Law Times

PAGE 24 Enabling Lawyers through Technology Tel: 416.322.6111 Toll-free: 1.866.367.7648 Real Estate • Corporate • Estates www doprocess com The Inside Story U OF T AIDS SOUTH KOREA The University of Toronto Fac- ulty of Law's Pro Bono Students Canada is lending a hand to South Korean public interest and human rights lawyers in their ef- forts to create a similar program. "Our law school has a long history of deep commitment to public interest work and PBSC is a proud part of that tradition," said the school's dean, Mayo Moran. "From their very first day of law school, our students are taught the importance of us- ing their legal skills to help the community and this has become a core feature of our program." Last week, PBSC's national Interest Articling Fellowships program. "We are pleased to continue to cover the articling expenses of students for these organizations," said LFO chair Larry Banack. "The aim is to encourage stu- dents to pursue an area of law that is often neglected because of financial restrictions." director from 2000 to 2007, Pam Shime, travelled to South Korea to consult with the lawyers and help them make public in- terest law a key part of their new law schools. Until now, the country has lacked a law school system. In July 2007, the country passed the Law School Act to bring in a more formal, academic, and pro- fessional legal education system for the country. Gonggam, South Korea's public interest lawyers group, researched internationally and chose PBSC as its model of choice for the country's law schools' public interest law program. "We are delighted that Gong- gam has decided to use PBSC as a model during this important time in South Korea," says PBSC national director Noah Aiken- Klar. "It is exciting that we will be able to harness our knowledge about student leadership, legal public service, and access to jus- tice to support lawyers and law students committed to the same issues across the ocean." Shime left for South Korea April 26 and plans also to visit North Korea and Beijing. While in Seoul, she will meet with representatives of Seoul Na- tional University, the Judicial Research and Training Insti- tute, and the National Human Rights Commission. LFO DEALS AWARDS The Law Foundation of On- tario has chosen a group of pub- lic interest organizations for the 2009/2010 term of its Public seven organizations: Amnesty International Canada, the As- sociation in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, the Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clin- ic, Canadian Civil Liberties As- sociation, the Canadian Inter- net Policy and Public Interest Clinic, the Public Interest Ad- vocacy Centre, and Ecojustice. The fellowships were created to fill the need for aid to public interest organizations and a de- sire from law students to get in- volved in public interest law. The organization selected as well as [the recent] appoint- ment by the Ontario government of Osgoode Prof. Mary Condon to the Ontario Securities Com- mission, confirm Osgoode's na- tional leadership in the field of securities regulation," said Os- goode Dean Patrick Monahan. "Each of these individuals will bring a wealth of experience and knowledge in the securities field to the expert panel and the OSC." Osgoode Prof. Poonam Puri, along with Prof. Paul Halpern from the University of Toron- to's Rotman School of Man- agement, will be heading up the panel's research team as director of research, while Prof. Edward Waitzer will be leading a legal team that will be responsible for writing the draft model Com- mon Securities Act. Prof. Peter Hogg, who was Osgoode's dean from 1998 to 2003, is a special advisor to the panel. OSGOODE FACULTY ON SECURITIES PANEL The federal Finance Ministry has called on three members of Osgoode Hall Law School's faculty to be part of its expert panel on securities regulation in Canada. "These federal appointments, LT DD LT GRLBBD-05 Print bw 4/21/08 11:45 AM Page 1 For more Inside Story, please visit www.lawtimesnews.com "But Sweetie, you know I don't like it when you bring work home from the office." Printing & Graphic Services – GOOD NEWS Dye & Durham is delivering the latest and greatest advancements in printing technology to serve you better. Watch for updates coming your way soon. C dyedurham.ca • 1-888-393-3874 • Fax: 1-800-263-2772 Choose Dye& Durham your FSC certified printer www.lawtimesnews.com KINSHASA HIT WITH PE- NIS THEFT PANIC KINSHASA, D.R.C. — The rumours began last week in the Congo's capital city: sorcerers were stealing or shrinking men's penises. Radio call-in shows warned commuters to beware of fellow passengers wearing gold rings. The panic began and lynchings were attempted (but did not succeed). "You just have to be accused of that, and people come after you. We've had a number of attempted lynchings. . . . You see them covered in marks after being beaten," Kinshasa's police chief, Jean-Dieudonne Oleko, told Reuters news agency. Victims claim the sorcer- ers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or completely disappear, in an attempt then to extort money from victims in order to cure their affliction. "But when you try to tell the victims that their penises are still there, they tell you that it's become tiny or that they've become impotent. To that I tell them, 'How do you know if you haven't gone home and tried it?'" said Oleko. Police in the capital arrested 13 suspects accused of using black magic to "steal" men's pe- nises. Fourteen of their purport- ed victims were also detained. Getting them all off the street, police say, was to avoid the type of bloodshed seen years ago in Ghana when suspected penis snatchers were attacked and beaten to death by angry mobs. APRIL 28, 2008 / LAW TIMES Bizarre Briefs By Viola James released. All 27 men have now been NO LIZARDS IN THESE EMPTY LEGS LOS ANGELES — Jereme James has been acquitted of smuggling iguanas from Fiji in his hollowed-out prosthetic leg but was found guilty of conceal- ing and possessing Fiji island banded iguanas. James, 34, could still face up to 20 years in prison. The jury in the three-day trial rejected charges that James stole the lizards on a visit to the South Pacific island in Septem- ber 2002 and brought them back in his hollow leg. But pros- ecutors revealed that during an undercover investigation James had confessed to selling three of the iguanas and four of the neon-green reptiles were seized at his home. James is due back in court in July for sentencing. A LITTLE TOO MUCH OF THE FORCE LONDON, England — A man posing as Darth Vader assaulted a pair of Star Wars fans who had started a Jedi church in honour of their heroes. Arwel Wynne Hughes, 27, from Holyhead, had apparently bested a 10-litre box of wine before hopping over the wall at Barney Jones' house. Dressed in a black garbage bag, cape, and armed with a metal crutch, Hughes was yelling "Darth Vader!" before he launched his attack on Jones and his cousin Michael, who were playing with their light sabres in the garden. Hughes failed to show up on time for his court date, prompt- ing District Judge Andrew Shaw to issue an arrest warrant, add- ing, "I hope the force will soon be with him." Prosecutor Nia Lloyd noted Hughes had an alcohol prob- lem but only left his victims with minor scrapes and bruises. Both men were upset by the in- cident and believed it was pre- planned. Lloyd added that the pair be- lieve "very strongly in the church and their religion." It has about 30 members locally and "thou- sands worldwide." Hughes could not remember the incident and only realized what had happened when he read about it in local newspa- pers, the court was told. The court will hear pre-sen- tence submissions May 13. MEN CLEARED OF USING DEAD PAL TO CASH CHEQUE NEW YORK — In January, Bizarre Briefs reported on the charges against two sexagenar- ians who wheeled the corpse of their dead buddy around Man- hattan in an attempt to cash his $355 Social Security cheque. Last week, a judge cleared the two men. Court documents said Vir- gilio Cintron, 66, had died of complications from Parkinson's disease when two of his friends brought him to a cheque-cash- ing store in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood. James O'Hare and David Daloia — both 65 — said their 66-year-old roommate was alive when they left home with him in a wheelchair. be proved beyond reasonable doubt when the man died. The judge said it could not LT Confidential m a W e ' r e a y C a n a p d i n o a n

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