Quote:
Originally Posted by GioforPM
I read that before. But I think her outrage is misplaced. I haven't read any serious criticism of the female defence lawyers simply because they are women. I have read more about their adoption of the old school tactics often employed against victims.
I do think it's become a common tactic to intentionally choose female counsel when charged with sexual offences. Partly because those tactics come across better from a woman, partly to try to convey that the accused isn't anti-woman (why, look at who he chose as his lawyer).
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It was a response to this opinion, also in the Toronto Star:
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star...d315f7b03.html
Quote:
Who keeps popping up at the trials of men accused of mass murder and sex crimes? Why, it’s their female lawyers. Take the case of the five Canadian hockey players acquitted of sexual assault on Thursday, for example.
I can see why a certain kind of man facing certain accusations might hire a lawyer who wears skirts — he can hide behind them — but it’s not entirely clear to me why those lawyers would take the case in the first place.
The presumption of innocence goes without saying. But if you’re accused of a violent sexual crime, a smart man might well shop for what I call a flattering adjacency. That would be the lady by your side in court and taking your side.
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A woman known as J.B. recently wrote in the Globe and Mail about testifying about being choked by later-jailed musician Jacob Hoggard. She was cross-examined by Megan Savard, the same defence lawyer hired by one of the hockey players.
If it scarred her forever, she wrote, imagine what E.M. endured from “five different defence teams. I can only imagine how it must have felt to have her trauma picked apart by a lineup of lawyers, her credibility questioned, her humanity chipped away as they scoffed and laughed.”
Now any lawyer as picky as me would be a bit short of clients. But as the great defence lawyer John Mortimer wrote of his early years in practice desperate for accused criminals to knock on his office door, the legal profession is not grand. It’s an industry like any other. Without criminals crime-ing, defence lawyers would have a hard time paying the mortgage and the wine bill.
“At some point your moral compass is going to kick in and you won’t have a choice about what to do,” a friend initially told Polley. Everyone has options.
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If I were Megan Savard I would be infuriated. I know it’s not a popular opinion around here but I think the defense lawyers did a good job and the players were rightfully acquitted. The detailed testimony quoted in the judgment did not support the Complainant’s allegations.