Credit,��� said Lt.-Gov. David Onley during the speech last week. Unfortunately, what it suggests to those Idle No More protesters blocking roads, rail lines, and the ice road up to the De Beers Victor mine is that they should just carry on because there���s no rule of law for them to the Condominium and we���re all on First and banning Nations land. Queen���s Act, under 18 from those The optics are awPark using tanning beds are ful. While Wynne on hold. As a result, talked about the vithe government must tal need to develop reintroduce the bills in mines like Victor and the new session. on the Ring of Fire in We are, however, the north where there going to see the impleare rich deposits of mentation of recomchromite, she has bamendations of the sically told the First Ian Harvey auto insurance antiNations there who fraud task force and a have already complained they���re not getting a big strengthening of consumer rights enough share of the riches that when it comes to door-to-door they can pretty well do what they sales, debt settlement services, real want with no legal repercussions. estate transactions, and mobile While it might be nice to be and smartphone contracts. The rest of it is predictable. all things to all people politically, what voters really want is leader- Wynne is leaning left towards ship. And we haven���t really seen NDP Leader Andrea Horwath who agreed there was ���enough lip anything yet. Nothing has changed since last service��� paid to the demands she fall. There may be a new name on had put forward as conditions for the premier���s door, but you can put her party���s support while Progreslipstick on Liberals and they���ll still sive Conservative Leader Tim Hube Liberals ready to tax and spend dak was unimpressed. The standing issues like the canthe moment they take office. The upshot is the government cellation of gas plants, the ongoing will table very few pieces of legis- problems at Ornge, the challenge lation. Even fewer bills will pass, of restoring labour peace with starting, of course, with the bud- teachers, and, of course, the debt get due this spring. And all those and deficit remain and will conbills from the last session are off tinue to provide rich fodder for question period. the table. So far, Wynne has telegraphed That means issues like modernizing the Ontario Justices of the road tolls and new taxes to pay for Peace Act, protecting homeown- transit and it���s fairly easy to predict ers from having their credit score she���ll raise corporate taxes to pay used in determining their home for programs Horwath is demandinsurance policy rates, revisions ing as her price for support. When it comes to high stakes, Wynne has a fatal tell. She���s predictable right down to the appointment of her cabinet, one she structured to pay back those who helped her win the leadership race by throwing their support her way even if it meant reneging on a promise to back Sandra Pupatello. Some of these folks can���t even keep promises made with their own people. Also as predicted, Hudak continues to distance himself from both Horwath and Wynne. He���s betting a clear, bold alternative on the right will be preferable when the parties finally face the voters. In fact, he called Wynne ���another McGuinty who will increase government spending by $285 million and take $1.3 billion out of the economy in the form of new taxes.��� His key messages include words like ���emergency,��� ���crisis,��� and ���urgency��� while demanding ���bold��� and ���decisive��� action. How long will Wynne hang on? Place your bets to find out. LT uIan Harvey has been a journalist for 35 years writing about a diverse range of issues including legal and political a���airs. His e-mail address is ianharvey@rogers.com. u Letter to the editor LAO ON WRONG TRACK We read with interest your recent story (���Toronto legal clinic in 3/1/12 4:39 PM jeopardy,��� Feb. 4) about the disappointing decision by Legal Aid Ontario to cease funding West Toronto Community Legal Services. The story rightly notes that LAO���s decision will have a significant impact on the housing help services that our clinic provides. However, these are not the only services affected. LAO is also proposing to close our legal clinic and instead serve west Toronto residents primarily out of its corporate headquarters far from the community. This model ignores the many distinct and powerful advantages of our current community-based, community-run poverty law clinic. Those advantages will be lost if LAO���s plan to defund our clinic is confirmed next month. Kier Munn, Board chairman, West Toronto Community Legal Services LETTERS.indd 1 Ditch the unconscious treadmill for radical self-fulfilment L et���s see if you recognize or perhaps even resemble a common scenario. you���re having so much trouble doing it? What if your practice made you You got into law school, so you have to go. You���re in law school, so The Lawyer miserable and anxious all of the time to the point of experiencing severe you have to finish. You finished law school, so you have to article. You depression and suicidal ideation? One client in this situation kept going to Therapist work while waiting for a crash to facilitate the change that was so necessary finished articles, so you have to get called. You got called, so you have to practise. You���re in practice, so you have to make partner. and yet seemed impossible to execute. In essence, failing was worse than Before you know it, 15 years have passed. After all of that time, are you dying. where you want to be or are you where you���ve ended up? While this logic seems disjointed, the compulsion to not fail is a powerful The legal profession is one of those spheres of professional endeavour in one for lawyers. It is, unfortunately, often more powerful than self-care and which one step can often involuntarily occasion the next absent choice or self-love. These individuals are highly critical of themselves. They judge the consideration of personal fulfilment. Working in the profession can be a themselves harshly for failing to surmount the blocks they find in the way of wonderful and satisfying journey filled with new and fascinating challenges, their fulfilment. Albert Einstein once said: ���Everybody is a genius. But if you accomplishments, financial rewards, and important and gratifying work judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that Doron Gold done on behalf of worthy clients. There exist few professions that offer people it is stupid.��� If what you���re doing with your life doesn���t comport with who you as much opportunity for meaningful, impactful, and interesting work as the are, you���re not stupid. You���re simply doing the same wrong things over and law. over again expecting, or at least hoping for, a different result. Having stated that, the difficult truth is that a great many lawyers don���t find Many in the personal coaching field describe personal fulfilment as a radical act. themselves either fulfilled or interested. They���re mostly just stressed out. In its 2005 To allow yourself the presumption that you have the right to pursue a fulfilling life survey, the National Association of Law Placement Foundation found that 48.1 per cent appears to be a frivolous fantasy to many people. People have children to feed, shelter, of supervised lawyers agreed with the statement, ���I feel stressed and fatigued most of the and school. Job markets aren���t always flush with opportunities that are ideally congruent time.��� Too many people who canvass the responses they get from lawyer colleagues or with a person���s most satisfying aspirations. In the face of this reality, it���s a radical act to get friends come away with the impression that there are a lot of dissatisfied or sometimes off of the treadmill and make a conscious change while unsure of where it will lead or even distressed individuals in the profession. Too many are where they ended up because whether you���ll succeed. However, in my experience, doctor and author Gabor Mat�� got they moved forward unconsciously. Some can���t fathom doing anything else because it right in his powerful book, When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress, when they don���t know how else to make enough money to pay for the personal and familial he illuminated the fact that people under extreme stress must consciously identify their obligations they���ve taken on. Some feel that their dissatisfaction with work is a personal stressors and change them or their body will unconsciously force that change upon them failing ��� a dragon to slay ��� and not a statement about what they ought to be doing with by shutting down and getting ill, whether physically or emotionally. It���s for this reason their professional lives. that I enthusiastically recommend people seek conscious and radical fulfilment over This dragon-slayer predicament is particularly daunting for lawyers. For many, when unconscious, cautious, and chronic dissatisfaction and eventual burnout. Living the life their intention to master their task, as a good professional should aim to do, clashes with you want need not be radical at all. LT their ability or seeming inability to carry it out, their first instinct is to persevere and overcome. On its face, this is a healthy and positive reaction. People shouldn���t simply give uDoron Gold is a registered social worker who���s also a former practising lawyer. He works up when confronted with challenges. Overcoming obstacles and self-doubt is very much with lawyers and law students in his private psychotherapy practice and will begin a new role an attribute of character. as a sta��� clinician and educator at Homewood Human Solutions on March 4. He���s available But what if what you���re doing is contrary to who you are as a person and that���s why at thelawyertherapist.ca. www.lawtimesnews.com

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