FINANCIAL POST
Awards for judge and civil rights crusader
Winkler, Edwardh
Sandra Rubin Financial Post Wednesday, February 16, 2005 Mr. Justice Warren Winkler and Marlys Edwardh received awards of distinction from the Toronto Lawyers Association last week. Frankly, it doesn't get more distinct than that. Ms. Edwardh, a prominent criminal defence lawyer and civil rights crusader, gave a passionate speech about the role of lawyers in civil society. Justice Winkler, known as The Wink, had the crowd howling with home-spun stories of growing up in Pincher Creek, Alta., "a town so flat if your dog ran away you could see it for three days." Mr. Winkler said there was just one lawyer in Pincher Creek "and he was always in the Legion. I wasn't allowed inside, so I wasn't sure what he actually did." He spoke of getting into law school, of buying a heavy wool suit to wear in Toronto -- it was August -- and boarding the train, providing his first encounter with air conditioning, which he found a wonderment. He reminisced about his early days and roommates such as Robert P. Armstrong of the Ontario Court of Appeal. "He's not here tonight," Mr. Winkler said mournfully, looking around the room of nearly 200 people. "Probably afraid of what I might say about him." Long pause. "Like, he's the only person I know who eats breakfast cereal three times a day." Long pause. "Reason? It's cheap," he sighed, shaking his head. He said J.L. McDougall of Fraser Milner Casgrain is another friend from the old days. "He's not here tonight either," he said. "I hear the draws have been done at Fraser Milner." Pause. "J-L's been cut to $1.2million." Long pause. "I guess the ticket was too expensive." Justice Winkler talked about his first criminal case, acting for a friend charged with impaired driving. He took it on because the hearing was in a small town that supposedly had a good dance. He borrowed his friend's yellow pickup truck, which he thought would be popular with girls. He drove there and scoped out the dance hall before going to the RCMP office to argue his case. He was called late in the day. The judge had given everyone else either 30 days in jail or a $300 fine. "I knew I was in trouble," said Justice Winkler. "I didn't have $300 -- and I didn't have my client with me. I decided to do the only thing you can do under the circumstances. I resorted to the facts." When he was finally called, the judge remarked he hadn't seen Mr. Winkler since he'd caught him and his brother stealing turnips from his garden years earlier. Justice Winkler insisted it was another set of brothers but the judge cut him off, said it was him, and found his client not guilty. "The Mountie, who had been sleeping in his chair throughout all this, instantly sprung up to protest but the judge turned to him and said: 'Sit down. All in all I'd say you've had a pretty good day.' It was then I
learned an important lesson," Mr. Winkler said. "It's called the home-town advantage." He said after being made senior regional judge for Toronto, a friend of his late father's known as QC had telephoned after reading it in the Pincher Creek Echo. "What's your region?" asked QC. "393 and 361," said Mr. Winkler, the addresses of Toronto's two main courthouses. "Gee," said QC. "In Alberta, when you get a region, it's something like Medicine Hat to Calgary. Doesn't sound like much of a region to me. Did you get a raise?" No raise. "Do you at least get more people to boss around?" No new people to boss around. "I don't think he was terribly impressed," Justice Winkler told the crowd. "That was a year and a half ago and I haven't heard from QC since." Among those in stitches were Pat LeSage, Ontario's former chief justice; Susan Lang, Ontario Court of Appeal; Brian Lennox, Chief Justice of the Ontario Court of Justice and Lucia Favret from the same court; Todd Ducharme of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice; Frank Marrocco, Treasurer of the Law Society; Earl Cherniak of Lerners; Tom Heintzman of McCarthy Tetrault; Jeff Leon of Fasken Martineau; Chris Paliare of Paliare Roland Rosenberg Rothstein; Ben Zarnett of Goodmans; Mel Green of Sack Goldblatt Mitchell; James Musgrove at Lang Michener; and Vern Krishna, past treasurer of the Law Society of Upper Canada. Speaking of Mr. Krishna, his official portrait was unveiled last week. One former bencher was overheard teasing him mercilessly about the oil painting, which everyone says captures him splendidly. We could have sworn we heard the words "Whistler's Mother with a mustache." We were assured what was really said was "Whistler's Mother with panache." Everyone's a critic.
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Toronto Lawyers' Association wishes to thank National Post for allowing us to reproduce this article.