A4 - Wednesday, July 18, 1984 - North Shore News NORTH VANCOUVER'’S Ross Tunnicliffe (right) poses with Law Society tre photo submitted asurer Brian McLoughlin after being presented the society’s gold medal for the highest scholastic stan- ding in the three-year UBC law program. strictly personal by Bob Hunter Justice for all? he Canadian Bar Association is worried that Pierre Trudeau’s last-minute orgy of shov- ing Liberal Party hacks onto the bench of the Federal Court of Canada might leave the public with the impression that our highest jurists aren’t entirely impartial, objective, fair and unbiased, like they’re supposed to be. Ha! Don’t worry, legal profes- sion. There’s nobody left who thinks for a minute the courts are impartial anyway. I mean. All judicial appointments are political, and that’s all there is to it. It’s not exactly news, is it? The results are obvious. My first insight that the legal system in Canada was Screwy came when 1 was a young reporter covering the cop shop. I got to know a lot ofthe detectives The police chief was something of a personal friend. It was through their eyes that I first saw what was going on in the courts. In Courtroom ‘‘A"’, there was a hanging judge In Courtroom ‘‘B"’, a. liberal type you had a fechng would let mass murderers off with a suspended sentence. Naturally, lawyers put most of their energy into manocuvering their clients in- to Courtroom °**B"' The cops pretty much knew the out come of a trial as soon as they knew who the judge would be. Naturally, they pulled every trick they could to make sure the guys they real- ly wanted to get would be assigned to the hanging judge, not the social worker. 1 remember being mildly amazed at the time. Was this how justice worked? I'd sorta got the impression in school that justice was a thing cary ed in stone, evolved Over the centuries by bhindtng precedent Yet in practise, it seemed, punishment was meted according to the personal whims of the judge Sure, there were timtts Not more than 50 years, not less than a week. That sort of thing But as far as f could tell, silting at the press table while Oul case after case unfolded before my cyes. the biggest single factor ain any tral dec sion was what side of the bed the judge had gotten duty! that morning In the same courthouse 1 The Squamish Five Will Make Great Senators yf agit a (s (When They get out) So thnks the Liberal C abtnet! They already have an @xe Verrorist to the Senate! Shocking pat oot saruresing! Hts, ach paar foo toy boca besa covered, there was one other magistrate who was getting a bit dotty. No one quite realiz- ed just how dotty until a case came up involving two homosexuals who'd been caught doing their thing in a slightly public place. “‘I’d sorta got the impression that justice was a thing carved in stone.’’ The charge was gross in decency As the tnal proceed ed, a serious flaw developed. It turned out the = aging magistrate couldn't remember (or maybe never knew) what ‘‘gross indecen cy’’ actually was So he had to ask the poor Mon-Thurs 10-6 10-5:30 INFO VANCOUVER’S LEADER IN UNIQUE FURNITURE iIN-CAPILANO Collins alone From page A3 terest‘‘ in the Liberals in Capilano. ‘‘We've attracted a great number of enthustastic workers who live in Capilano and I’m still very confident we can defeat Mary Collins,’’ Baynham said. Meanwhile, the NDP, which had considered not contesting Capilano if Turner chose to run there, has set its Capilano nomina- tion meeting for a week from today at 7:30 p.m. at Queen Mary School. The only publicly-declared candidate so far is Larry Whaley, a former provincial government debt counsellor and currently a resident of crown prosecutor to come over to the bench and whisper in his ear, explaining what mischief, exactly, these two men had been up to. lt was pretty tense over at the press table, I'll tell you, as we struggled to keep_our faces straight. To really, appfeciate this true tafé of Canadian jurisprudence, you have to understand the crown pro- secutor was a Mennonite. He blushed horribly as he went over to the bench to explain in simple terms to the judge what gross indecency was. The moment the judge got the word, however, his head shot up like a startled turkey. Maddened with outrage, he wheeled on the two unfor- tunate gays in the dock and yelled: ‘‘Seven years!’’ I kid you fot. In my mind, that particular trial stands out as kind of a symbol of the law in action in Canada. It was the legendary Les Bewley himself who describ- ed the Canadian legal system as ‘‘ancient, wheezing, Status-conscious, heirar- chical.’’ To which should be added the words _patronage- ridden. I rest my case. Fre Sun Nanaimo. Whaley said he was first attracted to Capilano by the possibility that Turner would run there and that he has decided to contest the nomination because he has found he has things in com- mon with the people of Capilano. Despite all that, Mary Col- lins is still the lone official candidate in the running for the Capilano seat and she's 1820 LONSDALE NORTH VAN. making the most of her two-week head-start. She told- reporters at a joint press conference with PC MPs Bill Clarke and Pat Carney Monday that although she was disap- pointed Turner had decided against running in Capilano, she would not be changing her campaign strategy. She said she was still hoping to hang onto the plurality of votes garnered in 1980. 26’’ XL100 Remote SERVICE 985-9831 987-8811 ALL FURNITURE AND LIGHTING OVER $50.00 (O}LiVE bY § XTRAS MANY ONE OF A KIND ITEMS GREATLY REDUCED INFORM INTERIORS 37 WATER STREET 682-3868 LIGHTING ANU ACCESSORIES