our Philosophy
who judges the judge?
When I was a kid and people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always said “a lawyer”. It started when I was 7 or 8 years old, and a family member was charged with a criminal offence. Every time the Lawyer called our house, everyone stopped to listen. Television was muted, music was silenced; it felt like the whole world stopped spinning to listen to the Lawyer talk.
I wanted that. I wanted that voice; I wanted that power.
I wanted that
As I grew up, I came to recognize that certain titles in life automatically garner an elevated level of respect for those who carry them. As I navigated my teens through addiction and street life, I started meeting people with these established titles that did not deserve the respect that society afforded them. They were not good people, even though their titles suggested otherwise. Coming out of that life, I started to question the fact that we, as a society, often judge people by a few choices they make instead of their true character. Often it takes only one or two decisions to be labelled Good or Bad. One conviction can brand someone a criminal for life while a couple of diplomas can put another on a pedestal. But what if the conviction was the result of the person’s worst decision made on the worst day of their life? How would you judge an established professional if you knew he used his title to hide a lifetime of atrocities?
The concept of questioning “Who Judges The Judge?” is not meant literally nor is it designed to insult or demean the role of judges in our system. Quite the opposite: I take pride and I feel honour every time I appear in court, if nothing else than to add balance and tip the scales just a little bit for the clients I have the privilege of representing. I just wish that we, as a society, would recognize that this great system is a trap.
voice.
The system is designed to keep people stuck.
The government talks about getting tough on crime, ridding our streets of drugs and guns and cracking down on gangs but no one does what is actually needed: prevent youth from entering the system and give meaningful options to offenders who want to get out. Instead, more money is thrown into the system itself. It costs over $100,000.00 annually to house each inmate in federal custody. Imagine if the government moved that same $100,000.00 to the front end of that same person’s life: paying for adequate housing, education, health care, and social services for children and youth under the age of 12, the age at which a person in Canada can be arrested. How many of these youth would avoid the criminal justice system completely if they had the resources, tools, and support they needed to excel in classrooms instead of on street corners?
I used to think that the system is broken but it is functioning exactly as it was designed to.
Most career criminals are stuck in the system because the system is designed to keep them there. Without criminals, there would be no system. Defence lawyers, crowns, prosecutors, judges, clerks, court staff, jail guards, cops, probation officers, parole officers; they (we) would all be without a job if society were without crime. And some (many) would be without an identity. Members of this system tend to define themselves in reference to their career. Perhaps because it takes so much time, energy, and attention that it can feel as though it is the full extent of our self. Maybe it is because they see it as such an integral aspect of society; the Justice System, a system which serves and protects our Core Values and Fundamental Rights as citizens in a free and democratic state. While this is all very true, the fact is that it is the criminals that are driving this system. Without crimes being committed, there would be no trials, and there would be no medium through which to test, refine, interpret, and reconstruct the law; leaving us with no reason to spend billions of dollars investigating, arresting, detaining, prosecuting, sentencing, and monitoring those we label as criminals. That is why the system is designed to keep its participants in place.
How many youth would avoid the criminal justice system if they had the support to excel in classrooms instead of street corners?
It’s becoming increasingly impossible for criminals to become productive members of society, even though the vast majority of sentencing hearings include some comment about rehabilitation of the offender. How can an offender rehabilitate him or herself when it takes ten years to get a pardon for an indictable offence? How can anyone support themselves for ten years without any prospect of earning a respectable income? I have met far too many “criminals” who cannot get out of the system. Not for lack of desire. Not for lack of ability. Not because they are bad or evil or unmotivated. They are stuck in the system because the system is designed to keep them stuck. Because they leave jail and have to spend years on terms of probation or parole that they are bound to breach, resulting in further criminal charges. Because few corporations want to hire a convict. Because instead of investing in employment programs, the government builds bigger jails and approves annual budget increases for the police. Society wonders why kids sell drugs and join gangs. Perhaps if we spent more time wondering where all the basketball courts went, we would stop asking why teenagers carry loaded guns in Gucci side bags.
I firmly believe that the vast majority of people who commit street crimes do so either for financial gain or as a coping mechanism and not because they are bad or evil people. If the system was not designed to feed itself through recidivism, there would be better opportunities for youth and meaningful options for offenders post-conviction. If the system were not a trap, there would be avenues of escape. There is not, because without people committing crimes, the billion-dollar criminal justice system would collapse. And so the system is designed to keep people stuck. In so doing, it does not question the worth of those who enter it and it does not care about the value of those who stay, whether by choice or by circumstance. And society does not stop the cycle because people cast judgement without even asking the question: Who Judges The Judge?
Who judges
the judge?