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PAGE 6 COMMENT Law Times Group Publisher ....... Karen Lorimer Editorial Director ....... Gail J. Cohen Editor .................. Glenn Kauth Staff Writer ............. Robert Todd Staff Writer ....... Michael McKiernan Copy Editor ......... Heather Gardiner CaseLaw Editor ...... Jennifer Wright Art Director .......... Alicia Adamson Account Co-ordinator .... Catherine Giles Electronic Production Specialist ............. Derek Welford Advertising Sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kathy Liotta Sales Co-ordinator ......... Sandy Shutt ©Law Times Inc. 2010 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or stored in a retrieval system without written permission. The opinions expressed in articles are not necessarily those of the publisher. Information presented is compiled from sources believed to be accurate, however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. Law Times Inc. disclaims any warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or currency of the contents of this publication and disclaims all liability in respect of the results of any action taken or not taken in reliance upon information in this publication. .... Kimberlee Pascoe augusT 9, 2010 • Law Times Law Times Inc. 240 Edward Street, Aurora, ON • L4G 3S9 Tel: 905-841-6481 • Fax: 905-727-0017 www.lawtimesnews.com Publications Mail Agreement Number 40762529 • ISSN 0847-5083 Law Times is published 40 times a year by Law Times Inc. 240 Edward St., Aurora, Ont. L4G 3S9 • 905-841-6481. lawtimes@clbmedia.ca CIRCULATIONS & SUBSCRIPTIONS $141.75 per year in Canada (HST incl., HST Reg. #R121351134) and US$266.25 for foreign address- es. Single copies are $3.55 Circulation inquiries, post- al returns and address changes should include a copy of the mailing label(s) and should be sent to Law Times Inc. 240 Edward St., Aurora, Ont. L4G 3S9. Return postage guaranteed. Contact Jacquie Clancy at: jclancy@clbmedia.ca or Tel: 905-713-4355 • Toll free: 1-888-743-3551 or Fax: 905-841-4357. ADVERTISING Advertising inquiries and materials should be directed to Sales, Law Times, 240 Edward St., Aurora, Ont. L4G 3S9 or call Karen Lorimer at 905-713-4339 klorimer@clbmedia.ca, Kimberlee Pascoe at 905-713-4342 kpascoe@clbmedia. ca, or Kathy Liotta at 905-713-4340 kliotta@ clbmedia.ca or Sandy Shutt at 905-713-4337 sshutt@clbmedia.ca Law Times is printed on newsprint containing 25-30 per cent post-consumer recycled materials. Please recycle this newspaper. Editorial Obiter Time to address violence against lawyers L awrence Greenspon has suffered the effects of taking on unpopu- lar clients more than once. Most recently, his staff suffered abuse in incidents he believes relate to his defence of a client accused in the Ottawa firebombing at a Royal Bank branch. Those events escalated last month into an act of vandalism at his law office (see Law Times, page 1). It's not the first time he's had such experiences. As he points out, he's in- curred the public's wrath in past cases, including his work on behalf of Mo- min Khawaja, the first person charged under Parliament's anti-terrorism law. While it's not surprising, it's sad that lawyers should have to deal with such nonsense. Greenspon, of course, is merely doing his job, an important one given the presumption of innocence that's at the heart of our justice system and, in particular, society's overriding goal of avoiding wrongful convictions. Nevertheless, as B.C. researcher Karen Brown tells us, not much is happening to protect lawyers from violence and threats, particularly sole practitioners without the resources of a big firm or a government ministry responsible for Crown prosecutors. In fact, she says the big difference in Greenspon's case was the fact that it received police and public attention in the first place. Brown's own research from her home province several years ago showed there was considerable de- bate within the profession about the extent of the problem. Still, she says it's an issue that needs attention, par- ticularly since much of the problem remains hidden as lawyers rarely judge the threats against them to be serious enough to report to police. For family lawyer Victoria Starr, a key concern is the lack of discussion within the profession. "It's not some- thing we talk about, and maybe that's the first step," she tells Law Times' Mi- chael McKiernan. In Brown's view, the law societies should be taking the lead on the is- sue. For its part, the Law Society of Upper Canada says it doesn't have any research on it. So maybe it's time for someone — and the LSUC or a body like the Ontario Bar Association would be ideally placed to do it — to survey the profession on the issue. In that way, we'll learn the extent of the problem and what options exist for addressing it. Certainly, if violence is prevalent, services like counselling for lawyers and their staff should be available. It's important to note that it's not only violence and overt threats that we need to be talking about. Lawyers, particularly those practising family and criminal law, often find themselves subject to varying levels of abuse every day, whether from disgruntled clients or people on the other side of a matter. Such incidents can also be disturbing, making some sort of effort to explore ways of dealing with the overall prob- lem an urgent priority. Hopefully, then, the Ottawa inci- dent will spur some sort of response. The vandalism at Greenspon's office wasn't a particularly violent incident but it is a sign of a broader issue law- yers face. As Brown pointed out in her research in 2003, "with only a few sup- porters in the legal profession voicing their concerns about violence against lawyers, this issue might continue to remain hidden and unresolved. Per- haps only a catalytic event may cata- pult the profession into action." — Glenn Kauth T he Advocate, published six times a year since 1943 by the Vancouver Lawyers remembering lawyers That's Patricia Proudfoot, formerly Bar Association, is one of those traditional bench-and-bar le- gal magazines. It has a wine column, a lively letters-to-the- editor section, and always an abundance of anecdotes. It's also evidence that lots of lawyers still have a sense of pro- fessional tradition. A recent edition noted the centenary of the B.C. Court of Appeal by devoting itself to great advocates who had prac- tised there, not by bloodless official reports but through the reminiscences of equally dis- tinguished lawyers who knew them. So Thomas Braidwood, of the recent Braidwood in- quiry, writes of his mentor, criminal defence lawyer Ange- lo Branca. Jack Giles of Farris Vaughan Wills & Murphy LLP recalls senator Wallace Farris. of the Court of Appeal, writes of early woman lawyer Edith Paterson. Her fellow judge Martin Taylor, previously with Davis LLP, recalls the Ontario migrant who founded that firm, the redoubtable E.P. Davis. Just to keep a new genera- tion involved, an articling stu- dent, Kaitlin McKinnon, writes of Charles Hibbert Tupper, a founder of her firm. Tupper moved to Victoria in 1897 af- ter Sir Wilfrid Laurier defeated the federal government he had been part of. Tupper was MP for Pictou, N.S., which had re- elected him. But the Law So- ciety of British Columbia was less obliging. Tupper, though he was an ex officio B.C. bencher as a former justice minister, had to rewrite his law exams before be- ing admitted to the local bar. These were all B.C. lawyers, but many of them had national History By Christopher Moore careers. Charles Locke, for ex- ample, recalls his father Charles Locke, a leading Vancouver law- yer who, in the son's proud tell- ing, "vanished to Eastern Cana- da" when he joined the Supreme Court of Canada in 1947. Happily, it's not only B.C. lawyers who honour their mentors and predecessors. I have recently been looking into Learned Friends, a book pub- lished by The Advocates' Soci- ety in Ontario a few years ago. It consists of 50 brief profiles of "remarkable Ontario advo- cates" from 1950-2000. Some of the 50 were giants of the Toronto bar: John Robinette, www.lawtimesnews.com Arthur Martin, and Margaret Hyndman. But The Advo- cates' Society got out around the province too: Fern Grat- ton of Sudbury, Jack Mirsky of Ottawa, Alf Petrone of Thun- der Bay, and many more. Law- yer and journalist Jack Bat- ten wrote all 50 sketches but he drew on the memories of scores of friends, family members, and former partners for stories and personal glimpses. Do other professions do this kind of thing? Right now, law- yers' support for and participa- tion in legal history seems to far outstrip what any other profes- sion can show. Largely through the inspiration of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal His- tory, recent decades have seen a tremendous blossoming in serious, scholarly legal history. Much of it extends from law into political history, business, biography, women's studies, and other fields while showcasing some of the country's leading historians, from Jack Saywell to Constance Backhouse. Still, it's important that the history of the profession not be left entirely to outside schol- ars. As the profession and its law firms grow ever larger, oral transmission of professional lore becomes insufficient. Projects like The Advocates' Society book and the B.C. Advocate's special issue show there are still lots of lawyers who take an interest in where their profession came from, as well as where it's going. I have just one quibble. Why is it the litigators who seem to take the lead? Surely, solicitors' practice needs its storytellers, too. LT Christopher Moore's newest book is The British Columbia Court of Appeal: The First Hundred Years. His web site is www. christophermoore.ca.