Legal Feeds Blog

Wednesday, 09 January 2013 12:49

Sentencing circles can play part in discipline: LSUC panel

A Law Society of Upper Canada panel has ruled that aboriginal sentencing circles can have a role to play in the society’s discipline process, despite rejecting a lawyer’s request for one in his case.

In a decision released last month, Bencher Carol Hartman rejected submissions from law society lawyers who argued the circles had no place outside the criminal justice sphere.

“Given that Convocation’s primary objective is to protect the public and to maintain public confidence in the legal profession, the holding of a circle would engage the public in the penalty process and could play an important role in maintaining public confidence in the profession,” Hartman wrote on behalf of the three-member panel.

The panel invited submissions on the issue during the penalty phase in the case of Sarnia, Ont. lawyer Terence John Robinson.

Robinson, a member of the Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in 2009, and subsequently admitted conduct unbecoming a licencee of the LSUC related to his conviction. He has agreed to stop practising while the case unfolds, but wants to return to his criminal law practice representing aboriginal clients.

In written submissions, Robinson’s lawyer Jonathan Rudin claimed the case was perfect for an unprecedented LSUC sentencing circle.

“The respondent believes that the holding of a sentencing circle will allow the hearing panel to obtain a deeper understanding of the Aboriginal community’s response to the finding of conduct unbecoming a licencee,” wrote Rudin.

But law society discipline counsel Deborah McPhadden countered, urging the panel to ignore the idea because circles have no place in professional discipline.

“Not only should a sentencing circle not be held in this particular case, generally speaking sentencing circles have no place in law society discipline matters. The Law Society Act requires the hearing panel to make determination of penalty,” wrote McPhadden. “The opinion of anyone besides the hearing panel as to appropriate penalty is irrelevant.”

But Hartman said the panel would not be “abdicating its obligation to set a penalty” by holding a circle.

“Under the Law Society Act, the power and duty to impose a fit penalty is vested exclusively in the Hearing Panel. The panel is at liberty to ignore the recommendations of a circle,” Hartman said.

Despite the ruling, the panel found Robinson’s case was not suited to a sentencing circle, due to the limited evidence of Robinson’s enthusiasm for the idea, of his roots in the Wikwemikong First Nation community, or of the band’s willingness to participate.

Two Quebec judges caught up in drug investigation

If the first few days of the New Year are any indication, 2013 could be another annus horribilus for the reputation of Quebec judges with two sitting judges now barred from taking on new cases.

After days of media reports that two judges were the object of an ongoing investigation by the Surêté du Québec, the Court of Quebec issued a terse four-paragraph statement on Jan. 7 saying it is now looking into the conduct of one of the two magistrates — Rouyn-Noranda provincial court Judge Marc Grimard.

“The allegations that have been brought [against Grimard] are being taken very seriously by the court’s management,” reads the missive on the Quebec Court’s website. “For the time being, no new files will be assigned to Judge Grimard.”

The Canadian Judicial Council issued an equally short and taciturn statement the following day. It said it will be reviewing the conduct of the other judge named in the case — the Quebec Superior Court Justice Michel Girouard, who also sits in the Abitibi-Rouyn-Noranda-Témiscamingue region.

“The review concerns his conduct prior to his appointment to the Bench and includes an allegation that the judge would have participated in a transaction to purchase an illicit substance from a police informant,” reads the CJC statement.

“This is only an allegation: no facts have been established in this matter.”

Like his provincial court colleague, the CJC says no new cases will be assigned to Girouard during the review.

It says the federally-appointed judge will also have “a full opportunity to representations about the allegations.”

The allegations stem from a police bust of a drug trafficking ring in Quebec’s rugged Abitibi region, which forms much of the province’s northwest border with Ontario.

The bust was made in 2010, the same year Girouard was named to the bench for the region. Grimard has been with Quebec Court since 2004.

Both men were accused by a police informant inside the drug ring as regular customers for cocaine.

Several dozen people were arrested, including members of the Hells Angels. Firearms, drugs, a plane, a helicopter and nearly $1 million in cash were also seized.

The news is a bleak start to 2013 for the Quebec judiciary, which has had its fair share of bad press in recent years.

In 2011, for example, Quebec was rife with allegations of influence peddling over the nomination of judges.

And in June, retired Quebec Court Judge Jacques Delisle became the first Canadian judge to both stand trial and be found guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of his handicapped wife.