Jacquie McNish
From Friday's Globe and Mail Published on Friday, Nov. 20, 2009 12:00AM EST
Prominent defence lawyer Joe Groia has been called to a disciplinary hearing to defend against allegations by the Law Society of Upper Canada that he engaged in professional misconduct by communicating in an "abusive" and "rude" manner before and during the acrimonious Bre-X Minerals Ltd. trial. According to a notice of application filed yesterday with the Law Society's tribunals office, Mr. Groia has been asked to attend a session Nov. 30 to set a date for a hearing into the allegations. Mr. Groia successfully defended Bre-X's chief geologist John Felderhof against charges of illegal insider trading in 2007, but frequent outbursts and insults directed at prosecuting Ontario Securities Commission lawyers prompted two judges to reprimand the lawyer's conduct in written decisions. In its notice yesterday, the Law Society said Mr. Groia showed a "consistent pattern of rude, improper or disruptive conduct" during the early days of the Bre-X trial. In a statement released yesterday, Mr. Groia said he is disappointed that the Law Society has launched "this ill advised prosecution arising out of events that occurred nine years ago." He said that "while I very much regret and have apologized for any damage to the profession," his conduct was "justified by the way that the OSC and its [initial] prosecutor conducted the case."
While we have plague proportions of lawyers intentionally misleading judges,
knowingly making false statements to judges "on behalf of their clients", in
"aggressive representation", the problems of Mr. Groia simply pale into
insignificance.
When lawyers are caught LYING before a judge, a judge will make very strong
statements of condemnation, and NOTHING, NOTHING happens.
The same lawyers, do it time and time again, and NOTHING happens.
If lawyers commit the horrible act of giving false information to their own
clients, lying to their clients, failing to tell them of court dates, failing to
reveal extremely important prejudicial information, the worst an Ontario lawyer
can expect is "a review of their practice".
If they are really good at doing that and not getting caught, that can make them
appear judicial material and unfortunately, the judiciary have NO screening
process to get rid of those who have severe personality disorders and who are
ethically challenged or who are so obsessed by their own hatreds and political
agendas that they should never be made a judge.
The problem is, the worst of the worst of humanity sometimes become lawyers and
some those "worst of the worst" (judges)
When PROSECUTORS engage in lying, mischief, carefully planned obstruction of
justice, NOTHING HAPPENS and you can't complain to the law society, you see,
they are part of the government and there is no recourse.
When JUDGES lie, cheat, knowingly make false statements and deliberately set out
to "obstruct justice", most of the other judges in the same chambers "know all
about it", the gossip runs wild, and there is NO RECOURSE.
The judicial council is run by the same people who police themselves.
For all that, we can thank our lawyer politicians who set up a state where
politicians make the law, and enforce the law or fail to enforce the law.
There is one law for the rich cartel and another for their victims.
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