Law Times

PAGE 4 Romney Ontario getaway's dark legal past NEWS BY PAUL LEGALL For Law Times GRAND BEND, Ont. — The Beach O' Pines community on Lake Huron has always been a fa- vourite summer get-away for rich Americans, including the family of someone who' the news right now: Mitt Rom- ney. Interestingly, the community is also notable for a dark legal past that was the subject of a seminal s a big name in human rights ruling in Canada. Former Michigan governor George Romney bought a sprawl- ing beachfront property there in 1950. The two-story structure was a favourite summer vacation spot in the 1960s for his son and current Republican presidential hopeful Mitt. Mitt continued to visit the property with his own family while he was governor of Massachusetts and there' lation it might become a kind of s specu- Hyannis Port of the North should he prevail in November. Today, a recent real estate ad exclusive gated communities." Grand Bend real estate bro- s most ker Kim McCann, who listed the $1.7-million cottage in the ad, says the exclusiveness of Beach O' Pines stems from the privacy it offers through electroni- cally controlled barriers and the fact that some of the older proper- ties have been in the same family for generations. But exclusiveness today seems described 'It was like the Blues Jays winning the World Series,' says lawyer Alec Richmond in recalling when he learned of the Supreme Court decision 62 years ago. Photo: Paul Legall Landy Marr Kats LLP a well established seven lawyer boutique Civil Litigation fi rm seeks a lawyer. The successful candidate shall have initiative, persuasive oratory and writing skills, and experience and interest in Plaintiff Personal Injury and Insurance Disputes, with a desire to work in the fi rm's other litigation areas. Please send a CV ( with references and law school grades) to Samuel S. Marr at smarr@lmklawyers.com. website: http://www.thetorontolawyers.ca to mean something quite different than it did when a Detroit resort developer, Frank Slater, built the first 35 cottages in 1933. On each property deed, there was a cov- enant stating that the land "could not be sold, used, occupied, rented by any person of the Jewish, He- brew, semitic, negro race or col- ored blood. of the grantor to restrict owner- ship, use, occupation, and enjoy- ment of the said recreational lands to persons of white or Caucasian race, "It is the intention and purpose " the Supreme Court of Canada struck down in November 1950 in Noble v. Alley, helped pave the way for the human rights and anti- discrimination legislation we take for granted today. The public first became aware The odious document, which " the covenant stipulated. of the restrictive covenant in 1948 when merchant Bernard Wolf agreed to purchase a cottage in Beach O' Pines from Annie andyMarr_LT_Aug26_12 1 12-08-29 4:00 PM Maude Noble for $6,800. Wolf was a Russian Jew who had immigrated to Canada with his brother, David, in the 1920s. Together, they had built up a successful women's wear shop on describes the gated enclave, where middle-class cottagers and retirees now rub shoulders with the super rich, as "one of Grand Bend' mer chief ertson stated: "The purpose of this clause is to assure that the residents are of a class who will get along together. swiſt and strong, however, from labour leaders, editorialists, and religious spokespeople like Rabbi Abraham Feinberg of the Canadian Jewish Congress. By this time, the congress was paying for Noble and Wolf 's legal The public backlash was " Dundas Street in London, Ont., and Bernard was reputedly a mil- lionaire when he agreed to buy the cottage. Noble was an elderly wid- ow and wasn't aware of the cov- enant as her husband had negoti- ated the purchase of the cottage from Slater' who was just a few years out of law school, discovered the covenant when he searched the deed. Him- self a Jew, Richmond was young and idealistic and appalled by the crass racism. He immediately de- cided to challenge the validity of the covenant in court. He didn't think he' Her lawyer Ted Richmond, s company in 1933. trouble convincing a judge to have it declared null and void. Alec Richmond, now 88, was a junior partner in his cousin Ted's d have much London law office when the No- ble motion came before Ontario High Court Judge Walter Shro- eder in 1948. Now living in a retirement home, Alec says his cousin en- listed the help of Toronto lawyer John Cartwright, who had suc- cessfully challenged the validity of restrictive covenants in an- other case. He advanced all of the same RECRUITMENT AND ADMISSIONS ASSISTANT DEAN, The Faculty of Law at Western University is seeking a dynamic, student-oriented professional for the position of Assistant Dean, Recruitment and Admissions. Reporting to the Associate Dean (Academic) and the Dean of Law, the Assistant Dean, Recruitment and Admissions will serve as the senior admissions offi cer for the law school. Qualifi cations: LL.B. or J.D. degree with a minimum of two years experience in the practice of law, in a legally-related position, or in law school recruitment and admissions; human resource management and recruiting experience preferred; superior written and oral communication skills; strong interpersonal and organizational skills. Applicants should send a letter of application and curriculum vitae, to Associate Dean (Administration) Craig Brown, Faculty of Law, Western University, London, Ontario, N6A 3K7. arguments before Shroeder but to no avail this time. Shroeder ruled the covenant similar hearing when they took the case before the Ontario Court Appeal in January 1949. By this time, the Beach O' Pines Protective Association, which represented 35 cottagers, had hired a high-powered Toronto lawyer, Kenneth Morden, to represent their interests. Morden argued the covenant Cartwright and Ted got a " applied only to a limited recre- ational area during the summer months and didn't offend public policy. He also submitted that the covenant had helped maintain a congenial relationship among cottagers, about half of whom were Americans. Alec remembers sitting in the appeal court when Cartwright WesternUn_LT_Sep3_12.indd 1 www.lawtimesnews.com 12-08-29 12:06 PM was perfectly legal and that people had a right to live with whomever they chose for rea- sons of "congeniality. expenses and had enlisted a team of brilliant legal scholars like fu- ture Supreme Court chief justice Bora Laskin to help prepare an ap- peal before Canada' In dismissing the appeal, for- justice Robert Rob- " September 3, 2012 • Law timeS argued that the covenant was unenforceable because it was impossible to tell who was a Jew and who wasn't. At this point, he recalls, Judge William Henderson injected, "Oh, you can tell; you can tell. however, Cartwright became a judge of the Supreme Court. Not- ed lawyer John J. Robinette, 43, replaced him. In a 2003 biography of Robi- Before the case went ahead, s highest court. nette, former appeal court justice George D. Finlayson said the courts had shown "an astonishing lack of interest in the public poli- cy argument raised by Wolf and Noble, that racial and religious discrimination was anathema to a civilized society. levels, he suggested, were focusing more on freedom association. In winning the appeal, Robi- " The courts at all nette accordingly played down the public policy argument while stressing that the odious covenant was unenforceable because the language was too vague to deter- mine who belonged to the prohib- ited classes. The top court agreed and struck down the covenant. For the congress, however, it was a dubious victory because the top court hadn't directly con- demned the racist nature of the covenant, something it considered the "burning public policy issue. Alec, meanwhile, remembers " the jubilation he and his cousin Ted felt when they got a tele- phone call about the top court' decision. They ran out of the office down Dundas Street to Wolf ' s won, we won." ning the World Series," he recalls 62 years later. Bob Sharen, 73, a real estate s dress shop yelling: "We "It was like the Blues Jays win- broker and former reeve of Grand Bend, says the Noble case is still a thorny subject among Beach O' Pines residents. "They don't like that being talked about," he says. "They think it reflects badly on the community. That was then. This is now. It' ily, which is still in the Grand Bend phone book under G. Romney, has kept a low profile in the communi- ty. He never heard anything nega- tive about Mitt during his teenage years at Beach O' Pines. To Sharen, that suggests he must have been a well-behaved adolescent. LT Sharen says the Romney fam- s a lot different now."

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