Conrad Black - "Scant and questionable direct evidence"

From CBC:

Disgraced former media baron Conrad Black has asked a Chicago judge to throw out a verdict reached in July that found him guilty of three counts of fraud and one count of obstruction of justice. He is asking for a new trial.

The Montreal-born Black, who upbeat U.S. prosecutors said could finally be classified "a convicted felon" after last month's verdict, had his lawyers file a motion with a Chicago court late Monday, saying it "would be a miscarriage of justice to let the verdict stand."

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

Funky Lawyers (...not)

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

York Region Children's Aid Society Workers on Strike

From CityNews:

Children's Aid Society workers in York Region walked off the job Monday to protest their salaries and what they call a "crippling workload."

The Ontario Public Service Employees Union, negotiating on behalf of the 180 CAS employees affected by the strike, said talks collapsed Friday after the union rejected the latest offer. They officially walked off the job at 12:01am Monday.

Wages and an unmanageable workload are the issues that so far haven't been resolved.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Resigns

From CNN:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush on Monday said he reluctantly accepted the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, whose "good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons."

Alberto Gonzales was dogged by controversial issues including wiretapping programs and fired U.S. attorneys.

After months of standing by his top prosecutor and "close friend," Bush spoke briefly in Texas to praise Gonzales, saying the attorney general endured "unfair treatment that has created harmful distraction at the Justice Department."

Bush said it's "sad that we live in a time when a talented and honorable person" is impeded "from doing important work."

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Someone with way too much spare time...

... put this edit together.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

No End In Sight

Sundance Film Festival award winner, No End In Sight. Watch the trailer:

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

Quote of the Day

Scott Ritter, former Chief UN Weapons Inspector, at TruthDig:

The absolute worst of the rot that has infected America because of the policies and actions of the Bush administration has originated from the office of the vice president. The nonsensical response to the terror attacks of 9/11, seeking a “global war” versus defending the rule of law at home and abroad, taking the lead in spreading the lies that got us involved in Iraq, legitimizing torture as a tool of American jurisprudence, advocating for warrantless wiretappings of U.S.-based communications (regardless of what the Fourth Amendment says against illegal search and seizure), and pushing for an expansion of America’s global conflict into Iran—all can be traced back to the person of Cheney as the point of origin. America today is very much engaged in a life-or-death struggle against the forces of evil.

The enemy resides not abroad, however, but at home, vested in the highest offices of the land.

The rest is a bit hyperbolic, perhaps, but.... well, you get the point.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

"Reverse" Discrimination?

While it is clear the jury got it right in this Buffalo, NY workplace harassment case, I must confess to being a bit baffled by the concept of "reverse discrimination:"

Mark Pasternak said he lost his state job helping troubled youths because he couldn’t stand working under a black boss who called him racist names like “cracker,” “polack” and “stupid white boy.”

Pasternak was dismissed from his position as a youth worker with the state Office of Children and Family Services in 1999. But today, he feels some relief and vindication.

After a rare reverse racial discrimination trial in Buffalo’s federal court, a jury Tuesday awarded Pasternak $150,000. Jurors found that his former boss, Tommy E. Baines, discriminated against him racially and created a hostile working environment.

Federal court officials said they could not recall any reverse discrimination case in Buffalo resulting in a larger monetary verdict. Most such cases wind up being settled or dismissed before they ever go to trial.

Surely the word "discrimination" speaks for itself, and requires no qualifiers to describe the racial backgrounds of the individuals involved.

But if there has to be a qualifier, "reverse discrimination" ought not to be it. As a descriptive phrase, it is superfluous and racially loaded. And it makes my head hurt.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

Images of America, 2007

Having recently returned from vacation on the east coast in Massacheussets and Maine, I thought I'd share a few snapshots from the political landscape:

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

Minnesota Lawyers To Provide Free Representation to Bridge Collapse Victims

Minnesota Lawyer Blog has been following this story:

Several local plaintiffs' lawyers recently set the bar buzzing when they made a highly unusual offer -- they would handle the cases of victims from 35W bridge collapse without taking a fee.

...Minneapolis-based Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi, which, ironically, pocketed one of the biggest fees in state history a few years back when it got $440 million for handling the state's $6 billion tobacco settlement. The Robins firm has already signed up several several bridge victims as clients, none of whom it is charging a fee.

Another post from Minnesota Lawyer Blog discusses the legal issues expected to arise in anticipated bridge collapse litigation:

The Star Tribune has an interesting story today on the liability questions and potential lawsuits arising out of the collapse of the 35W bridge. (See "Question of liability rises.")

Given the limitations on state and municipal liability and the fact that the bridge was constructed 40 years ago, attorneys pursuing liability claims will likely have to focus on the private entities involved in the bridge's maintenance, the article correctly points out.And there will, of course, also be a bevy of legal issues relating to insurance coverage that will crop up.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/personal.html

US Death Row Appeal Rights to be Limited?

In the wake of Texas' 400th execution since the US Supreme Court's 1976 reinstatement of the death penalty in America, AlterNet comments on the Bush administration's apparent plan to limit appeal rights for inmates on death row:

The Bush administration is preparing to speed up the executions of criminals who are on death row across the United States, in effect, cutting out several layers of appeals in the federal courts so that prisoners can be "fast-tracked" to their deaths.

With less than 18 months to go to secure a presidential legacy, President Bush has turned to an issue he has specialised in since approving a record number of executions while Governor of Texas.

Read on...

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

Bennett's 10 Worst U.S. Prosecutors, 2007

Texas Attorney Robert S. "Bob" Bennett of Bennett Law Firm, L.L.P., has published his 2007 list of America's bad prosecutors.

Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales gets Bennet's nod as the worst of the worst.

Read on....

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

Update on Honda and Keays

Bar-Ex reports that Honda's appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada is scheduled to be argued Feb. 20, 2008.

Mr. Keays’ has also cross-appealed from the Ontario Court of Appeal decision reducing the $500,000.00 punitive damages award he received at trial to $100,000.00.

In this case, a former Honda Canada worker was awarded two years' salary in lieu of notice plus $500,000 in punitive damages for harassment and discrimination.

Mr. Keays, who suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome that emerged in the later years of his 14 year tenure with Honda, was exposed to progressive discipline by his employer for absence due to his illness. Ultimately, his employment was terminated.

The trial Court held that Honda had wrongfully dismissed and discriminated against Mr. Keays. The punitive damages awarded at trial were unprecedented in Ontario.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

Legal Tree

Legal Tree is a site I came across today. It seems to be a promising resources portal for Canadian lawyers.

It is self-described as "a website of Legal Tree Project Inc. that is run by two recent graduates of the Faculty of Law at the University of British Columbia."

Worth bookmarking.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

Pants Judge Presses Suit with Appeal

He is not backing down.

Judge Roy Pearson has filed notice in D.C. that he intends to appeal the dismissal of his $54 million "lost pants" case against Custom Cleaners, a dry cleaning establishment in Northeast Washington

Read it and weep...

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

Swedish Man Arrested: Suspicious Muscles

Here's one for the legal oddities department, from The Local, "Sweden's News in English:"

A well-built man was forced to take a drugs test in Stockholm recently after a police officer assumed that muscles like his could only have been developed with the help of illegal substances.

The female assistant police officer got into a conversation with Tomislav Boduljak and his friend late at night in central Stockholm.

According to Boduljak, 27, the police officer was pleasant at first, but changed her attitude when he said he worked out. Saying his muscles were 'abnormal', she said he must have used drugs."

I asked if she didn't think it possible that I work out a lot and eat well. She said that if someone looks like me, she assumes they have taken drugs," he told Metro.

Despite Boduljak's assurances that he didn't use steroids, she forced him to go to the police station and give a urine test. In her report, the officer said he had "unusually large muscles, particularly large arm muscles, which are a sign of steroid use."

The test was negative, and Boduljak made an official complaint against the police officer. Prosecutors looked into the case, but decided not to pursue it.Janne Magnusson, an officer at Stockholm Police's drugs unit, told Metro that he thought that the officer had been "a bit too ambitious".

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

WSJ Law Blog

Technorati's blog tracking tells us the Wall Street Journal's Law Blog picked up our recent post on a Canadian study indicating apparent judicial bias on the Ontario Court of Appeal:

The Wall Street Journal!!!

My, how technology has changed things.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

Federal Court Denies EI Maternity Benefits to Adoptive Mothers

Last week, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled against Pattie Tomasson, an adoptive mother of two in British Columbia, whose application for Employment Insurance maternity benefits was originally disallowed by EI.

Tomasson appealed, arguing to the Court that Canada's Employment Insurance plan discriminates against adoptive mothers by failing to granting to them the 15 weeks of maternity leave that biological mothers are entitled to.

The Court’s analysis, which focused on whether the federal employment insurance provision violated adoptive mothers section 15(1) equality rights under the Charter, concluded the following:

The reasonable adoptive mother would no doubt recognize that by reason of the physiological and psychological experience resulting from pregnancy and childbirth, biological mothers are deserving of special benefits so as to accommodate their particular needs. The reasonable adoptive mother would also no doubt recognize that the maternity benefits are essential to protecting the wellbeing of these mothers so that they can, in due course, effectively return to their employment. The reasonable adoptive mother would also recognize that Parliament has considered and recognized her own needs by the enactment of the parental benefits provisions and that she has in no way been excluded from Canadian society. Hence, the reasonable adoptive mother would not feel demeaned by the granting of the maternity benefits to biological mothers.

The lengthy judgment further states that if this EI provision violates the rights of adoptive mothers, then it would also violate the rights of fathers, both biological and adoptive. Much emphasis was placed on pregnant women in the employment context explaining that pregnant women should have entitlements to reduce the risk of discrimination in the workplace while allowing them opportunity to have time off should the physical effects of pregnancy require it.

In an article on the Adoptive Families of BC website, Tomasson argues that EI serves a dual purpose: (1) it allows a biological mother time to overcome the physical effects of childbirth and (2) it allows mothers time to bond with the new child. She argues:

I find it to be a reasonable conclusion from the evidence that the large majority of pregnant women defer their leave time until after the delivery of the baby and they do so because of their desire to spend as much time as possible with the baby after the baby’s birth…I am satisfied on the evidence that the time spent by a mother in the first year attaching to its mother is critical to the child’s development.

Tomasson intends to appeal the case to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Currently in Ontario, the Employment Standards Act sets out the rights of parents wishing to take pregnancy and parental leave. The maximum duration of pregnancy leave an employer must provide under the Employment Standard Act is 17 weeks, which must be taken consecutively and can commence as early as 17 weeks before the child’s due date and ends on the child’s actual date of birth. Employment insurance benefits for the child can commence as early as 8 weeks prior to the expected birth date of the child, and as late as 17 weeks following the actual date of birth of the child. An employee taking any or all the time off provided under pregnancy leave is eligible to receive maternity benefits from the federal government employment insurance program for up to 15 weeks at the rate of 55% of their averaged insured earnings for up to a maximum of $413.00 per week.

The maximum duration of parental leave an employer must provide under the Employment Standard Act is 37 weeks. Each parent is entitled to this leave. A biological mother, who has taken maternity leave, is only entitled to 35 weeks of parental leave. Parental leave must be started within 52 weeks of the child’s birth, or if you are an adoptive parent, from the day the child is placed with you. An employee taking any or all the time off provided under parental leave is eligible to receive paternal benefits from the federal government employment insurance program for a maximum of 35 weeks between both parents at the rate of 55% of your averaged uninsured earnings up to a maximum of $413 per week. Therefore, if both parents take paternal leave together, then each parent is eligible for 17.5 weeks of benefits. If the parental leave is taken consecutively, then the first parent is eligible for a 37 week leave with 35 weeks of benefits, and the second parent is still entitled to a 37 week paternal leave from work, but will not be entitled to any more benefits. Parents can choose to allocate the benefits in any manner, but not to exceed 35 weeks of benefits between them.

Further information on employment insurance benefits can be found here. Information on leaves provided pursuant to the Employment Standards Act can be found here.

- Annie Noa Kenet, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/employment.html

Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines: "The Next Generation"

E-News and Views, DivorceMate's monthly newsletter, links this month to a new paper by Professors Carol Rogerson and Rollie Thompson, the authors of Canada's Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines.

The paper, The Spousal Support Guidelines in B.C. : The Next Generation, details the "embrace" by B.C. family courts of the Guidelines, the use of which have, according to the authors, "become a routine part of family law practice in B.C."

Professors Rogerson and Thompson previously canvassed the Canada-wide judicial treatment of the Spousal Support Guidelines in their April 2007 article, The Advisory Guidelines 27 Months Later.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/family.html

Judicial Bias on the Ontario Court of Appeal?

York University's Ylife reports on a strong suggestion of judicial predisposition, based on research by two Canadian law professors, James Stribopoulos of Osgoode Hall Law School and Moin Yahya of the University of Alberta Faculty of Law:

A new study by two law professors says two factors appear to influence the outcome of certain cases – which political party appointed the judge and the judge’s gender.

...Stribopoulos and Yahya looked at every reported decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal – Canada’s busiest appellate court – between 1990 and 2003 and collected data on votes cast by individual judges. Each case was categorized – as criminal or constitutional law, for example – and tracked based on variables such as the type of litigant, the political party that appointed the judge, and the judge’s gender.

"There is an assumption, mostly embraced by the Canadian legal establishment that, unlike their American counterparts, Canadian judges are apolitical in their judging," Stribopoulos says. "Our study empirically evaluated that assumption by analyzing over 4,000 reported judgments of the Ontario Court of Appeal over a 12-year period. In the process, we also decided to consider the potential influence of a judge's gender on case outcomes. The result, in a nutshell, is that – at least in some categories of cases – party of appointment and gender did indeed matter to case outcomes."

(h/t - Michael Fata)

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

Wrongfully Convicted

Kirk Bloodsworth of The Justice Project, as posted at Seeing the Forest:

My name is Kirk Bloodsworth, and my case was the first capital conviction case in the United States to be overturned through DNA testing. I was exonerated in 1993 after spending almost nine years in prison, including two on death row, for a crime I did not commit.

... My life changed dramatically when I was arrested for the rape and murder of 9-year-old Dawn Hamilton in August, 1984. I was arrested after an anonymous caller told police that I was seen with the victim the day of the crime and an identification made by a witness from a police sketch that was based on the recollections of five eyewitnesses.

Two little boys described the suspect as six feet five inches tall with a slim build and dirty blond hair – but at the time of my arrest, I was six feet tall, with a thick waist, fiery red hair, and long sideburns. Even so, I was identified in a line-up as the last man seen with the victim.

My family and friends swore that I was with them at the time of the murder, but the jury convicted me in less than three hours and I was sentenced to death for the crime.

I spent 8 years, 11 months, and 19 days behind bars before DNA testing proved my innocence. After years of urging, officials in Maryland finally ran the biological evidence that exonerated me through the state’s database, and it matched the DNA of the person who had committed the horrific crime.

Chilling.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

Markos at Yearly Kos - "I'm a Guy Who Built a Website"

Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, the "dean" of the progressive blogosphere, speaks at last weekend's Yearly Kos convention in Chicago:

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

CBC to Regulate Employees' Blogs?

I'm just about to leave for vacation, but this post from Inside the CBC caught my eye (on the way out the door):

Any CBC employee who wants to start a personal blog which “clearly associates them with CBC/Radio-Canada” now requires their supervisor’s permission, according to a new policy “guideline document.

The unsigned document [ed: The document came with an email that noted which office developed the guidelines] also states that this rule applies “not only to CBC/Radio-Canada journalists but to any corporation employee.”

Besides what you’d expect in a document like this, like not using the CBC’s resources (email, bandwidth, time, etc.) to update your blog, the policy states that such bloggers are “expected to behave in a way that is consistent with our journalistic philosophy, editorial values and corporate policies.”

According to the post linked above, the policy includes the following restrictions on speech:

Further, the blog cannot advocate for a group or a cause, or express partisan political opinion. It should also avoid controversial subjects or contain material that could bring CBC/Radio-Canada into disrepute.

To start and maintain a blog of this kind, you need your supervisor’s approval.

Needless to say, employment lawyers across Canada (the writer included) will be more than pleased to represent any CBC employee who has been subjected to discipline or job action as a result of this wrong-minded and apparently unconstitutional policy.

Please note, however, that Wise Law Blog has not yet had the opportunity to contact CBC to verify whether the report as to this policy is accurate. We will update.

(h/t - Saskboy)

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/employment.html/

Annie Kenet

Congratulations are in order for our intrepid Student-at-Law, Annie Noa Kenet, on the official completion this week of her Articles of Clerkship at Wise Law Office.

Regular readers will know Ms. Kenet as an occasional contributor to this Blog and as Wise Law's resident Facebook expert.

All of us at Wise Law are looking forward to Annie's Call to the Bar in September, 2007, and her continued, significant contributions to our firm's ongoing work.

So, congratulations to Annie on this important milestone - and for a job very well done - from Shashi, Diana, Justine, Bogdan and I.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

Today's Really Bad Idea: Ohio House of Representatives Edition

The Record Courier reports that Ohio Republicans have proposed a new law, giving men "final say" in whether or not a woman can legally have an abortion:

Several Ohio state representatives who normally take an anti-abortion stance are now pushing pro-choice legislation - sort of.

Led by Rep. John Adams, a group of state legislators have submitted a bill that would give fathers of unborn children a final say in whether or not an abortion can take place. It's a measure that, supporters say, would finally give fathers a choice.

"This is important because there are always two parents and fathers should have a say in the birth or the destruction of that child," said Adams, a Republican from Sidney. "I didn't bring it up to draw attention to myself or to be controversial. In most cases, when a child is born the father has financial responsibility for that child, so he should have a say."

As written, the bill would ban women from seeking an abortion without written consent from the father of the fetus. In cases where the identity of the father is unknown, women would be required to submit a list of possible fathers. The physician would be forced to conduct a paternity test from the provided list and then seek paternal permission to abort.

Claiming to not know the father's identity is not a viable excuse, according to the proposed legislation. Simply put: no father means no abortion.

"I'm really pleased that this has been proposed for one reason - it draws attention to the fact that many men are concerned and care for their unborn children," said Denise Mackura, the director of the Ohio Right to Life Society. "You have no idea how many men call telling me about their girlfriends who plan to abort, asking what they can do to help her. They do want to help and they should have a voice."

With the proposal, men would be guaranteed that voice under penalty of law. First time violators would by tried for abortion fraud, a first degree misdemeanor. The same would be the case for men who falsely claim to be fathers and for medical workers who knowingly perform an abortion without paternal consent.

In addition, women would be required to present a police report in order to prove a pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.

As is the case whenever abortion is the topic, sharp opposition has come from members of the House, along with multiple activist groups. The National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Activist League and the Ohio Right to Life Society have both spoken out against the legislation.

"This extreme bill shows just how far some of our state legislators are willing to go to rally a far-right base that is frustrated with the pro-choice gains made in the last election," said NARAL Pro-choice Ohio executive director Kellie Copeland. "It is completely out of touch with Ohio's mainstream values. This measure is a clear attack on a woman's freedom and privacy."

(h/t - Feministing via Crooks and Liars).

[Just curious - does the proposed legislation also entitle a father-to-be (if he can be found) to require an abortion where the mother-to-be insists on carrying a child against said Pappy-to-be's wishes? After all, don't these Republican legislators believe both parents must "have a say?"]

Thankfully, this oppressive legislation apparently has virtually no chance of passing.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

Student Charged for Recording 20 Second Video Clip in Movie Theatre

The Washington Post reports that a Virginia college student faces criminal charges after taking a 20 second video clip in a movie theatre of the Transformers finale, intending to show it to her brother:

Minutes later, two Arlington County police officers were pointing their flashlights at the young couple in the darkened theater and ordering them out. They confiscated the digital camera as evidence and charged Sejas, a Marymount University sophomore and Annandale resident, with a crime: illegally recording a motion picture.

... Sejas faces up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $2,500 when she goes to trial this month in the July 17 incident. Arlington police spokesman John Lisle said it was the decision of Regal Cinemas Ballston Common 12 to prosecute the case, a first for Arlington police.

...The movie industry needs to recognize that their audience isn't the enemy," said Cindy Cohn, general counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based nonprofit group that specializes in digital rights issues. "They need to stop treating their fans like criminals. . . . What they're doing is extremely unreasonable, coming down on this poor girl who was actually trying to promote their movie."

Copying a motion picture from a theater performance is a felony under the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005, punishable by up to three years in a federal prison. Several states, including Virginia, also have anti-piracy laws

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

Law Society Treasurer: Maclean's Article is "Yellow Journalism"

Maclean’s Magazine has ignited significant controversy in Canada's legal community with its August 6th cover story, Lawyers are Rats: Interview with Philip Slayton.

Slayton, a former Bay Street lawyer, law professor and law school dean is currently promoting his book, Lawyers Gone Bad: Money, Sex and Madness in Canada's Legal Profession.

Some choice snippets from the Maclean's interview:

Q: You taught law for 13 years, both at McGill and the University of Western Ontario, where you were the dean of law. Is there something about legal training that nudges lawyers toward amorality?

Slayton: Yes, I think so. Law students are taught and lawyers subsequently believe that it is not their job to pass judgment on their clients as people, or to pass judgment on what their clients want to do. Lawyers are enablers. They are there to try to do what their client wants, and are in many cases paid handsomely for it. The whole question of the values behind the rules of the legal system is not on the whole of great interest to law schools or the legal profession. And there's an additional point: lawyers are taught to manipulate the rules in favour of their clients. If you're a manipulator of rules, then you can't respect the rules as such or believe that they incorporate important values....

Q: Have you ever felt embarrassed to tell people you're a lawyer?

Slayton: When people on airplanes ask what I do, I say I'm in auto parts. No one wants to talk about auto parts. But if you tell them you're a lawyer, everybody has a story about how they were screwed by a lawyer, or the terrible thing a lawyer did to Aunt Bessie.

Gavin MacKenzie, Treasurer of the Law Society of Upper Canada, responded to the Maclean’s article by way of a forceful statement distributed to the press and Law Society members.

Alleging a wholesale lack of journalistic investigation by interviewer Kate Fillion and shameless self-promotion by Mr. Slayton, McKenzie pulled no punches:

Maclean's Magazine has decided to fill the yellow journalism void created by the decision of Weekly World News to cease publication. Its cover story this week is titled Lawyers are Rats. The cover features photographs of supposedly representative lawyers with captions that read "I'm dishonest" and "I take bribes". The cover promises an exclusive interview with a "top legal scholar and ex-Bay Street partner" who "expose” the corruption of his profession."

The promised exposé is an interview with an author who is promoting a book that can be found in the True Crime section of your local bookstore. The book features 15 or 20 lawyers and former lawyers who were disciplined for egregious misconduct. Some were also convicted of serious criminal offences. The exposé is in fact enabled by the transparent nature of the discipline process the author condemns.

Maclean's allows these few stories to stand unquestioned as representative of the legal profession, even though the author says in his book what one would hope would be obvious to any fair-minded editor of a national newsmagazine: "Only a few lawyers are dishonest. Most behave honourably, serving their clients, profession and community well. My stories of dishonest lawyers are about a handful of people in a profession that now, in Canada, has over ninety thousand members."

Yet in the Maclean's article the author is dismissive of this obvious response to his unconvincing attempt to extrapolate from the misdeeds of the few: "I know lawyers are going to say, 'Come on, he's talking about 15 or 20 members of a profession that has 90,000.' But in telling these stories I'm trying to extract general ideas."

The general ideas he is trying to extract, the author goes on to say, include "the amoral nature of legal practice". The clear implication from both the Maclean's cover and the interview itself is that the reprehensible conduct of the thieves, conmen and sexual predators featured in the book is somehow typical of the legal profession, that lawyers generally are venal, duplicitous, and fraudulent. The author reinforces this implication in a follow-up interview on Maclean's website, in which he says that though he had nothing to do with the cover, he "quite liked it."…

Mr. Slayton, however, may unwittingly have shown his own true colours in this exchange in the interview:

Q: Did you ever pad your bills?

Slayton: My carefully considered answer is that I was part of the legal culture of the times and I did what it demanded. [emphasis added]

We see.

It was the evil partners that made him do it. Or maybe he was just soooooo stressed out...

Yes, there are occasional bad apples in the legal profession. Some of them apparently write books, too.

We do not wish to imply that Mr. Slayton's every comment is objectionable. He raises important issues, at time eloquently.

His attempt, however, to equate the legal profession as a whole with the anomolies featured in his book is, to say the least, a pretty significant stretch.

And it just ain't so.

Essentially, Slayton reveals himself to be more court jester than legal scholar.

His hyperbole is neither serious nor particularly newsworthy. In taking his bait, MacLean's regrettably crosses the line that has traditionally distinguished genuine journalism from tabloid infotainment.

That is an unfortunate descent for Canada's newsmagazine.

- Garry J. Wise and Annie Noa Kenet, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

Scott Ritter - Former U.N. Weapons Inspector

I've just come upon this March 2007 essay by former UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter, in which he provides the most cogent and detailed explanation I've yet read regarding the Sunni - Shia rift in Islam.

First, however, he delivers a scathing indictment of America's failure to grasp the historical and cultural roots of insurgent violence in Iraq:

Calling Out Idiot America

Congress’ smoke-and-mirrors approach to the Iraq war creates the impression of much activity while generating no result. Even more sadly, the majority of Americans are falling for the act, either by continuing their past trend of political disengagement or by thinking that the gesticulation and pontification taking place in Washington, D.C., actually translate into useful work. The fact is, most Americans are ill-placed intellectually, either through genuine ignorance, a lack of curiosity or a combination of both, to judge for themselves the efficacy of congressional behavior when it comes to Iraq. Congress claims to be searching for a solution to Iraq, and many Americans simply accept that this is this case.

The fact is one cannot begin to search for a solution to a problem that has yet to be accurately defined. We speak of “surges,” “stability” and “funding” as if these terms come close to addressing the real problems faced in Iraq. There is widespread recognition among members of Congress and the American people that there is civil unrest in Iraq today, with Iraqi-on-Iraqi violence tearing that country apart, but the depth of analysis rarely goes beyond that obvious statement of fact. Americans might be able to nod their heads knowingly if one utters the words Sunni, Shiite and Kurd, but very few could take the conversation much further down the path of genuine comprehension regarding the interrelationships among these three groups. And yet we, the people, are expected to be able to hold to account those whom we elected to represent us in higher office, those making the decisions regarding the war in Iraq. How can the ignorant accomplish this task?

After posing this question, Ritter then provides a fascinating historical backgrounder as to the ancient break between Sunni and Shia.

Karbala is a holy city for the Shiites. Its status as such is based on the fact that Hussein, a grandson of the prophet Muhammad and son of Ali, the fourth caliph, was killed outside Karbala in a battle between Hussein’s followers and forces loyal to Yazid, son of Muawiyah, the fifth caliph. The two sides were fighting over the line of succession when it came to leading the Muslim faithful after the death of Muhammad in the year 632. Abu Bakr, a close colleague of Muhammad but not a member of Muhammad’s biological family, was elected as the first caliph after the prophet’s death, an act that many Muslims believed broke faith with a necessity for the successor of Muhammad to be from his family. Abu Bakr’s death brought about a quick succession of caliphs, all of whom met untimely deaths and none of whom were from the family line of Muhammad.

When Ali was elected as the fourth caliph, many Muslims believed that for the first time since the death of Muhammad the caliphate had been restored to one properly authorized in the eyes of God to lead the Muslim faith. In fact, upon Ali’s accession as caliph, one of his first acts was to seek to restore the Muslim faith to its puritanical origins, which Ali believed had been departed from by the merchant families closely allied with the third caliph, Othman. Ali’s efforts were bitterly resisted by merchant families in Damascus, which refused to recognize Ali as the caliph. The head of the Damascus rebels, Muawiyah, fought a bitter conflict with Ali, which weakened the caliphate and paved the way for Ali’s assassination.

Upon Ali’s death, the caliphate was transferred to his elder son, Hassan, but when this succession was challenged by Muawiyah, Hassan relented, transferring the caliphate to Muawiyah with the caveat that once Muawiyah died, the caliphate would be returned to the lineage of the prophet Muhammad. When Muawiyah died, the caliphate passed to his son, Yazid. This succession was challenged by Hussein, Hassan’s brother and Ali’s younger son, who believed that the succession, as dictated by Hassan when he abdicated, should have gone to someone within the direct line of the prophet Muhammad, namely Hussein. Yazid’s treacherous attack on Hussein and his followers, occurring as it did during prayer time, set the stage for the split in the Muslim faith between the Shiat Ali (Shia, or followers of Ali) and the Ahl-i Sunnah (Sunni, or the people who follow in the custom of the prophet Muhammad). Both Shiite and Sunni view one another as deviants from the pure form of Islam as taught by Muhammad, and as such functioning as apostates deserving death.

Ritter's historical treatise continues to the present:

Wahhabi concerns over the weakening of the Muslim world by those who practiced anything other than pure Islam were certified in the minds of the faithful when, in April 2003, American soldiers captured Baghdad in what many Wahhabis viewed as a repeat of the sack of the city at the hands of the Mongols in 1258. Adding insult to injury, the role of Iraq’s Shiites in aiding and abetting the American conquest was seen as proof positive that the only salvation for the faithful could come at the hands of a pure form of the Islamic faith, that of Wahhabism. As the American liberation dragged on into the American occupation, and the level of violence between the Shiites and Sunnis grew, the call of jihad as promulgated by the Wahhabis gained increasing credence among the tribes of western Iraq.

Ritter's article is a must (but not an easy) read.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

Today's Really Bad Idea - British Parliamentary Edition

BBC News reports today on Britain's draft Human Tissue and Embryos Bill, now under consideration by a Parliamentary Committee:

Children born with the help of donated sperm or eggs should have the fact recorded on their birth certificates, a group of MPs and peers has suggested.

They say the measure would give parents an incentive to discuss the topic before children found out themselves.

... At present, a child conceived using donated sperm or eggs can grow up not knowing this fact, if his or her parents choose not to reveal it. They only gain the right to check on their parentage at the age of 18.

The committee said that this amounted to the state being party to a "lie" and called on ministers to give consideration to compelling parents to include the detail on the birth certificate.

But Liberal Democrat science spokesman Dr Evan Harris said the recommendation was a "bizarre and intrusive solution to a problem that has never been demonstrated to exist."

This proposal is indeed intrusive. It is also wholly devoid of compassion, entirely unnecessary and very likely to cause permanent emotional harm to children.

In fact, it s so ridiculous and objectionable on so many levels, I don't even know where to begin....

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

"I Have No Plans At This Time..."

This blog uses a terrific service called Site Meter to collect statistics regarding our blog traffic and to tell us how some of our readers find us.

Checking our site stats is a regular hobby, I must confess. It is often fascinating.

Yesterday, for example, we had a visitor from Thornhill, Ontario who found Wise Law Blog using the Google search string below:

Thanks, Thornhill reader, but with regard to Ottawa, I have no such plans at this time...

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

More Americans Moving to Canada

From CBC:

The number of Americans admitted to Canada last year reached a 30-year high, with a 20 per cent increase over the previous year and nearly double the number that arrived in 2000.

The results of a survey, conducted by the Association for Canadian Studies, also revealed that the so-called "brain drain" of Canada appears to be narrowing.

The survey found that 10,942 Americans came to Canada in 2006, compared to just over 9,262 in 2005. In 2000, 5,828 came to the country.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

The Worst Canadian?

I don't think so...

Really.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

Sunday Funny - Bush In Charge

Vice President Dick Cheney underwent successful surgery heart surgery yesterday to replace a battery in his pacemaker.

As events broke, Wonkette brought the unfolding news to an anxious America:

Friday's Wonkette Dispatch:

The procedure is just the latest of so very many operations for Cheney, who has already racked up “four heart attacks, quadruple bypass surgery, two artery-clearing angioplasties and an operation to implant the defibrillator.”

During Bush’s time as “president” tomorrow morning, he is expected to play with his dogs and maybe work on his fort in the back yard.

Saturday's Wonkette Health Update:

Vice” president Dick Cheney had his robotic heart replaced this morning, apparently without complications, and “resumed his normal schedule” of whatever he does on Saturday afternoons — probably reading the new Harry Potter book, working in the garden, or bombing some Muslims somewhere, possibly in Iran this time.

While Cheney was under the knife, George W. Bush enjoyed two hours of being “in charge.” White House spokesman Tony Snow said Bush sat in Cheney’s chair, pretended to talk to “big important people” and “the King of China” on the telephone, appointed his dogs to the Supreme Court, and had “secret service agents” accompany him to lunch at an Applebee’s in suburban Maryland, where he enjoyed a “presidential burger” with curly fries and then had some ice cream.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

Quote of the Day

Matthew Yglesias:

There have been some inappropriate pardons in the past, but pardoning your own subordinates for official misconduct undertaken in support of your political goals has opened up a whole new can of worms. Gonzalez and anyone else can lie, stonewall, refuse to comply as much as they like, secure in the knowledge that not a single person will serve a single minute in prison for anything they do on George W. Bush's behalf.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: www.wiselaw.net

A Most 'Difficult' Witness:

To other lawyers out there - how would you handle a witness like this?

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

Condi, Then and Now

From SFGate:

I remember the heady days for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice...

How things change.

A few months ago, she decided to write an opinion piece about Lebanon. She enlisted John Chambers, chief executive officer of Cisco Systems as a co-author, and they wrote about public/private partnerships and how they might be of use in rebuilding Lebanon after last summer's war. No one would publish it.

Think about that. Every one of the major newspapers approached refused to publish an essay by the secretary of state. Price Floyd, who was the State Department's director of media affairs until recently, recalls that it was sent to the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and perhaps other papers before the department finally tried a foreign publication, the Financial Times of London, which also turned it down.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

The Democratic "YouTube" Debate

The full debate video is here. Here's one clip to start:

Update: TPM has now posted a highlights real.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

Will Facebook Overtake Google?

Ann All, the writer of this article from itbusinessedge, thinks so:

Despite the Internet’s famously short attention span, Google has been the most buzz-worthy tech company for nearly a decade. Computerworld recently named the search giant the top e-commerce development of the past 10 years.

Yet, now Google appears to be in danger of losing that status to Facebook.

Once merely an also-ran to MySpace, Facebook is now being touted as “a do-everything site with the potential to devour the whole Internet,” according to a Slate article. The article speculates that Facebook wants to become “an all-encompassing portal” similar to MyYahoo or iGoogle.

While that prediction sounded radical enough when first published in late June, it now seems almost laughably small-potatoes in light of the current speculation following Facebook’s acquisition of Parakey, a Web-based operating system created by two co-founders of Firefox.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

The Wise Law Blogroll

It's long overdue, but I have finally added a Blogroll of the writers and blogs I regularly frequent.

These outstanding sites are truly worthy of your support. I highly recommend all of them.

AmericaBlog
Andrew Sullivan
Atrios
John Cole - Balloon Juice
Cathie From Canada
Crooks and Liars
Daily Kos
Digby
Firedoglake
Glen Greenwald
Memeorandum
Seeing the Forest - Dave Johnson
Talking Points Memo
The Raw Story
Taylor Marsh
The Debatable Land
Think Progress
Welcome to Pottersville
James Wolcott - Vanity Fair
Matthew Yglesias

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

MSNBC: Islam in America

From Islam in America: A Special Report - Newsweek:

'Great question,' answered the president. 'I'm confident your answer is, 'I love living in America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, the country where you can come and ask the president a question and a country where—' Are you a Muslim?'

'Yes,' answered Siddiq.

'Where you can worship your religion freely. It's a great country where you can do that.'

It was a good answer, says Siddiq, but not enough for him—not when he, a financial adviser at a major investment bank, is afraid to use the bathroom on flights because he doesn't want to frighten his fellow passengers as he walks down the aisle.

He thinks anti-Muslim sentiment in the country is getting worse, not better.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

Tammy Faye Bakker-Messner (1942 - 2007)

Tammy Faye Messner has died.

Love her or not, it is undeniable that she caught - and held - the public's imagination for more than three decades.

Was her allure simply in her calculated elevation of overarching sentimentality to an art form? Or perhaps, was she more the perpetual "victim," faithfully surviving one "unbearable" adversity after another - always, of course, in full public view?

Tammy Faye Bakker-Messner had a unique ability to engender sympathy and action - long before the PTL scandals, it was her chronic tears that drew attention to her trademark mascara, running down her cheeks, as she cried plaintively for help - and at times, money.

As an icon of 1970's and 80's, she carved a lasting place for herself in the world of celebrity camp, and to her very end, maintained that slightly outrageous, ever-enduring public persona.

True to form, her final appearance on Larry King last week will leave us with another unforgettable, if garish, image of an icon staying "in role" while facing her end with remarkable grace.

She was an original.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

Marriage and Children of Divorce

I do not consider this breaking news, by any stretch, but Australian research confirms the high risk of marital breakdown faced by children of divorce:

The propensity toward divorce does not lie mainly in the genes, new research suggests.

An Australian study of twins and their grown children finds that family history plays a key role, however. Adults whose own parents had split had nearly twice the risk of going through a divorce themselves, the researchers found.

But there is no "gene" for divorce, so to speak, said lead researcher Brian M. D'Onofrio, an Indiana University psychologist. "Genetic factors that influence both generations do not [significantly] account for that increased risk," he said.

The findings are published in the August issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family.
Prior studies have found that a higher percentage of divorced people come from families split by divorce. That raised the question of whether genes, "could account for the increased risk of marital instability in offspring of divorce," D'Onofrio explained. His team is the first "to test out that possibility and, in large part, rule out the role of genetic factors," he said.

The research did not completely eliminate all genetic factors, however. According to D'Onofrio, about 66 percent of the increased risk for divorce appears to stem from the simple fact of a person's parents having been divorced. The remaining 34 percent of the risk seemed to be tied to genetic factors, as well as other factors affecting parents and children.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

Propaganda and the Press

Cartoonist Tom Tomorrow nails it at Salon.com:

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

High Court Rules: Update on the Playfoots

I wrote about the Playfoots last month.

Yahoo News has an update:

LONDON (Reuters) - A teen-ager whose teachers had stopped her wearing a "purity ring" at school to symbolize her commitment to virginity lost a High Court fight against the ban Monday.

... Playfoot's parents are key members of the British arm of the American chastity campaign group the Silver Ring Thing, a religious group which urges abstinence among young people.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

Take the Live Earth Pledge

Take the Live Earth Pledge:

I PLEDGE:

1. To demand that my country join an international treaty within the next 2 years that cuts global warming pollution by 90% in developed countries and by more than half worldwide in time for the next generation to inherit a healthy earth;


2. To take personal action to help solve the climate crisis by reducing my own CO2 pollution as much as I can and offsetting the rest to become "carbon neutral;"


3. To fight for a moratorium on the construction of any new generating facility that burns coal without the capacity to safely trap and store the CO2;


4. To work for a dramatic increase in the energy efficiency of my home, workplace, school, place of worship, and means of transportation;


5. To fight for laws and policies that expand the use of renewable energy sources and reduce dependence on oil and coal;


6. To plant new trees and to join with others in preserving and protecting forests; and,


7. To buy from businesses and support leaders who share my commitment to solving the climate crisis and building a sustainable, just, and prosperous world for the 21st century.

Watch the concerts here.

Don't miss Melissa Etheridge in New York, and Yusuf (Cat Stevens) in Germany.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

President Bush Commutes Scooter Libby's Jail Sentence

An explanation from TPM:

I havent seen this noted but I think the reason for the commutation is that a pardon would mean that Libby was no longer exposed to criminal sanctions and thus had no Fifth Amendment privilege. As it stands he has a fine and probation at stake during the pendency of the appeal which insulates him (and Bush and Cheney) from having to answer questions before Congress.

Editorial boards at leading newspapers across America weigh in.

An eventual, full pardon is apparently still on the table (but only if Libby asks for it). Bush spokesman Tony Snow:

"The reason I will say I'm not going to close a door on a pardon is simply this: that Scooter Libby may petition for one," Snow said. "But the president has done what he thinks is appropriate to resolve this case."

"There is always a possibility - or there's an avenue open - for anybody to petition for consideration of a pardon," he added.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

Colbert: "Profiles in Timing"

On Senator Lugar's about-face on the war: "Months in the making, weeks in the writing."

Colbert has some choice comments for leaders with the "courage to wait."

Crooks and Liars has the video, also found at Comedy Central.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/

"Michael Moore Saved My Home"

If you haven't yet seen the video attacking Ontario's health care system in yesterday's post, check it out after watching the one below:

(h/t Susie Madrak, who originally posted this video)

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Website: http://www.wiselaw.net/