Law Times

PAGE 6 COMMENT Law Times Group Publisher ......... Karen Lorimer Associate Publisher ........ . Gail J. Cohen Editor .............. .Gretchen Drummie Associate Editors .......... .Helen Burnett Staff Writer ............ Robert Todd Copy Editor .............. .Matt LaForge CaseLaw Editor ......... .Jennifer Wright Art Director ............ Alicia Adamson Production Co-ordinator ..... Mary Hatch Electronic Production Specialist ................ Derek Welford Advertising Sales ........ Kimberlee Pascoe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kathy Liotta Sales Co-ordinator ............. Sandy Shutt ©Law Times Inc. 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or stored in a retrieval system without written per- mission. 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. Editorial Obiter Losing sight of the forest for the trees ere's what happens in Zimba- bwe: a protestor, with babe- in-arms, was arrested and chucked in jail with the infant. Given that she hadn't intended to be out for more than a few hours of demo-ing, the mom had only a couple of diapers in her bag. We all know — at least an- ecdotally — what babies "do," and be- fore you know it, the mother was fresh out of clean nappies. Fortunately, their family turned up with a bunch of fresh diapers for the imprisoned bundle, but then officials refused to pass them on . . . Okay, who jails babies? Well, of course we don't. But appar- H ently we do jail a nine-months' pregnant, teenaged alleged abuse victim on a mate- rial witness warrant — 14 days prior to her due date. Yes, such a warrant can be issued if there is evidence a witness will ignore or evade a subpoena. But, whether they can do it technically is one thing; whether they should when a witness is in delicate circumstances, is another. Or, if it is necessary to execute the warrant, then should a witness, great with child, actu- ally be held in custody until she's given testimony at the domestic assault trial of the boyfriend accused of assaulting her? Not to mention said trial was slated to resume just four days before she was due to deliver. Great timing. (It was also the day after press time .) At the very least the optics aren't good. While there's obviously an underlying reason the police and Crown felt moved to seek the detention of blossoming 19-year- old Noellee Mowatt — like hypothetically if she were recanting and they wanted to ensure her presence in the box so they could KGB her prior statement — how can she end up in a cell, about to give birth. Not facing charges. Richard Posner, lawyer for the accused boyfriend, Christopher Harbin, told the Toronto Star that Mowatt's jailing is incomprehensible, and an example of how sometimes the "justice system loses sight of the forest for the trees." Or, at least sometimes it loses sight of how the forest looks to the rest of us view- ing it from a distance. And it forgets some- times that not every member of the public is savvy to the nuances of the criminal jus- tice system. So naturally, once it got out, this story had legs, and what started as an anonymous domestic case, mushroomed. Outraged family violence activists caught the scent of Mowatt's unusual plight and roundly criticized the police and Crown. It was raised in the Legislature and NDP leader Howard Hampton won- dered how this would "protect [alleged] battered women in Ontario." Now, Mowatt did admit to a reporter she knew police were looking for her to get her to testify, and she failed to appear to do so when the trial began March 20. Media reports say police tried several times to serve a subpoena, and one was never picked up from a police station. The trial judge issued a warrant and after Mowatt's arrest she was ordered held without bail by a JP. But what about house arrest? Ankle bracelet? Women's shelter? This is an al- leged victim; not the guy on trial. Mowatt's lawyer Lydia Riva told Canada AM, "We offered a very strict bail with house arrest. Miss Mowatt said that she would report daily to the police division. She also said that she would attend on April 11." But the Crown attorney told the Toronto Sun he gave her an opportunity to "present a comprehensive plan [for bail] but she pro- ceeded with no plan and no place [to live]." And, he said she vowed to give birth in an "elevator or stairwell" rather than testify. Okay, but couldn't something be worked out? Mowatt is the complainant, a Crown witness, not the accused. And not the first alleged victim of domestic assault to balk. "I'm never calling the police again, even if my life's in danger," Mowatt told the National Post. Let's hope other alleged victims don't get this message. No, this isn't Zimbabwe. But, this is a good reminder that sometimes it is about how the trees, or in this case justice, is seen by the rest of us. L ooking into the origins of the words carved over the entrance to the Parlia- ment Building in Ottawa —"The wholesome sea is at her gates/ Her gates both east and west" — the Globe and Mail reported recently that they were written in 1920, just as the Peace Tower was being completed. They were the then- recent work of one J.A. Ritchie, who was described by anthologist John Robert Colombo as "an Ot- tawa barrister and poetaster." "Poetaster," by the way, is an old word meaning "a petty or paltry poet." Historiaster, its equivalent for history writers, is mercifully extinct. There seems to be no equivalent for lawyer. What is it, I wondered, with all the lawyer poets? And who was this J.A. Ritchie, barrister, who got his verses on the doors of Parliament? With some help from Paul Leatherdale at the law society ar- chives, Ritchie proved easy to trace. From bar to bard: the poet lawyers That's John Almon Ritchie (1863- 1935) was no petty or paltry lawyer, it turns out. He prac- tised in Ottawa from 1890, was Crown attorney for Carleton and then a Carleton County judge. He was the son of Sir William J. Ritchie, chief jus- tice of Canada 1879-1892, and therefore part of the vast clan of Ritchie lawyers and judges that ran from John Ritchie, 18th cen- tury judge at Annapolis Royal, N.S., to Roland Ritchie, justice of the Supreme Court of Can- ada 1959-1984. Altogether an embarras de Ritchies, as Roland's brother, the diplomat and diarist Charles Ritchie, once said in an- other context. In his day John Almon Ritchie seems to have been better known as playwright and poet than as lawyer. A Who's Who of the time credits him with "some meritori- ous verse" and several plays pro- duced on the American stage. But a quick run-through in Google and Abebooks suggests none of History By Christopher Moore it survives. His literary immortal- ity depends entirely on the stone carver who put him over the doors of Parliament. Something similar hap- pened to another lawyer/judge, Robert Stanley Weir (1859- 1926) of Montreal. Weir was a prolific author of verse but his name survives only because 100 years ago this year he wrote the English lyrics to O Canada. The French lyrics, written in 1880, were by another judge, Quebec's A.B. Routhier. Another contemporary of Ritchie and Weir was E. Doug- las Armour, Toronto lawyer and bencher, who made a specialty of converting complex legal docu- ments into iambic verse. "Poet- www.lawtimesnews.com aster" might just apply here, but there's some weird kind of achievement in lines like these, published as "Law Lyrics" by Canada Law Book in 1918: The said Smith and his heirs also make this concession/ That Brown and his heirs shall have quiet possession/ Of all that the herein before described land/ And that free and clear of all claim and demand,/ Gift, grant, bargain, sale, join- ture, dower and rent/ Entail, statute, trust, execution, extent . . . And so on, for hundreds of lines. There is also at least one great poet among the lawyers. Frank Scott, longtime profes- sor of law at McGill and distin- guished civil libertarian, was also F.R. Scott, pioneer of the modern- ist movement in Canadian poetry and one of the major Canadian poets of the twentieth century. Scott generally kept his legal APRIL 14, 2008 / LAW TIMES Law Times Inc. 240 Edward Street, Aurora, ON • L4G 3S9 Tel: 905-841-6481 • Fax: 905-727-0017 www.lawtimesnews.com President: Stuart J. Morrison 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 (GST incl., GST Reg. #R121351134) and US$266.25 for foreign address- es. Single copies are $3.55 Circulation inquiries, postal 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 Helen Steenkamer at: hsteenkamer@clbmedia.ca or Tel: 905-713-4376 • 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, 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. scholarship separate from his po- etry, but in 1959, after defend- ing D.H. Lawrence's Canadian publisher on a prosecution for obscenity in the Quebec Court of Appeal, he did dash off: I went to bat for the Lady Chatte/ Dressed in my bib and gown./ The judges three glared down at me/ The priests patrolled the town The old Law Society Gazette — not the communications ve- hicle the law society now puts out, but the small volumes edited from the 1960s to the 1990s by John Honsberger and illustrated by Kenneth Jarvis — used to publish lawyers' poetry. What do lawyer poets do nowadays? Maybe they have no time. LT Christopher Moore writes no poetry. His most recent book is McCarthy Tétrault: Building Canada's Pre- mier Law Firm, published by Doug- las & McIntyre. www.christopher moore.ca

• Cover