Guest Post

Deb O'Connor

LAWYERS: FORCE FOR GOOD OR EVIL?
First off, let's be clear that I am not a lawyer, but I worked in a legal environment long enough to have an informed, but informal opinion, of the genre. Second, the lawyers I came to know and respect worked for Legal Aid in the clinic system, so they have made a choice to work exclusively for the disadvantaged. While I don't know it for a fact, I suspect these are a different breed than the Bay Street shark variety.

But one thing most lawyers have in common is their adherence to the Law, and to their Rules of Professional Conduct. Make no mistake, lawyers are a distinct sub-set of the human species, and their peculiarities set them apart from the rest of us. When they rattle on about Conflict of Interest and other legalities that make little sense to mere humans, they really mean it! Nothing matters more, in fact, and the only thing they fear is the Law Society of Upper Canada, which wields a big stick.

They understand there can be a huge difference between Justice and Law, the former being what society aspires to, and the latter what we actually have. No amount of teeth grinding or wishful thinking can make the two the same, although as laws change, the line is always blurred. Those lawyers unwilling to accept that, or simply wanting to change it, often enter politics where our laws originate.

Lawyers don't generally see their clients as people; they just represent whatever legal issue they are pursuing. Lawyer wear blinders in that regard; they are only interested in the facts of the issue and how to prevail, not in the client's personal life problems. What can sometimes seem like coldness and disinterest is simply a focused lawyer doing their job, which they clearly see as solving the legal problem in front of them.

What lawyers often have, in my experience, is a wicked sense of humour. Not generally shared among outsiders, it's their own personal safety valve to stave off the effects of work stress. Believe it or not, lawyers can be a veritable barrel of fun given the right occasion and enough good scotch.

But would you want a lawyer in your own family? They can also be royal pains in the butt, especially when they insist on pointing out the Law and its ramifications. And, they stubbornly refuse to give legal advice in areas of the law they don't practise, so your real estate lawyer cousin will not provide advice on your divorce no matter how many times you ask.

Good or evil? Depends on who you ask, and who the lawyer is! But even if you hate the breed, most of us can agree anarchy is not a reasonable alternative, and that's what we would have without the Law and lawyers to navigate them.

Welcome to the new readers

Welcome to the BurdReport, I am repeating this as a story, in the NNews, mentioned the BurdReport and published a link.

For those who haven't been here before please click on all the links, especially the archives on the left. I have been at this a long while and there's plenty of content. I write about anything that strikes my fancy, especially local news. You will get both sides of an issue and probably an analytical opinion to boot and the chance to make an instant comment.

And so it goes on

To my astonishment the Norlock story and his crown for being the Champion leafleteer is marching on., and the election approaches. To this end Party PR is flooding in.This press release has come in, and before the Ruddites get shirty about not having the same privilege I will print all that comes in. The Ruddites do not have the BurdReport on their media list so we don't their pearls of wisdom - send 'em in it gets printed.

The HST is an issue that crosses Provincial boundaries, the Feds have to approve the HST bribe money, consequently Mr Norlock is on the hot seat as he takes orders from Harper that conflicts with "Little Mike" Hudak's campaign against the HST.

click on the image to enlarge

A question for the Cramahe watchers

Bylaw Officer Jim Harris appears to be taking it on the chin, producing reports that Council doesn't either like or take much notice of. His latest, a treatise on the legality of a patio fence at the Queen's hotel, appears to have produced an interesting Council meeting, to say the least. Bob Owen, of Cramahe Now reports that Mr Harris introduced his report about the option and legality of a year round fence around the patio at a Council meeting. The owner of the fence, Councillor Tim Gilligan Jr (he of baseball bat fame) promptly declared a conflict of interest and then moved to the delegation table and debated the issue with Council. A most innovative use of the C of I regulations.
The upshot was that once again Cramahe Council put the boots to a report produced by Mr Harris, a previous one being the Farmers' Market bylaw controversy, now what? Will Marc "quick draw. I can fire you" Coombs get rid of this officious man, just as he has removed all of the people who displease him. Remember Lee Dekeyser, Ken Wood and other minions of the Township?

The HST - what do we know about it?

OK this is from a non-economist so don't get wound up about the numbers just critique the reasoning. We are going to get a new tax and people will get tax rebates and business will get a lower corporate tax rate. This where it gets sticky. Consumers pay more actual cash but will get tax rebates (up to $1,000 cheque in the mail) and the promise of more jobs from a more efficient business sector. The business advantages are becoming quite clear, they will get a lower tax rate and relief from paying tax on items purchased for the business. The HST is widely seen as a contributor to making businesses more competitive because it does not tax businesses' purchases, including many capital items, that were subject to the old retail sales tax. If this is true then that help for business is good. What isn't good is the lowered corporate tax. Corporate taxes are paid on net income, just like personal tax. You reach the net by deducting expenses from the gross income. The more allowable expenses there are will determine the amount of net income. The rest is profit. Profit can be used in many ways but is usually taken out of the business by the owners. So, in my reckoning if a business owner has profit and don't forget that there is a high amount of net income that is not taxable before hitting the threshold, it's all gravy. Why are we making it easier for a business owner to cut his costs (and increase productivity) - good and allowing the owner to keep more profit - bad?

People with hurt feelings, please line up

Are there any more groups out there that need apologies? If so get in line because there will always be craven, grovelling and vote-seeking ploiticians willing to utter any apology necessary. Today it was the Australians apologising for accepting thousands of kids, who would have starved, and the British PM will follow suit next month (Extracting the most political mileage from the situation Gordon Brown announced he will apologise next month!). As readers may deduce from the words today I have little truck or trade with political apologies. They are a political device that works for Pols but not people. If Pols want to apologise for their transgressions why don't they apologise for not fixing Society's ills. The 30 odd billion spent on the war in Afghanistan could have paid for an expanded heath care sytem an unemployment relief system that maintains families and a host of other remedies to lift us from this man-made recession.

Why I love the CBC and hate it too!

The CBC is a charm, a wonderful experience. If you don't think so go to the website and download the Remembrance Day podcast for the Vinyl Cafe, as an example. Stewart McLean's readings of submitted recollections were dreadfully funny, on topic and very moving and not a tale of battles either. But the network drives me nuts. As with every other radio station in the Country it is really only working half the time, the other half of the day is a repeat of the daily stuff. The other bane is that when events happen every program in the network has to have a story . Consequently, as an example, the Berlin Wall commemoration was pounded to death by every producer in Front St. this week . Driving down the 401, in the middle of the night is a very boring occupation. Miles of miles of white line watching is only relieved by what you hear on the radio. There are five different wavelengths between Toronto and Montreal. After punching the frequencies into the presets you can get seamless broadcasts. But if you listen during the day you have nothing to listen to at night. So love the content hate the repeats.

Sunday #3

Driving down King St, this morning I noticed a plethora of shiny stainless steel waste bins. There are 15, in my count, placed on both sides of King St between McGill and Spring St. I also noticed that there is no advertising on any of the bins. This is a wonderful chance for the owners of the bins to accrue some public acceptance of these shiny montrosities. They could ask local artists to display their work. The bins are not producing one penny of ad revenue now, they should get us on their side by offering the space to local artists.

Well that was quick, wasn't it?

The Canadian Champion of leafleteering - Rick Norlock, the Squire of Warworth, appears to have won this one. Despite the news of our very own MP owning the highest bill for leafleteering and casually dismissing his opponents, as people who do little except oppose communication efforts ;he has obviously won the battle of public opinion. I say this because his opponents, the putative nominated candidates for his job, will have to wait for an election All Candidates Meeting, where they can debate this huge waste of public money because the public are not interested. There is no groundswell of angry people banging on Rick's door to tell him what they think. A story without legs!

Sunday #2

I am not a great fan of Conrad Black because of his attitudes towards unions - he hates and and will smash them at every opportunity, I do admire his writing. In this column to the National Post he describes the delight of being a prison tutor. Just the way it is written in an understated British wry way; he talks about his experience as a, albeit reluctant, tutor of soon-to-be High School graduates, is impressive to me.