I have no doubt the Ghost of Justice Gerald Le Dain feels greatly honoured to have such a daughter.

Its a very small world when it comes to politicians and lawyers N'esy Pas?

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/the-sunday-edition-january-14-2018-1.4471379/he-didn-t-have-a-choice-how-depression-cost-gerald-le-dain-his-supreme-court-post-1.4471385

Sunday January 14, 2018

'He didn't have a choice': How depression cost Gerald Le Dain his Supreme Court post

"It was, she thought, a routine request.

Cynthia Le Dain, Justice Gerald Le Dain's wife, had gone to the Supreme Court of Canada. It was September 1988 and the court was about to start its fall session. But her husband had been struggling with his workload. He was anxious, not sleeping and had just been diagnosed with depression. She feared he was heading for a breakdown. So she asked Chief Justice Brian Dickson if he could have some time off.

Expecting compassion and permission for a short reprieve for her ailing husband, she was instead confronted with a response that stunned her: Gerald's judging days were over.

Le Dain was a tireless worker, a highly respected judge and had served on the court for four years. But within two weeks, an officer of the court was sent to Le Dain's home to formalize his exit.

"He didn't have a choice," says Caroline Burgess, the couple's daughter. "There was no offer of support. No sense that his illness was treatable, that he could come back. What could he have done? Get a lawyer and fight it? He was ill."


"Dickson died in 1998, but his handling of Le Dain's illness is chronicled in a biography co-authored by Robert J. Sharpe, Dickson's executive legal officer at the time.

Sharpe declined The Sunday Edition's request for an interview, but he wrote in 2003 that while it was "a difficult and distasteful decision," Dickson "was persuaded that Le Dain's prognosis was poor" and that the court, facing a large backlog of cases, "simply could not afford to wait" for him to recover."

Robert J. Sharpe

Robert Sharpe is a member of the Court of Appeal for Ontario. He taught at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto from 1976 to 1988 and served under Chief Justice Brian Dickson as Executive Legal Officer at the Supreme Court Canada from 1988 to 1990. Robert Sharpe was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto in 1990, to the Ontario Court of Justice (General Division) in 1995 and to the Court of Appeal in 1999. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, 1991, Senior Fellow of Massey College, and was awarded the Mundell Medal for Distinguished Contribution to Law and Letters in 2009. In 2011, he was appointed as a Visiting Professor, Oxford University and received honorary doctorate degrees from the Law Society of Upper Canada and the University of Windsor. His publications include Brian Dickson: A Judge’s Journey (with Kent Roach) (2003), The Charter of Rights and Freedoms (with Kent Roach) (5^th ed. 2013), The Persons Case: The Origins and Legacy of the Fight for Legal Personhood (with Patricia McMahon) (2007) and The Lazier Murder, Prince Edward County, 1884 (2011).

I know that he is not the dude that yaps within CBC on a daily basis but they do share the same last name and location. It appears that the other Sharp dude can post whatever he wishes but CBC blocks me and even deleted my ID because I argue people such as he. Go Figure I figure this is the Sharp dude in CBC

http://www.privacyconsulting.ca/richard-sharp/ 

Sharp Privacy and ATI Consulting Inc.

Richard Sharp has been a privacy advocate, coordinator and consultant since 1977, perhaps longer than anyone else in Canada. Security cleared to Top Secret, he has the experience, skills and abilities to address any privacy issue you might face, big or small.
-------------------------------
Richard began privacy consulting fresh out of business school, helping the Correctional Service of Canada prepare for Part IV (privacy) of the new Canadian Human Rights Act. Inmates and parolees provided a “captive” market for access re-quests and complaints, so he set records for contract renewals. Richard also provided ATIP consulting services to Indian and Northern Affairs and Agriculture Canada. In 1983, he took six months off to help nurture his baby daughter. What a joy that was!

Damage done, Richard signed a privacy consulting contract with Canada Post, where he broke his previous record for renewals. In 1987, he was hired permanently as Canada Post’s corporate privacy coordinator, which he remained until leaving in 2005. The labour relations climate was often challenging and union members also made frequent use of the Privacy Act. Over the years, Richard has managed responses to 20,000 access requests and resolved 2,000 complaints.

Richard is a recognized privacy expert, having been published and presented at privacy and human rights conferences dozens of times. His most recent privacy article can be found in the December 2005/January 2006 edition of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ The CCPA Monitor (www.policyalternatives.ca).

Richard also managed Canada Post’s human rights program for two years, with considerable success. He was active in the development and implementation of many corporate policies throughout his career. He was the “go to” guy while working in Corporate Affairs, facilitating the work of various executive committees and the Board of Directors.

Education

• Master of Business Administration, 1977, University of Ottawa (Winner: Scholastic Merit Award for highest marks in his class)
• Bachelor of Arts (Political Science and Economics), 1973, Carleton University

------------------------------
“Privacy is about building trust with your customers, employees and others important to your organization. It’s more than a set of legal rights and obligations. It’s a precondition of human dignity and autonomy. Every single individual needs a reasonable degree of privacy, including and even especially at work.”

 

Email: rsharp@privacyconsulting.ca
Phone:  (613) 620-1745

 

http://davidraymondamos3.blogspot.ca/2018/01/methinks-our-little-lady-foreign.html

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberal-marijuana-pardon-legal-1.4484496

Trudeau says pot purchasers are funding gangs, organized crime and must be charged

Liberal government looks at options to erase criminal records for possessing pot, but not until it's legal

By Kathleen Harris, CBC News Posted: Jan 12, 2018 11:39 AM ET 

2670 Comments
Commenting is now closed for this story.



Norma Mathers

Just pardon all past possession charges .They were stupid charges to begin with

David Amos

@Norma Mathers My question is whereas Trudeau "The Younger" has already admitted to smoking dope and there were witnesses present to testify to that fact then why have Goodale and the RCMP not charged him yet?

 

Richard Sharp

@David Amos

I remember smoking a joint with friends in the stairwell at the Skyline hotel In Ottawa 40 or so years ago at a Liberal (PET) convention. There were Mounties everywhere but they were interested in protecting lives, not busting potheads.

 

 

http://davidraymondamos3.blogspot.ca/2017/12/the-liebranos-big-joke-this-week-was.html

Tuesday, 12 December 2017

The LIEbranos big joke this week was nominating the crooked lawyer Mario Dion as ethics watchdog 

 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/mario-dion-ethics-commissioner-1.4443365

Mario Dion nominated as new federal ethics watchdog

If approved, former public sector integrity commissioner would replace Mary Dawson

By John Paul Tasker, CBC News Posted: Dec 11, 2017 3:24 PM ET


  314 Comments
Commenting is now closed for this story.

 

 

 

David Raymond Amos

@Mike Trout Perhaps ethical folks should Google two names

Mario Dion David Amos

Bill Nazarene

@Mike Trout

ReformCons would have preferred a Peter Kent but the Government went another route and made an arm's length choice, preferring well-credentialed integrity.

Go figure...

 

David Raymond Amos

@Bill Nazarene FYI I just got off the phone with Peter Kent's office

Dustin Carey

@Mike Trout

I see your grasp of definitions is as skewed as your grasp of reality.

 

David Raymond Amos

@Dustin Carey You don't think the fix is in?

  
alan boucain

Is Mary Dawson going to complete the files on her desk? Don't understand why it's taking so long to make a judgement on Trudeau's secret holiday to the Aga Khan's island.

David Raymond Amos

@alan boucain "Is Mary Dawson going to complete the files on her desk?

The answer you seek can be found by Googling three names

Mary Dawson David Amos Philippe Joly

 

William Ben

The Liberals are back!

Jean Chretien was always cunning with his appointments when he was hiding something too!

Richard Sharp

And my claim that you have no proof goes unchallenged for 3 hours now. Say something?

 

Charlie Wood

@Richard Sharp

When evidence is provided, you deny. Why offer proof?

 

David Raymond Amos

@Richard Sharp I offer proof all the time and you ignore it.

If yoy truly care try Googling the names I offered Mr Boucain and Mr Trout in the comment threads above this one

 

David Raymond Amos

@Charlie Wood When I offer proof I am either blocked instantly or simply ignored

  
bill chagwich

Now Justin and Morneau will be exonerated, a liberal working for a liberal

Tony Belmore

@bill chagwich And yet harper appointed the guy twice.

 

David Raymond Amos

@bill chagwich FYI Both Ferguson and Dion were Harper appointees

"In 2014, Michael Ferguson, Canada's auditor general, publicly rebuked Dion's performance as the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner of Canada, an office that is supposed to protect public servants who blow the whistle on wrongdoing within the federal government. Dion was appointed commissioner after the previous commissioner resigned amid complaints about the office."

 

David Raymond Amos

@Tony Belmore "And yet harper appointed the guy twice."

Thats because he is a "fixit" guy

  

Jay Bertsch

In another article on CBC an expert said Dion is part of a group of "lifelong bureaucrats who come from a culture where protecting those above you is a career-enhancing prerequisite." How is he a good choice for this role for anyone other than the Liberals?

David Raymond Amos

@Jay Bertsch "Dion is part of a group of "lifelong bureaucrats who come from a culture where protecting those above you is a career-enhancing prerequisite."

Methinks that is a perfect description of most politicians, bureaucrats and cops not just one very sneaky lawyer climbing back on the gravy train.

mia stalling

@David Raymond Amos ]

Sad life being known to the police

 

 

 

 http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/the-sunday-edition-january-14-2018-1.4471379/he-didn-t-have-a-choice-how-depression-cost-gerald-le-dain-his-supreme-court-post-1.4471385

Sunday January 14, 2018

'He didn't have a choice': How depression cost Gerald Le Dain his Supreme Court post

Former Supreme Court Justice Gerald Le Dain. (Harry Palmer)

By Bonnie Brown, CBC News

It was, she thought, a routine request.

Cynthia Le Dain, Justice Gerald Le Dain's wife, had gone to the Supreme Court of Canada. It was September 1988 and the court was about to start its fall session. But her husband had been struggling with his workload. He was anxious, not sleeping and had just been diagnosed with depression. She feared he was heading for a breakdown. So she asked Chief Justice Brian Dickson if he could have some time off.

Justice Gerald Le Dain in his Supreme Court of Canada robes. (Supreme Court of Canada Collection)

Expecting compassion and permission for a short reprieve for her ailing husband, she was instead confronted with a response that stunned her: Gerald's judging days were over.

Le Dain was a tireless worker, a highly respected judge and had served on the court for four years. But within two weeks, an officer of the court was sent to Le Dain's home to formalize his exit.

"He didn't have a choice," says Caroline Burgess, the couple's daughter. "There was no offer of support. No sense that his illness was treatable, that he could come back. What could he have done? Get a lawyer and fight it? He was ill."

'It was devastating to him. His identity — his life, in a sense, had been taken away from him.' — Caroline Burgess, Gerald Le Dain's daughter

Burgess says being forced to give up his prestigious and highly public position intensified the severity of her father's illness and that his condition "rapidly became almost critical." He was admitted to hospital soon after.

"It was devastating to him. His identity — his life, in a sense, had been taken away from him."
Le Dain's formal resignation was announced in November 1988. He was 63 years old. He recovered from his illness, but he never worked again.

'A man ahead of his time'

A devoted family man with six children, Le Dain is often described as a charismatic and intense man, with a brilliant mind and a playful sense of humour. He'd had a stellar career as a lawyer, a law professor at McGill University and a professor and dean of Osgoode Hall Law School. He also served nine years on the Federal Court of Appeal before his appointment to the Supreme Court.

Yet he's remembered almost exclusively for his work as chair of the four-year Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs in the early 1970s.

Gerald Le Dain, third from left, sits as chair of the Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs​ with members of the commission, circa 1970. (Submitted by the Le Dain family)

It was internationally renowned for both its ambitious research into recreational drug use, and its recommendations to decriminalize the possession of marijuana and to treat drug addiction as a health issue rather than a crime.

Though ignored by policy-makers for decades, the commission's work has become increasingly relevant as the country moves to legalize cannabis later this year and grapples with a mounting opioid crisis that has already taken thousands of lives.

"I think he was a man ahead of his time," says Ontario Court Judge Melvyn Green, who worked with Le Dain on the inquiry. "There is a sense that Gerry has not been sufficiently respected for his work."

Sunday Edition

Burgess asks Pierre Trudeau to help save her father's job

00:00 01:15

 

'He could have contributed much more'

Claire L'Heureux-Dubé, who served on the Supreme Court with Le Dain, describes him as a great thinker and an ideal colleague. She says that in 1988, all the judges were struggling with the burden of the new and numerous Charter of Rights and Freedoms cases, and that Le Dain's rigorous approach could be slow.

Claire L'Heureux-Dubé (far left, back row) with Gerald Le Dain beside her, on the 1988 Bench. (Supreme Court of Canada Collection)

But she says she was shocked to learn that Le Dain would not be given time off to recover from his illness.

"He was the type of person that should have remained on the court — with his mind, his wonderful ability to decide cases," she says. "He could have contributed much more."

David Butt, a criminal lawyer in Toronto who clerked for Le Dain at the court, calls his treatment "appalling."

He acknowledges that the pressure on the court was intense, but adds, "how long can a court continue to function one judge down? You just sit with seven judges for a little longer. You hire more clerks.

There were certainly alternatives, and they weren't taken."

Le Dain, left, with his friend and mentor, former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada Bora Laskin. When Laskin retired, Le Dain was appointed to replace him on the court. (Submitted by the Le Dain family)

Dickson died in 1998, but his handling of Le Dain's illness is chronicled in a biography co-authored by Robert J. Sharpe, Dickson's executive legal officer at the time.

Sharpe declined The Sunday Edition's request for an interview, but he wrote in 2003 that while it was "a difficult and distasteful decision," Dickson "was persuaded that Le Dain's prognosis was poor" and that the court, facing a large backlog of cases, "simply could not afford to wait" for him to recover.

A question of optics?

 

Caroline Burgess and her siblings say they want to set the record straight about their father's departure from the court. (Submitted by the Le Dain family)

But Richard Janda, a professor on McGill's law faculty and Le Dain's clerk in 1988, believes Le Dain's mental illness was a significant factor in the decision. "How it might bear upon the reputation of the court, was something of great concern to the chief justice."

He points out that Le Dain continued to provide input on his outstanding cases during his hospitalization, particularly on the Ford case, which would determine the constitutionality of Quebec's French-only sign law in Bill 101. It had landed at the court in the middle of the Meech Lake crisis, and Le Dain had been wrestling with the decision for months.

He fell ill before it was finished, but Janda says the judgment ultimately released by the court, which struck down the sign law, was based almost entirely on Le Dain's draft.

Reduced to an asterisk

Yet the chief justice marked Le Dain's name with an asterisk on the case, stating that he "took no part in the judgment." At a rare meeting, Janda tried to persuade Dickson to reconsider, in part at Le Dain's request.

As he tells it, the chief justice heard him out, but "in Chief Justice Dickson's view, for Gerald Le Dain to be hospitalized for mental illness and part of a panel that came up with this decision, could give rise to poor public perception of the decision."

Janda disagrees. He believes Le Dain's contribution to the Ford case should be formally acknowledged.

'There was never an apology'

Le Dain died in 2007, and neither he nor his family and supporters ever spoke publicly about the circumstances of his resignation from the court until now.

"That's the way we were brought up — that it was important to protect the integrity of the institution of the Supreme Court of Canada," says Burgess. "We didn't talk about it, not through shame, but because we had the sense that it would reflect poorly on the court. And it does. And you can't get around it."

Burgess and her siblings say they want the record set straight, so that the cloud that hangs over their father's reputation and his accomplishments can finally be lifted.

"I think it was cruel. I think it was unconscionable. There was never an apology," she says. "It never should have happened."

Le Dain on a winter hike in the Laurentians after his retirement. (Submitted by the Le Dain family)

Click 'listen' above to hear the full documentary by Bonnie Brown.

Click here for a complete transcript of our documentary

Bonnie Brown

Bonnie Brown is an award-winning news and documentary producer with CBC. She has worked for The World at Six, The National and The Magazine.  Bonnie is originally from Winnipeg, is now based in Toronto, and has a law degree from McGill University.



https://twitter.com/DavidRayAmos/with_replies



David Raymond Amos‏ @DavidRayAmos

Replying to @DavidRayAmos @Wikileaks_ and 47 others

The LIEbrano propaganda machine known as CBC informs us that some judges are honoured and others are not Methinks we should not honour the dirty deeds of lawyers/politicians like Trudeau "The Elder" N'esy Pas? @JustinTrudeau @SCC_eng #SCC #cdnpoli #cdnlaw

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/transcript-of-how-depression-cost-gerald-le-dain-his-supreme-court-post-1.4486700

"ONE JUDGE DOWN"

The Sunday Edition, CBC Radio One

January 14, 2018
Produced by Bonnie Brown


1 Comment



David Amos

My heart goes out to Caroline Burgess. Perhaps she should check my Twitter account.

I have no doubt the Ghost of Justice Gerald Le Dain feels greatly honoured to have such a daughter.

"Is that difficult for me? In some ways yes, and in some ways no. My dad has been a role model for me my entire life. And that has not changed since his death. So, could I ever fault my dad for the way he reacted, to what was cruel, to what was unconscionable, to what should have never happened, and hopefully would never happen today? No, I can't. Because I completely understand where he was coming from. "

Transcript of "How depression cost Gerald Le Dain his Supreme Court post"

Richard Janda: He was always the beacon in the room, the person one gravitated to. And he had such an intense look to him, and such a kind of elegance of bearing, that people couldn't really resist paying attention. 

David Butt: Just the level of insight, the level of rigor, and the level of humanity that he brought to every judgment that he wrote or participated in, to me are timeless virtues, and it's that combination too. So yes, I think he is a judge for the ages. And I see it in terms of Greek tragedy because it was just so much promise. And so much not done. 

Harry Arthurs: I think perhaps people don't talk about him very much these days for a couple of reasons. One of them, a desire to avoid talking about the end of his career. We all know the end of Gerry's career was a sad ending, not one that he would have wanted, or his friends and admirers would have wanted. 

Caroline Burgess: I remember going up to see my dad in the hospital, and being completely shocked at how he had changed in such a short time, from this vibrant , strong, strong man to this -- somebody who was so frail. And I remember him saying to me, "I've let you all down."  And I remember saying to him, "You have not let us down. Never. You have been let down." 
Caroline Burgess: I'm Caroline Burgess. Gerald Le Dain was my father. He grew up in Montreal. He grew up in the Depression, my father, and when he was first starting elementary school they were living in St. Famille, which is sort of the Mordecai Richler area of Montreal. So he was kind of a scrappy guy that played a lot of sports - kick the can, you know, generally got into not too much trouble, but he had that reputation of being a bit of a tough kid. But he was a great student. So after high school, my father briefly attended McGill University before volunteering at age 18 to serve with the Canadian Army in World War II. At the end of the war he came back to McGill to begin his law degree, and when he graduated, he was the gold medalist of his year. He won every single prize except the prize for criminal law. He used to remind us of that. (laughs)

Caroline Burgess:  In 1969, my dad was asked to become the Chair of the Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs and that really became the thing that he was, and still is, probably best known for. 

Melvyn Green: I met Gerry Le Dain when I was living in Ottawa.   I was writing a Ph.D. dissertation as a sociologist.  I needed a job. He needed a sociologist. There was an ad in the Ottawa Citizen. I answered and I got hired. It happened all within the process of a week. The time with Gerry at the commission was exhilarating. The Ph.D. dissertation never got finished. I'm Justice Melvyn Green, Ontario Court of Justice. 

Melvyn Green: Gerry was a very curious man. He was a conservative coming into the exercise. He'd been a very successful lawyer and a successful university administrator at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto when he was recruited for this job. He knew frankly nothing about the phenomenon of drugs or virtually nothing, but he was open to the empirical evidence about it. 
CBC Archival tape of Gerald Le Dain: "We were into medicine, law, sociology, pharmacology, and we established a rather ambitious research program of over 100 projects, including our own experiments on the effect of cannabis in humans. 

Melvyn Green: He took – literally -- his show on the road. This was pioneering. He moved from college stage to coffee house to small forum in little towns and big cities across the country. And it was a remarkable two-way, reciprocal process of education. 

Caroline Burgess: In 1969, I would have been 11, but my older sister, Jacqueline, was 18, and my sister Catherine would have been 16. So definitely he was, in terms of where his children were, he could absolutely empathize with the young people, but also with their parents. And so he took on that enormous task, and I don't know that anybody realized what an enormous task it really was. It was so thorough, and it was so thoughtful and also making sure to hear from everybody.  That really made such a deep impression on me. This idea, that you don't just listen to people because it makes them feel better to be heard. But you listen to people because you have something to learn from them. 

Melvyn Green: Within the commission itself, there were moments certainly when he appeared to me to be challenged, but he never appeared, frankly, flappable. What Gerry did recommend ultimately, or what the majority recommended, in effect, was that the penalties for cannabis be eliminated for cannabis possession, and that there be a concern to create treatment programs that dealt with persons who clearly were addicted to drugs. 

CBC Archival tape
Host Michael Callaghan: Justice Le Dain, let me ask you whether it's possible to take this kind of a practical approach in a society that is steamily emotional about the moral issue of taking drugs.

Gerald Le Dain: Well, of course it's been a highly controversial matter…

Melvyn Green:: Most of the newspapers, most of the media, most of the public health agencies like the Canadian Medical Association, publicly criticized it.  Perhaps even more painfully, in the case of the government itself, which had commissioned the report, of course, effectively met it with radio silence. I don't even know if there was a thank-you of any kind of formal nature. That must have hurt. Of course, it's not as though Gerry had nothing better to do than to sit at home and nurse his wounds. 

Harry Arthurs: Gerry was Dean of Osgoode at the same time as he took on this huge job with the commission. He was so enthusiastic and so willing to engage and to listen and challenge that even in that exciting moment of history of the 60's, he stood out as someone you would want to work with and have as your Dean. 

Harry Arthurs: My name is Harry Arthurs. I was a law professor at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University.   I was Gerry Le Dain's associate dean and subsequently I became president of the university. 

Harry Arthurs: We were going through a serious revolution at Osgoode at the time. For example, we wanted to deliver legal aid to poor people as part of our clinical teaching program. In many ways it was groundbreaking. We thought, at the time, and I would still love to be persuaded of this - we thought at the time that changing the way people learned about the law and what they conceived law to be would mean that more people would have access to justice-- that lawyers would care more about interests that had been neglected previously. And so this was really a project of social change that we thought we were engaged in. I have to say, we were maybe a little bit too ambitious, maybe things didn't work out quite as dramatically as we imagined they would. But our heart was in the project and Gerry was definitely the advocate for us -- a very effective, plausible, persuasive advocate. 

Caroline Burgess: We took it for granted. You know we took it for granted that here was this man with six kids and he was a super engaged father. So he was always really busy. I can remember waking up in the morning to the sound of his clickety-clack on the typewriter because he would get up at 5:00 a.m. and he would be working, but then he was always coming to breakfast. And you know, especially if we were at the cottage, he would just be hanging out with us.  So he would be doing his work oftentimes in the living room with all the chaos going on. 

Harry Arthurs: He was very committed to his kids.  He was very committed to Cynthia. I think they provided balance, and good cheer in his life. He lived the professional side of it so intensely, that had he not had the family there to anchor his life, I think he would have suffered burnout.  I don't know if that's what ultimately happened to him. But certainly, no one could lead life so intensely without a quiet harbour to come home to. 

Caroline Burgess: We really felt that we were so fortunate. We just had this magical, you know, magical childhood. We spent so much time together, and we just had this sense that somehow, we were blessed. And then tragedy struck. My older sister was killed in a car accident on New Year's Day 1975. Jackie had only been married for six months and she had gone out to B.C. as a speech pathologist with her new husband. They were driving back from Williams Lake, where they were living, to Vancouver. And they hit a patch of black ice. She was only 23. I remember my father coming to each of us, and I remember him saying, "The circle is broken. "

Caroline Burgess:: And so, it was…how did we get through that?  It was so difficult. That summer, my father got a call. He was asked to be a judge on the Federal Court of Appeal.  Definitely my parents were aware that this was, on top of the stress of losing a daughter and a sister, this was going to be a big thing. And it was definitely an adjustment. But that court turned out to be such a great place for him. I think the fact that they sat across the country.  It was super interesting. He met lots of people.  But I think the people on that court were so collegial, he just really liked it. 

Caroline Burgess:  In 1984, my father got the call, asking him to be a justice on the Supreme Court of Canada. 

CBC Archival tape
Knowlton Nash: Good evening. A new judge in the Supreme Court. Gerald Le Dain takes the seat left vacant by the death of Chief Justice Bora Laskin, in March. Le Dain was sworn in by Laskin's successor, Chief Justice Brian Dickson. David Halton reports.

David Halton: Justice Le Dain returned to Ottawa this evening, suddenly one of the nine most powerful lawyers in Canada… 

Gerald Le Dain: "Let me say this. I've had more than my share of good fortune and opportunities from this country, and I hope that I can make a contribution on the court, and in some ways repay some of what I owe." 

Caroline Burgess: It was a really exciting time for our whole family. We were so pleased for him, because it seemed like this was kind of the culmination of everything he'd worked towards.  And he was definitely ready. He was up for it. Yeah. 

Archival tape of Gerald Le Dain swearing-in ceremony: In my years on the Federal Court of Appeal, I have thought, with some comfort, of the Supreme Court of Canada as a place where my errors could be corrected. Although I did not always agree with the extent to which that was considered to be necessary. 

David Butt: I would say that he was one of the most intellectually engaged people I've ever encountered, and he had an intensity and a passion for his work that you thought, boy, this is a person who's in their element. My name is David Butt and I'm a criminal lawyer in Toronto. From 1987 to 88, I clerked for Mr. Justice Le Dain at the Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa. 

David Butt: Our meetings were rigorous, and he would push hard. And one of his favorite words to me was, Is it sound?  Is it sound? Is it right? And I'm a 26 year old kid, just wet behind the…Yes? (laughs) What else was I going to say? It was a funny combination of both endearing, and terrifying all at the same time. He was difficult. I would say difficult in the best sense, in terms of being demanding. 

Richard Janda: Gerald Le Dain wrote what is still a leading case on environmental law in Canada called the Crown Zellerbach case, which came down in 1988, and it bore upon dumping of materials from ships into the ocean. That may seem like a rather straightforward matter, but it isn't, because the question is -- as is typical in Canada -- is it a provincial matter? Is it a federal matter? Gerald Le Dain was a scholar as well as a jurist and he spent a great deal of his career contemplating the Constitution and how the constitutional arrangements of Canada should work. 

Richard Janda:  My name is Richard Janda. I am a professor at the Faculty of Law at McGill University and also an associate member of the McGill School of Environment. I got to know Gerald Le Dain because I was his clerk in 1988, and I got to know him a little better even afterwards.  And I think I became his friend. I hope I can say that.

Richard Janda: He remains for me a kind of standard of intellectual effort, because I had the occasion to work with his documents. I saw his mode of writing -- the way he tested his ideas for himself. It was utterly astonishing. I had never seen anybody who worked with that kind of intensity. 

Richard Janda: He grappled intensely with every expression he used. This is really what we hope the judicial decision involves -- that it involves an independent mind weighing and pondering difficult questions. 

Claire L'Heureux-Dube: I had a very good idea of who he was, and I was so happy when I came to the court and he was there.  We kind of connected immediately. That was a great mind. My name is Claire L'Heureux-Dube. I'm a former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. 

Claire L'Heureux-Dube: I was appointed in 1987. May 4 was my first day, and Gerry Le Dain was there. He was interested in everything. He was present, he was warm, and his door was open.  He was very friendly, easy to discuss with, which is not always the case at the court.  Everybody's busy.  So it's a bit of a severe environment. 

David Butt: There was so much to be done. The stakes were so high. And there was so little guidance. The Charter of Rights, of course, came into force in 1982, and then the equality provisions in 1983. And this was 1988. So it takes a while for cases to get up to the Supreme Court. So there wasn't much precedent. There wasn't much of a template for how to handle Charter cases. So the pressure was intense. There was also an administrative decision made. The court decided to go from hearing one case a day to hearing two cases a day -- in effect, doubling the workload. 

Claire L'Heureux-Dube:: Everyone was struggling at the time.  The chief justice, of course, always important for the chief justice -- numbers. So the chief justice was trying to accelerate the pace. The court was overburdened. It was late in delivering its judgments. I said at the time it was doom and gloom. So the atmosphere wasn't quite good for Gerry who was -- I wouldn't say anxious, but was always full of ideas and very much a thinker. 

Caroline Burgess: It was definitely challenging. There were some really important cases. And I think he always put up his hand for the hardest, the most difficult ones, the most challenging ones certainly within his area - he had certain areas of expertise. 

David Butt: It was very evident that he felt a deep and abiding connection to the province of Quebec, not just because he had done so much stellar legal work there but also because he spoke French fluently. He was very socially and politically connected to Quebec society, and of course the time that we were there was when the Bill 101 cases came. 

Richard Janda: He was in the midst of writing on a matter that was of great political significance at the time. He was involved in deliberations concerning what came to be known as the Ford case. But people would know it as the Bill 101 matter. The issue as to whether Quebec's Charter of the French Language in a number of significant dimensions was unconstitutional.  And it was in the midst of the Meech Lake crisis. It was, I'm sure he knew, a decision that was going to have political consequence, and perhaps a lasting impact for the country.  And for him, and he confirmed this to me in subsequent conversation, the burden was enormous. 

Claire L'Heureux-Dube:  There are so many ideas that you have to toss around. I remember Gerry having a folder full of papers on one issue. So many notes.  Perhaps too much, but it's the fate of great minds. 

David Butt: The nature of the Charter cases that he was working on at the time appeared to me to create a palpable sense of tension that was not there on earlier cases that we worked on together. So to see him doing two things -- one, not thriving in that environment, but two, because of his approach, not producing the way other people were producing -- both of those were difficult for me to watch. 

Caroline Burgess: So during the summer of 1988, my dad was working really hard, which wasn't unusual because he always worked hard. But what was different this time was that it was affecting his sleep. He wasn't able to sleep as much as he clearly needed to. It was obvious he needed a break. And I know my mother urged him again and again to take a break. But he was so caught up with this idea that he couldn't afford the time, that there was too much to do before court began sitting again in the fall. There was no way he could take any time off. So it was what he was thinking about 24/7. And it was clear that he was heading for a breakdown. 
Claire L'Heureux-Dube:: Well, he was very depressed.  The thing I remember the most is when he asked me into his office, and he asked me if he should resign. I said to him "No.  Gerry you don't have to leave. Just take a bit of rest and then it will come back. We need you."  I have the greatest respect for Gerry You have no idea how important he was to the court. 

Caroline Burgess: September the 7th 1988 was the day my dad was diagnosed with a clinical depression. And so my mother went to the chief justice to say Gerald is ill. He needs some time.  And that's when the chief justice began to speak about my father in the past tense.  In particular, his mind.  It was -- he had a brilliant mind. As if somehow, mental illness is associated with some kind of brain damage. In other words, there was no question, from the reception my mother got from the chief justice, that there was going to be any support.  There wasn't an enlightened kind of sense of, This is treatable. He will recover. He can come back. There was just that sense of -- it's done.  

Caroline Burgess: And then very shortly after, I think it was within two weeks, he was pressured to resign from the Supreme Court. I don't think he had any choice. He didn't have any choice. What could he have done. Get a lawyer?  Could he have fought it? He was ill. This was something that clearly, they didn't want it to be public. They didn't want him back. What do you do at that point? That was a devastating time for him, for the whole family. 
Claire L'Heureux-Dube: Well, Bertha Wilson and I, we were shocked. We all felt it was unfair. The problem of the chief justice not being able to hand out judgments -- that is a consideration. But to me, that consideration is secondary.  Justice Le Dain, being an exceptional mind and very great for the court, should have been given the time to get back healthy.  And we thought that wouldn't be that long.  Being forced to resign in such a position, it must have been terrible. 

Caroline Burgess: Things just very rapidly went almost critical, and then he was hospitalized, and it was just basically because he was just so, so, so ill.   I felt protective of my father, and I don't mind saying it, it's kind of a crazy thing that I did, but, because Pierre Trudeau had appointed my father, I just thought, I'll call him.

Caroline Burgess: But again this idea of a secrecy - my dad would have hated that I called him. But you know, I remember saying to Trudeau, I said, "This is not right. This is just not right." And I said, "You appointed him."  And I think I also must have told him what the chief justice had said.  And he said to me, Trudeau said to me, "I also appointed Brian Dickson."  So why did I even call him?  I just didn't know. I didn't know what to do. I had a sense that this was a train wreck, and somehow, could we turn it around somehow, and no, it wasn't possible to turn it around. There was nobody to go to. 

Richard Janda: I had an unusual experience, because I was interacting with him while he was in a hospital bed. So I knew that he was very much capable of not only understanding what was going on, but formulating pretty sharp opinions about what was going on. It wasn't as if he was hands off. He cared about ensuring that what he was working on would be properly managed. 

Richard Janda: I took it upon myself to go and speak to the chief justice, because part of the story that I found difficult to accept was that his name would not even appear as having participated in a judgment - The Ford decision - when I saw that basically the materials that we were using were his materials. Justice Dickson heard me out, but he was quite firm with me in taking the view that this was the only outcome that was possible for the court.  And so for him, it was a polite but firm "no". 

Richard Janda: It seemed to be that it was felt to be inconsistent with or incompatible with continued presence on the court that somebody would be hospitalized for depression. 

David Butt: I have no hesitation saying I think he was treated appallingly. It was an historic and historically unique pressure cooker. Everybody understood the need to meet the needs of the country by providing guidance on these crucial Charter cases. Despite that, you know, one can ask oneself, how long can a court continue to function one judge down? Well, you just sit with seven judges for a little longer. You hire more clerks. I mean, there were there were certainly alternatives, and they weren't taken. 

David Butt:  There's no humanity in that. There's no empathy in that. 
CBC Archival tape: The appointments made today were to replace Justice Gerald Le Dain from Ontario…

Caroline Burgess: He was only 63. What happened when he recovered, was that there was a huge hole to fill.  His job. His life, in a sense, had been taken away from him.  But uppermost in my dad's mind was his responsibility to protect the reputation of both his colleagues, and the court. And that was the reason he never spoke publicly about the circumstances surrounding his resignation.  
It was that sense of integrity. 

Harry Arthurs: Gerry had very firm ideas about how one should behave. Words like honourable frequently came into the conversation.  Reasonable.  Virtuous words.  It's what he expected of people. It's a standard he held himself to. We all know the end of Gerry's career was a sad ending, not one that he would have wanted, or his friends and admirers would have wanted. 

Claire L'Heureux-Dube: It has always upset me that this was done to him. It's still a problem to accept what happened and what else we could have done. I am not sure. We have to cope with the mentality of the time. You know, I'm 90 years old now, so my memory is not as good as it was.  But my memory gives me the impression that he was the ideal colleague, who had served the country already so much. 

Melvyn Green: I think Gerry was a man ahead of his time. Over the years, I think there is a sense that he has not been sufficiently respected for his work, for his contribution.  I don't know how that will be rectified, except in the doing. 

Richard Janda: For myself, if I'm wondering, why do I care? Why do I want to preserve the memory of Gerald Le Dain?  You know, I feel a kind of passed down burden of this cloud hanging over someone. When I first met him, and in all of my encounters with him, I thought I had discovered among the most remarkable people I'd ever encountered.  And I got to watch, also, as that career came to an end. 

Richard Janda: That was poignant for me. And it was it was sad, at the same time as it was inspiring.  I mean, we're not talking about someone of absolute perfection. We're talking about somebody who had, I think he would have acknowledged himself, significant fragility.  But people with significant fragility can be absolutely remarkable contributors. 

Caroline Burgess: There was never an apology, and the way things were left just doesn't sit right with me, and it doesn't sit right with my siblings. Because he was such a strong man, and I would have liked for him to fight back, in some sense, to push back, because he did push back when he thought something was wrong, especially when he thought someone else was being wronged. 

Caroline Burgess: Is that difficult for me? In some ways yes, and in some ways no. My dad has been a role model for me my entire life. And that has not changed since his death.  So, could I ever fault my dad for the way he reacted, to what was cruel, to what was unconscionable, to what should have never happened, and hopefully would never happen today?  No, I can't.  Because I completely understand where he was coming from. 

Caroline Burgess:  And I am so proud of him. And I love him so much, for those values. I wish it hadn't happened. I wish it would happen to nobody.