Editors notebook – judge not lest ye be …
Here’s the story in a nutshell, condensed from articles produced by our sister paper the Winnipeg Free Press, and others, including the National Post and CBC News (which broke the story): Lori Douglas, Associate Chief Justice of the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench Family Division, is at the centre of a scandal after it came to light she once had at least 30 sexually explicit photos posted online. Her husband uploaded the photos of her in bondage gear engaging in oral sex onto an Internet porn site, that caters to a specific racial fetish. Her husband, Winnipeg family lawyer Jack King, then approached one of his clients to have sex with his wife. There is no evidence Douglas knew what King was doing. The hubby’s client, Winnipeg computer programmer Alex Chapman, 44, told CBC he first met King in 2002 when he hired the lawyer to represent him during his divorce proceedings. Chapman, who is black and originally from Trinidad, claimed that King encouraged him to visit a certain porn website that depicts sex between black men and white women. Using a provided password, Chapman found the nude sex pictures of King’s wife, who was a lawyer at the time, under the name “White Princess.” It’s said King was suffering from depression at the time. After his divorce was finalized in 2003, Chapman filed a complaint with King’s law firm, Thompson Dorfman Sweatman. soon after, King took a one-year medical leave. The Canadian Judicial Council received a complaint from Chapman on July 15. The Manitoba Law Society is also investigating a complaint by Chapman. Douglas has requested to be temporarily relieved of her duties as a sitting judge and will remain in her position in an administrative capacity. Chapman this week filed three separate lawsuits at the Winnipeg courts, seeking $10 million from King, $7 million from Douglas and $50 million from the law firm Thompson Dorfman Sweatman where the couple worked. See what I mean? This is the type of amazing made-for-TV-movie story that simply has to be told. It’s kind of like the perfect storm for itchy tabloid headline writers just wanting to give someone a good scratch. The Winnipeg Sun gave the judge some particularly special attention on its Wednesday front with the screaming nod to Henny Youngman, Take my Wife, please. Now some folks this week on various open-line radio shows and online have derided the media for simply doing a first-class smear job on the poor judge. Sorry, this is definitely newsworthy. and since much of the story has already been proven — the pictures apparently do still exist on a disc and there was legally documented hush-money paid to shut Chapman up — this is not simply a piece of gossip that has gotten out of control. It’s a delicious dish that should be savoured by all consumers of good news. As for the judge, she’s toast. Done. Like dinner. It doesn’t matter what happens with the complaints currently before the various professional bodies and what happens with the lawsuits. She’ll be known as the “White Princess” for some time to come. And as this story will have legs because there’s also a question as to how much information on the issue she knew and what she gave to officials during the detailed selection and vetting process for her to become a judge, and then to be promoted to associate chief justice.
It’s nice to think what you do in your personal life behind closed doors is nobody else’s business, but once it’s revealed, it’s public domain. And while a pop star or sports figure can be excused at times for some, er — eccentricities — a judge has to rise above the rabble and be squeaky clean. A jurist also has to be especially careful who he or she associates with — and who they marry. Especially a senior family court lawyer who must, on a daily basis, make judgment on other people’s relationships. The Winnipeg Free Press has again managed to produce a list of folks deemed most powerful in the province without looking much beyond the Perimeter Highway. Of the 30 people on the list, published one week ago, only five have any connections to rural Manitoba. and none of them are from Brandon or Westman. And what has become an annual regional shunning is what prompted me a few years ago to create my own version of the Freep’s power list — except they had to be from the Sun’s coverage area, which is all of Westman and a little into the Parkland and Central Plains regions. I’ve had fun with my list — which I extended to the Top-50 — and have already been asked when I plan to create this year’s offering. Well, given that it’s a general municipal and school board election year, I’m going to wait until after the ballots are counted on Oct. 27 to see where some mayors, reeves, councillors and trustees get slotted. So it’ll be a little later than usual, likely early November. So I wrote a column last week headlined Glamorizing Grammar where I looked at some public typos and poor use of the language on signs and such. And sure enough, there was a typo in my copy — this after an eagle-eyed editor caught my original mistake and corrected it. after some checking, it seems some computer Gremlin in our system decided to run the uncorrected version of the page. The gaffe? I used the word “new” instead of “knew.” And thanks to the dozen or so readers — including my publisher, Ewan Pow — who quickly let me know about the error once they saw the printed paper. On July 24, I stumbled a bit while walking in the shadows backstage at the Brandon Folk, Music and Art Festival. Didn’t fall down, didn’t feel any pain. Didn’t miss a beat. The next day my right knee started to hurt. Within two days I could barely walk and was in excruciating pain at my doctor’s office. The initial diagnosis was that I had likely broken or ripped something in the joint. Went for X-rays. Got some painkillers. The next day I bought the first cane of my life and find myself needing to use it on more days than I’d like. And I was told I would need an MRI to determine what exactly was wrong with my knee before a decision on surgery will be made. That could mean a bit of a wait. In the meantime, I’ll just hobble around in varying degrees of pain and discomfort and be the butt of cane jokes. Apparently there is a lot of depth and enjoyment to cane humour. and when I yell at the neighbourhood kids to “Get off my lawn!” I now have a cane to shake at them. Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition September 4, 2010 A12 Editor’s Notebook – Judge not, lest ye be judged?
Depends if you are going to be always working in the same location with an air compressor or do you want some mobility. I would think a Dewalt cordless system is the best of both worlds for drills and saws but the air would be best for sanding, nibbling and stuff like that. In other words each system is good to have together
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