PUNISHMENT DOESN'T FIT THE CRIME

I read with interest that Rose-Lyne Gauthier was given a one-month
suspension by the Law Society of Upper Canada after being convicted of
smuggling drugs to a prisoner in the City's Provincial jail. In an agreed
statement of facts, Gauthier admitted that her behaviour constituted
conduct unbecoming a barrister or solicitor.

Shortly after I was called to the Bar in 1960, a prominent divorce lawyer
was disbarred and was never thereafter permitted to be re-admitted. His
offence was that the deponent in an affidavit of service mailed the signed
affidavit to him and he commissioned the affidavit without the deponent
being in his presence.

Are we demanding higher standards for lawyers in 2004? Me thinks not.

Bert Raphael, Raphael Partners LLP, Toronto