Law Times

$3.55 • Vol. 19, No. 14 Inside This Issue 3 Legal Thriller 6 Investigative Detention 16 Focus On Personal Injury Quote of the week "This is a different world. The securities regulatory world is just not the same as trying to investigate hit-and-runs, or break- and-entries, or murder, for that matter." — Andrew Fleming partner, Ogilvy Renault LLP see Lawyers, page 5 Covering Ontario's Legal Scene 'Right result' gets high marks C Robert Baltovich cleared after 18 years BY ROBERT TODD Law Times Baltovich's case became the latest in a series to take the scenic route to freedom and cause public doubts in the way justice is meted out. "The fact is that a man today has been onfidence in Canada's justice system remained strong last week among crim- inal defence lawyers, even as Robert cleared," William Trudell, chairman of the Canadian Council of Criminal Defence Lawyers, tells Law Times. "In many coun- tries who aren't prepared to look at mistakes and correct them, that wouldn't happen. In terms of the system creaking along to the right result, I give it high marks." Baltovich, convicted in 1992 for the murder of his girlfriend Elizabeth Bain, was acquitted last week after the Crown brought no evidence in the case. The move ended a nearly 18-year or- deal with the justice system for Baltovich, whose conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal in 2004. A new trial was ordered in 2005. "I had been expecting them to appreciate that their case had no substance and no merit years ago," says James Lockyer, lead defence counsel for Baltovich. "The trouble was that I wasn't get- ting that from the other side. We finally get to the courtroom door, and it's then that we finally get the right decision." Criminal lawyer Steven Skurka says he has enormous respect for the Crown lawyer in the case, Philip Kotanen, but adds, "You do have to wonder why it took this long for the prosecution to make the decision that it made." He says the delay may have been caused by the appointment of Justice David Watt, who was April 28, 2008 Robert Baltovich takes questions from the media after he was found not guilty of murdering his ex-girlfriend Elizabeth Bain 18 years ago. His lead lawyer James Lockyer looks on, far left. Photo: Toronto Star/Rene Johnston replaced on the case by Justice David McCombs, to the Court of Appeal; the defence's own inves- tigation; disclosure issues; or the preparation of materials or transcripts. "Still, with all the variables you have to con- sider, 18 years is inherently a lengthy period of time," says Skurka, who suggested the Crown's case against Baltovich essentially evaporated when schoolgirl killer Paul Bernardo appeared as nardo as a viable alternate suspect in a case, and in my view, the moment Paul Bernardo's name was permitted to be uttered before the jury, the case was lost to the prosecution." However, he says this case can't be considered a black eye for the system. an alleged alternate suspect in Bain's murder. "It's a defence lawyer's dream to have Paul Ber- See Case, page 2 Draft new agreements, say lawyers BY TIM NAUMETZ For Law Times OTTAWA — Canada should seek international agreements to avoid the kind of confusion and question marks that surround the case of an Ontario woman convicted of money laundering in Mexico last week, says a leading Ottawa defence attorney. Even with promises from the Harper government it would expe- dite the woman's transfer to Canada to serve a five-year sentence handed down by a Mexican judge, defence lawyer Lawrence Greenspon says there was no certainty last week when she will qualify for parole or whether the harsh conditions the woman faced before the conviction will be taken into account. Brenda Martin had already spent two years in a Guadalajara prison by the time a judge ruled she was "in- volved in operations involving illegal funds" because of money she had received from a former employer convicted of a $60-million internet fraud based in Puerto Vallarta. Ontario criminal defence lawyers were uncertain, based on the judg- ment and statements from Canadian officials, exactly when Martin would reach Canada and how much of her sentence she would have to serve once she arrived. Greenspon says it is time the gov- ernment drafted a system, including agreements with Mexico and other countries, to level the judicial play- ing fields between countries. "I think the system has to be TPLawTimes1CBlue fin 11/2/06 3:09 PM Page 3 developed in Canada, to deal with foreign dispositions where we have Canadian citizens being subject to a foreign judiciary process," he tells Law Times. "If Canada has an agree- ment with that country, and is bring- ing the person back to Canada, and that person is serving their time here, the sentence should be converted, truly converted, into what would be the equivalent Canadian sentence." The amount of money at the cen- tre of Martin's conviction was small compared to money-laundering con- victions in Canada, says Greenspon. But the difficulty will be in con- verting the Mexican prison sentence to a comparable sentence for the same conviction in Canada. Mexican police arrested Martin in 2006, five years after Mexican and U.S. police arrested her former em- ployer, onetime Edmonton resident Alyn Waage, who led a sophisticated internet pyramid scheme that bilked 15,000 investors worldwide. Waage See Canadian, page 3 Lawrence Greenspon says it's time to draft a system with other countries to level the judicial playing fields. A HOME WITH A DREAM KITCHEN. Too bad it hasn't been paid for. 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