THE LAWYERS WEEKLY Vol. 24, No. 9 SERVING CANADA’S LEGAL COMMUNITY SINCE 1983 July 2, 2004 SCC rulings limit secrecy of anti-terrorism hearings By Cristin Schmitz Section 83.28 empowers a Dissenters , Louis Ottawa judge, on application by police, to LeBel and would In a pair of landmark rulings order the compelled examination also have barred the adjourned under Canada’s new anti-ter- of a person by the Crown at an investigative hearing from pro- rorism law, a divided Supreme investigative hearing if there are ceeding further at this time Court of Canada has held that reasonable grounds to believe a because they found the Crown’s “judicial investigative hearings” terrorist offence has been or will move was not aimed solely at fur- pass constitutional muster but be committed. thering the ongoing terrorist safeguards must apply, including The section’s constitutionality investigation of the Air India a presumption that such hearings was challenged in B.C. Supreme bombings. will be open to the public. Court last year at the first such The minority held that the Seven of nine members of the hearing in Canada by a previously Crown abused the trial court’s court (Justices Morris Fish and “unnamed person” (revealed on process by attempting to use the Louis LeBel dissenting) upheld the day of the Supreme Court’s novel investigative hearing proce- the constitutionality of s. 83.28 of decision to be Satnam Kaur dure as a way to “bootstrap” its the Criminal Code, one of the Reyat, the wife of a man con- case at the parallel and ongoing most controversial and novel pro- victed of manslaughter in the murder conspiracy trial of two SWEARING OUT — Justice reacts to a pun visions of the Anti-terrorism Act 1985 Air India bombings), who other Air India accused, Ripu- during a ceremony last week marking his retirement from the enacted within weeks of the Sep- did not wish to be forced to tes- daman Malik and Ajaib Bagri. . Beside him, also smiling, is Chief Jus- tember 11, 2001 attacks in the tify at the secret hearing in Van- tice Beverley McLachlin. Story, page 3. CP Photo United States. couver. see TERRORISM p.8 Convicted in wife’s death, Federal Crown agents billed $63.5 M Clayton Johnson wins for criminal, civil work in 2003-04 By Cristin Schmitz its ongoing defence of the Crown the softwood lumber war and $2.5-million compensation Ottawa in an action by several oil-owning other trade disputes with the U.S. By donalee Moulton in line with most other high-pro- Drug prosecutions, Canada- Alberta Indian bands alleging have inflated the federal Crown Halifax file cases of wrongful conviction U.S. trade wars and aboriginal liti- breach of fiduciary duty. agent tab, channeling some $13 A Shelburne, N.S., man who in Canada. This includes Donald gation fueled another record fed- Unfortunately, for the first time million to U.S. lawyers, about the spent five years in jail for his Marshall Jr., who was paid less eral Crown agent tab in 2003-04. in 15 years a detailed breakdown same as the year before. wife’s apparently accidental death than $200,000 in 1984 for his The federal government will of the $63.5 million Crown agent The other “war” that always has received $2.5 million from the eleven years in prison, an amount pay law firms in Canada and the tab is not available to our readers. racks up the single biggest charges Nova Scotia government. later increased to a $1.5 million United States $63.5 million for Justice Minister Irwin Cotler’s on the government’s outside legal The payment, stemming from lifetime pension. Benoit Proulx legal work done in the fiscal year director of communications, bill — the war on drugs — seems an out-of-court settlement of a was awarded $1.6 million after he that ended March 31, marginally Denise Rudnicki, ordered justice to be in a holding pattern, with flat lawsuit Clayton Johnson launched spent two months in jail for being more than the previous year’s department officials not to give spending for the past three years. in 2002 against the province, the wrongfully convicted of killing record $63.3 million, according The Lawyers Weekly details of Prosecutions in 2003-04 will RCMP and the Nova Scotia his ex-girlfriend, and Guy Paul to Department of Justice (DOJ) government payments made to the cost an estimated $21 million, Public Prosecution Service, Morin got $1.4 million for being records obtained by The Lawyers Top 20 Crown agents or to indi- down slightly from $21.9 million brings to a close a saga that began incarcerated for the first-degree Weekly. vidual law firms that billed over in 2002-03 but the same as in with the death in 1989 of his wife murder of nine-year-old Christine The projected amount billed to $100,000 in 2003-2004. This is 2001-02. Janice. Jessop, which DNA evidence sub- the Department of Indian and the first such refusal since the see AGENTS p.3 “I’m pleased that we have been sequently proved he did not Northern Affairs (DIAND) — paper began its annual series pro- able to reach an amicable settle- commit. David Milgaard, wrongly mainly for the defence of land filing federal spending on outside CONTENTS p.2 ment,” said Justice Minister convicted of murdering nursing claims and residential schools law firms. Michael Baker. “This is a fair assistant Gail Miller, received $10 lawsuits — is $7.1 million, up Crown-agent spending has agreement.” million from the province and the from $ 6.9 million in 2002-03 and mushroomed since then, even Johnson’s lawyer agrees. “$2.5 federal government, believed to $4.7 million in each of the two though hourly rates paid by the million is an entirely reasonable be the highest payout in the world. previous years. government have been frozen for amount,” Wylie Spicer of Hal- Two key factors were at play in The biggest slice of the aborig- more than a decade. In 1997-98 ifax’s McInnes, Cooper told The resolving the issue amicably and inal litigation pie will go to Cal- the total Crown-agent bill was just Lawyers Weekly in an interview. equitably. gary’s Macleod Dixon, which $38.2 million. He noted that the amount was see JOHNSON p.6 billed $4.3 million in 2002-03 for For the third consecutive year, COMING NEXT ISSUE COMING JULY 16,COMING JULY 2004 23,COMING JULY 2004 FOCUS ON INSURANCE

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