Lawyers Gone Bad

by Philip Slayton

  In March 2001, Brian (Crusher) Boudreau was acquitted of assaulting his brother. At the end of August 2005, Boudreau was charged with ninety-one counts of forgery and uttering forged documents between 1995 and 1999, when he was president of the Bras d’Or North Community Development Association. He was arraigned in October 2005, and elected trial by jury. The trial is expected to take place in 2007. Boudreau won a provincial by-election in 1999 and sat as the Liberal member for Cape Breton–The Lakes until 2003 when he was defeated.

  16. Marci Lin Melvin, “She says: Matheson case stings lawyers: Time for disgraced MLA to quit House,” The Daily News (Halifax), 18 June 1998, 30.

  17. Marci Lin Melvin, “Reeves Matheson,” email message to author, 27 July 2005.

  Eleven: The Criminals Pick Themselves

  1. The late Izzy Asper (1932–2003) is best known as founder of CanWest Global Communication Corporation. Gerry Schwartz is the founder and head of Onex Corporation, one of Canada’s largest corporations. Jack London is a former dean of the University of Manitoba law school. Martin Freedman is a judge of the Manitoba Court of Appeal. Michael Nozick is a prominent Winnipeg property developer.

  2. Ingrid Chen, interview by Philip Slayton, Winnipeg, 10 November 2005. For the story of Ingrid Chen, see Chapter 4.

  3. Marilyn Billinkoff, interview by Philip Slayton, Winnipeg, 27 November 2003.

  4. John Greenwood, “Rogue’s Gallery,” The Financial Post, 1 February 1996, 46.

  5. Skimming v. Goldberg, [1993] M.J. No. 370.

  6. “RCMP probe lawyer-fraud link,” Winnipeg Free Press, 7 February 1991, 1.

  7. R. v. Shead, [1996] M.J. No. 466.

  8. David Kuxhaus, “Shead jailed 5 years for fraud,” Winnipeg Free Press, 8 November 1996, 1.

  9. Richard Shead, interview by Philip Slayton, Winnipeg, 19 March 2002.

  10. Richard Shead, “No Subject,” email message to author, 15 April 2002.

  11. Richard Shead, “No Subject,” email message to author, 22 April 2002.

  12. Doug Ward, interview by Philip Slayton, Winnipeg, 27 November 2003.

  13. Robert Morrison, interview by Philip Slayton, Winnipeg, 27 November 2003.

  14. David Baines, “Eron VP stickhandled wealth,” The Vancouver Sun, 5 November 1997, D1.

  15. Peter Kennedy, “Criminal charges laid against Eron executives,” The Globe and Mail, 1 May 2002, B1.

  16. See Chapter 5 for more about Martin Chambers.

  17. Law Society of Manitoba v. Shead, 1995 L.S.D.D. No.50.

  18. R. v. Shead, [1996] M.J. 466.

  19. paragraph 555.

  20. paragraph 128.

  21. paragraph 306.

  22. paragraph 363.

  23. paragraph 365.

  24. R. v. Shead, [1997] M.J. No. 117.

  25. paragraph 556.

  26. paragraph 557.

  27. Wood also spoke highly of Michael Bomek. See Chapter 9.

  28. Kim Whiteside and Richard Schwartz, interview by Philip Slayton, Winnipeg, 23 March 2004.

  29. Bruce McLeod, interview by Philip Slayton, Winnipeg, 23 March 2004.

  Twelve: Law Practice to Pet Food

  1. Martin Wirick, interview by Philip Slayton, Vancouver, 16 February 2005. Some of the personal information about Wirick is drawn from that interview and subsequent correspondence. Quotations from Wirick, unless otherwise indicated, come from the interview. An earlier and shorter version of this chapter appeared in Canadian Lawyer, May 2005.

  2. Martin Wirick, “Follow up,” email message to author, 12 March 2005.

  3. Wyng Chow, “The two faces of a controversial builder: ‘Pillar of community’ sued more than 100 times,” The Vancouver Sun, 21 September 2002, A4.

  4. This account of what happened is largely drawn from Wirick’s May 20, 2002, letter of resignation to the Law Society of British Columbia, and from an affidavit he filed in connection with his 2004 bankruptcy proceeding.

  5. David Baines, “Massive fraud puts law society on hook for up to $46 million: Special fee on clients’ real estate transactions will fund fraud claims,” The Vancouver Sun, 17 September 2002, A1.

  6. Michael Wilhelmson, “Real estate lawyer’s actions cause shock waves at B.C. banks,” The Lawyers Weekly, 20 September 2002, 3.

  7. Brad Daisley, public relations officer for the Law Society of British Columbia, made this comment in a March 23, 2005, email to the author:

  The two cheque system was poorly received for two reasons. One was that it was seen to impose an additional burden on the way in which real estate lawyers convey property. The other was the principled argument that the two cheque system resulted in an intrusion into solicitor-client privilege.

  8. Law Society of British Columbia v. Wirick, [2002] L.S.D.D. No.41.

  9. In R. v. Berge, (2003 BCPC 0377), Judge Burdett said:

  Mr. Berge is a prominent member of the British Columbia Bar. He has served as a bencher of the Law Society of British Columbia for many years and is presently the President of the Law Society. Given that, I find his conduct after the accident to be shocking.

  As a lawyer, I assume he is well aware of the intricacies of impaired driving investigations. The attempt to dispose of the open beer can, the consumption of mouthwash, and the ingestion of the pills were deliberate, conscious attempts to thwart the police investigation.

  … As a bencher of the Law Society, Mr. Berge is charged with upholding and protecting the public interest in the administration of justice. He owes a duty under the Canons of Legal Ethics, a duty to the State, to maintain its integrity and its law. In light of those overriding duties and obligations, his attempts to derail the impaired investigation, in my view, are disturbing.

  Berge then hired none other than Richard Gibbs, his predecessor as law society president, to appeal the suspension of his driving licence. The appeal, heard in March 2004, was dismissed. See R. v. Berge, (2004 BCSC 474).

  10. The law society citation described the former president’s conduct:

  On October 2, 2002, after consuming a substantial amount of alcohol just prior to driving a motor vehicle and then causing an accident by driving without due care and attention, you removed an open can of beer from your car to dispose of it, or you acted in a manner that made it appear as if you intended to dispose of it, and you used mouthwash prior to the arrival of the police in order to mask the smell of alcohol on your breath.

  11. Law Society of British Columbia v. Berge, (2005 LSBC 28).

  12. Law Society of British Columbia v. Berge, (2005 LSBC 53).

  13. In the Matter of the Bankruptcy of Martin Wirick, (2004 BCSC 1126). The applicable law is s. 172(1) of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. B-3.

  14. In the Matter of the Bankruptcy of Martin Wirick, 2 February 2005, Docket 22890 1/VA02.

  15. In the Matter of the Bankruptcy of Martin Wirick, 2006 BCSC 1273 (CanLII).

  16. See note 7.

  17. Adrienne Tanner, “Developer facing probe spotted at work sites,” The Province, 29 August 2003, A16.

  18. See “The Wirick claims—an update,” Law Society of British Columbia, Benchers’ Bulletin, November– December 2005. The update reports on the findings of an investigation into the Wirick affair, on behalf of the law society, by MacKay Co., chartered accountants. An excerpt:

  MacKayCo confirmed that, over the four-year period, Martin Wirick paid approximately $52 million from trust to the Vanview group of companies and other related parties, primarily the operating company, Vanview Construction Ltd.…

  Funds distributed through this Vanview Construction Ltd. account during the period totalled approximately $52.7 million. There were no funds on hand when Vanview closed.…

  The $52.7 million distributed was disbursed as follows: $32.6 million—business expenses (development and construction costs)

  $12.5 million—payments to lenders

  $3.2 million—payments to Vanview group, Gill and related individuals

  $2.5 million—payments to un
related businesses

  $.6 million—payments to Wirick

  $1.3 million—unidentified payments

  … In reporting to the Benchers in September 2005,

  MacKayCo said that it appeared Tarsem Gill engaged in poor business practices. In particular, his Vanview group of companies exercised little control over expenses and frequently paid its suppliers round amounts. Moreover, the Law Society audit of Martin Wirick’s records revealed that Mr. Gill and his companies frequently sold or resold properties for less than it cost to develop them, resulting in significant losses.

  www.lawsociety.bc.ca/publications_forms/bulletin/2005/05-12-20_scf-wirick.html?h=+wirick (accessed 14 September 2006).

  19. David Baines wrote in January 2006, “The magnitude of the fraud perpetrated by former Vancouver lawyer Martin Wirick and his developer client, Tarsem Gill, is breathtaking. So is the amount of time it is taking the police to investigate the case.… Nearly four years have passed, but police have not yet obtained Wirick’s books and records, which are central to the whole case.” David Baines, “Time taken to investigate fraud case inordinate,” The Vancouver Sun, 25 January 2006, D1.

  20. Martin Wirick, “Update,” email message to author, 16 November 2005.

  21. Jim Matkin, interview by Philip Slayton, Vancouver, 14 February 2005.

  22. See note 17.

  23. David Baines, “Law society chief linked to stock offenders,” The Vancouver Sun, 13 November 2004, A1.

  24. Jim Matkin has gone on to a new and successful career as a businessman.

  Thirteen: Belletristic Theoretician

  1. Logan Kline, telephone interview by Philip Slayton, 4 November 2005. An August 31, 2004, press release from the United States Marshals Service said that “as a fugitive, Singleton has lived in numerous places, but has always been able to stay out of trouble.”

  2. I interviewed Singleton at the Leavenworth Detention Center, Leavenworth, Kansas, on January 6, 2006. We have also had an extensive correspondence. His 2006 letters to me, following our meeting, are dated January 28, February 8, March 2, March 16, March 21, April 2, April 3, April 9, May 4, and June 24.

  3. M.K. Singleton, H.L. Mencken and the American Mercury Adventure (Durham: Duke University Press, 1962).

  4. Much of the biographical information on Marvin Singleton is drawn from a 2004 paper he wrote (in the third person)—“Background to a 2004 U.S./Canada Extradition Application: The Defendant’s Perspective.” Singleton filed this paper as an exhibit in his extradition hearing. The court “reluctantly” admitted the paper into evidence. I was also given access to notes that Singleton has made about his case. He explains these notes: “I’m almost 73 years old and am a totally isolated pariah. I’d better get it down.”

  5. From Singleton’s notes.

  6. Marvin Singleton, letter to author, 9 December 2005.

  7. Suzy Hamilton, “Client’s ashes in box, cash gone: His clients are dead, but a retired lawyer is being sued over thousands of dollars they left behind,” The Province, 27 February 1994, A28. Singleton disputes the “client’s ashes” story (the ashes were those of Haroldine Copp). He says that the Copp ashes had not been abandoned in his office, but were in an expensive urn, waiting to be shipped for burial in the Copp family plot in Ontario.

  8. Don Skogstad, telephone interview by Philip Slayton, 16 March 2005. There is personal animosity between Skogstad and Singleton. Singleton refers to Skogstad as his “frequent adversary” and says that he always beat Skogstad in court. In his 2004 paper, Singleton writes, “Skogstad, in the perspective of 100’s of years of litigation, was simply the eternal Estates-aggrandizing litigator versus the Power-of-Attorney life-quality protector.” Singleton blames Skogstad for promoting the “client’s ashes” story.

  9. Two charges were laid under section 334(a) (theft over $1,000), and two under section 380(1)(A) (fraud over $1,000).

  10. Darren Davidson, “Nelson fugitive nabbed after 11-year hunt; Former local lawyer who allegedly misappropriated $800,000 arrested in Kansas, where he was living modestly as a part-time English professor and librarian,” Nelson Daily News, 7 September 2004, 1.

  11. Luc Quenneville, telephone interview by Philip Slayton, 29 April 2005.

  12. An infant son died of hyaline membrane disease. Singleton says that one reason for his deep interest in President Kennedy is that one of Kennedy’s own sons, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, died in infancy from the same disease.

  13. Solveig Singleton is a Senior Adjunct Fellow of the Progress and Freedom Foundation (PFF), specializing in technology law and policy, in Washington, D.C. The PFF describes itself as “a market-oriented think tank that studies the digital revolution and its implications for public policy. Its mission is to educate policy-makers, opinion leaders and the public about issues associated with technological change, based on a philosophy of limited government, free markets and individual sovereignty.”

  14. From Singleton’s 2004 paper. A Justice Department investigation of the wrongful charging of Brandon Mayfield blamed sloppy paperwork by the FBI, and overconfidence in fingerprint identification technology. See David Stout, “Inquiry Says F.B.I. Erred in Implicating Man in Attack,” The New York Times, 7 January 2006, A8.

  15. From Singleton’s notes.

  16. In 1894, Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army, was convicted of treason. He was innocent and was eventually pardoned by the president of France. The Dreyfus Affair was a major scandal in modern French history. In 1898, the writer Émile Zola published a famous newspaper article titled “J’accuse!” proclaiming the innocence of Dreyfus and attacking the process that led to his conviction.

  17. In particular, Singleton believes that U.S. and Canadian authorities are seeking to disregard what is known in extradition law as the “principle of speciality.” This principle provides that an extradited person may be tried only for the offence(s) stated in the extradition request.

  18. Jim Cross, telephone interviews with Philip Slayton, 4 and 8 November 2005.

  19. Marvin Singleton, letter to author, 2 March 2006.

  20. Singleton’s notes.

  21. Scott Canon and Dawn Bormann, “Cheney touts economy in visit,” The Kansas City Star, 7 January 2006, C1.

  22. Marvin Singleton, letter to author, 28 January 2006.

  23. Philip Slayton, “My Truman Capote Moment,” Canadian Lawyer, May 2006, 43.

  24. Marvin Singleton, letter to author, 24 June 2006.

  25. Philip Slayton, letter to Marvin Singleton, 17 July 2006.

  Fourteen: Guerrilla Fighters

  1. Christina Finney, telephone interviews by Philip Slayton, December 2005 and January 2006.

  2. Susan Semenak, “I was conned out of $300,000: teacher; Samir Badr swept Christina Finney off her feet. Then, she says, he bilked her,” The Gazette (Montreal), 17 July 1994, A1. For some of the facts about the dispute between Christina Finney and Eric Belhassen, especially its early days, I rely on extensive coverage by Montreal’s Gazette, particularly stories by Susan Semenak and Geoff Baker.

  3. Later Jasson played the role of “guard” in the movie Gothika, starring Halle Berry. In 2005, he ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Lachine. Most recently, he played the role of “bodyguard” in a television film about Justice Louise Arbour.

  4. See note 2.

  5. See Geoff Baker, “Misconduct hearing bogs down,” The Gazette (Montreal), 11 September 1995, A3.

  6. See note 2.

  7. See Geoff Baker, “Lawyer still unpunished,” The Gazette (Montreal), 30 May 1998, A1.

  8. Barreau du Québec c. Belhassen, [1994] D.D.A.N. no.115.

  9. Geoff Baker, “Lawyer gets disciplinary hearing postponed,” The Gazette (Montreal), 23 February 1995, E7.

  10. See note 5.

  11. McCullock-Finney c. Barreau du Québec, [1999] R.R.A. 83.

  12. R.S.Q., c. C-26. Section 193 says this: “The syndics, assistant syndics, corresponding syndics, the investigators and experts of a professional inspec
tion committee, the members of the Office, of a Bureau, of a committee on discipline, of a professional inspection committee or of a committee of inquiry established by a Bureau, and the members of a tribunal hearing an appeal from a decision by a committee on discipline or by a Bureau, shall not be prosecuted for acts done in good faith in the performance of their duties.”

  13. Allison Hanes, “10-year battle resumes: A schoolteacher, defending herself, takes lawsuit to appeal, claiming the Bar is trying to ‘smear’ her,” The Gazette (Montreal), 28 September 2001, B10.

  14. McCullock-Finney c. Barreau du Québec, 2002 IIJCan 9255.

  15. Guy Pratte, telephone interview by Philip Slayton, 4 November 2005.

  16. Finney v. Barreau du Québec, [2004] 2 S.C.R. 17.

  17. Mike King, “Bar association must pay, Supreme Court rules,” The Gazette (Montreal), 11 June 2004, A8.

  18. Beppi Crosariol, “Supreme Court decision puts watchdogs on high alert: Ruling puts onus on regulators to investigate complaints quickly, experts say,” The Globe and Mail, 16 August 2004, B9.

  19. At the end of the trial, Finney suddenly reduced the damages she was demanding, from $3.5 million to $75,000.

  20. See McCullock-Finney v. Gauthier, [2006] J.Q. no. 2429, para 2.

  21. The trial began by Finney asking the court to make available a French-English interpreter at no cost to her. The trial judge said that she was entitled to interpretation if she paid for it. Going to a judge of the Court of Appeal for leave to appeal this decision, Finney argued that the right to understand what is going on during a civil trial was part and parcel of her common law right to a full and fair hearing, embodied in the Constitution of Canada. She asserted that the provincial government had the constitutional obligation, at its expense, to ensure that all who appeared before the courts had the means to understand all that is said during the course of a trial. Justice Hilton, denying leave to appeal, noted that part of Finney’s underlying claim was that in the previous trial that resulted in a Supreme Court of Canada judgment she was denied a fair hearing by the defendants’ deliberately choosing to plead and testify in French. Said Justice Hilton, “If I was to grant leave to appeal the interlocutory judgment of the trial judge as requested by Mrs. Finney, this Court effectively would be called upon to decide one of the issues in the current trial without an adequate factual context and without the benefit of a reasoned judgment of the trial judge on the subject.” McCullock-Finney c. Quebec Bar Association, [2006] Q.J. No. 220.