My mother’s birthday was February 20. She wasn’t with us on the anniversary of her birth this year, just before the world (as we knew it) ended in the middle of March. She was gone three years by then. I was devastated and sad, as I always am on such anniversaries. But she would have been so proud to see us in the Supreme Court of Canada, arguing as my three co-counsel and I did, to support fairness for NCR accused who are caught by Sex Offender Registries, without being criminally responsible for their actions.
I have been exercised about this issue for fully 12 years. In 2008, my colleague Mercedes Perez and I wrote about this issue and got an article published in the Windsor Year Book of Access to Justice. Nothing else had ever been written about it. Here is a link to that article:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ID11wFOtYWVsFoTJIQYS0b11FgP3JNXX/view?usp=sharing
In the Supreme Court of Canada, our client, the Empowerment Council, was granted leave to intervene. We argued strenuously in favour of ensuring that there was an “exit ramp” available to NCR accused persons once discharged absolutely, so they too, like their convicted counterparts, have a way to challenge their inclusion on the Registry and get off it. Here is a link to our Factum as filed with the Court.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wFF10rqs9saxfNpEJSBTSN1xIkEUWYDB/view?usp=sharing
We were really just asking the Supreme Court to uphold Justice David Doherty’s Decision in the Court of Appeal, from which the AG Ontario had been appealing to our country’s top Court. Our client, the Empowerment Council, also appeared in this Court as an intervenor supporting Mr. G on his appeal there from our Toronto Superior Court of Justice and a decision of His Honour Justice Lederer.
The Court of Appeal Judgment written by Doherty J. appears here:
Here is the link to the webcast:
You can watch a great performance by my cherished colleague and close friend, Jill Presser, acting for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association at approximately 2:18.
I went last.
Not only was arguing this case one of my finest moments – see if you agree – 2:29:26 is me, closing out the hearing for the Intervener, the Empowerment Council (our client), but it was one of the nicest days of my life and one of the greatest trips of my career.
I took my then 17 year old daughter with me. The last time she was with me was in January of 2003, almost 17 years to the day, when she was but 10 weeks old. This was us then, during my first ever outing in that Court, for Starson v. Swayze, a landmark case about capacity to consent to treatment.
Here is the transcript to that case and the links to watching IT on CPAC.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16DijIRqPEFDAA12ekU40KYkBRZuwtJ-V/view?usp=sharing
https://www.cpac.ca/en/programs/supreme-court-hearings/episodes/90005120/
https://www.cpac.ca/en/programs/supreme-court-hearings/episodes/90005135/
https://www.cpac.ca/en/programs/supreme-court-hearings/episodes/90005118/
AND FINALLY HERE ARE SOME PICTURES FROM G v ONTARIO IN THE SCC
Back with daughter Scarlett, for one very special photo shoot 17 years later:
Of course, one of the best parts is always the drinks and dinner before / after Court – here I am with my co-authors on our book, the Guide to Mental Disorder Law in Canadian Criminal Justice, celebrating our case in G but also finishing this enormous very personal but also tremendous professional success, finishing our manuscript.
Here is the link to where you can get the book, by the way, and we appreciate your interest:
anitaszigeti 