O'SHAUGHNESSY o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-07-27 published
Judge caused a revolution in Ontario family and youth laws
Wronged by his kindergarten teacher, he never forgot the inequity
and, as an adult, developed a keen desire to set things right.
'He was greatly offended at injustice'
By Noreen SHANAHAN,
Special to The Globe and Mail, Page S8
In 1966, Ross
FAIR was the youngest man to become a judge in
the Ontario Provincial Court. He was just 39. Appointed to the
family and criminal divisions, he made his greatest impact in
family and youth law reform by influencing Queen's Park's decision
to take a long look at the antiquated Deserted Wives and Children
Maintenance Act and the Juvenile Delinquents Act. The result
was the Family Law Act and the Young Offenders Act.
Ross Harold
FAIR grew up in St. Catharines, Ontario, where he
was the youngest of five boys. His father Willard worked in insurance,
but it was the work of his mother Helen, a legal secretary, that
inspired him to choose law as a career.
His sense of injustice developed early in life. Left-handed by
nature, he was sent home from kindergarten with a note saying
he had been suspended until he started using his right hand,
at which point he'd be "welcomed back." The lesson came hard
and forever introduced him to ideas about injustice.
Questions of fairness returned less than 10 years later, after
the outbreak of the Second World War. Just 14, he watched, perplexed,
as Friends and their older brothers headed off to fight. In the
end, two-thirds of his classmates joined the military, and a
startling percentage of them died in battle. One high-school
friend went Absent Without Leave and hid out in the
FAIRs' basement,
causing much grief for Ross's mother, who was torn between handing
him over and keeping him hidden. Another friend joined up reluctantly,
certain he'd never make it home. He was right. He was shot dead
in Holland.
For his part, Ross was troubled less by the prospect of war.
As a teenager, he had spent his summers at a military camp in
Petawawa, Ontario - a fairly typical experience for a boy during
the early 1940s. He eventually lied about his age and joined
the navy at 17 to be stationed at St-Hyacinthe, Quebec, as a
wireless operator.
After the war, he completed high school in Hamilton in a program
designed for veterans (he graduated alongside Lincoln Alexander,
who later became Ontario's 24th lieutenant-governor), then studied
political science and economics at Victoria College, University
of Toronto. In 1948, he entered Osgoode Hall law school, which
at the time entailed going to classes in the morning and then
articling for a law firm in the afternoon. His first job was
working for lawyer Fred Gardiner, who went on to become chairman
of Metropolitan Toronto and the namesake of Toronto's Gardiner
Expressway. Between the mundane work of serving documents and
searching land titles, the student had the chance to sit in on
some of Mr. Gardiner's criminal cases.
"You would hear the clacking in the cells down below and these
people, some of them in handcuffs and some of them with ankle
chains, stumbled up… And they could be a sorry sight; some of
them would have been arrested just a few hours before," he once
recalled. "They would come up and get in the prisoner's dock,
and Fred would say: 'Well, that is a sorry lot we have got to
work with today. It is getting so bad you can't tell the prisoners
from the lawyers.' "
In 1952, he was called to the bar. He married his childhood sweetheart,
Jean WESTELL, the same year and moved to St. Catharines to join
a law firm. But while he enjoyed the feeling of belonging that
came with being back in his hometown, there were, as he later
put it, "too many in-laws and too many outlaws." Six years later,
the family moved to Kitchener, Ontario, and a new law firm where,
after the death of his father, he persuaded his mother to return
to work as a legal secretary.
In Kitchener, he became more involved in family law and with
juvenile offenders, but did not like what he found. What's more,
he let his disapproval be known. "We were the poor country cousins
of the judicial system," he recalled years later. "Back in the
early sixties, the family court was being treated as if they
were ashamed of it, and the kids didn't have a chance… we were
meeting in basement halls and legion halls and they had no facilities."
While the shift away from criminal law came as a surprise to
his colleagues, Judge
FAIR found the drama behind family law
cases to be irresistible. "In those days, most lawyers wouldn't
be caught dead in family court -- myself included -- until I
began to see what a disaster was going on, and what a hardship
it was for people who were there," he told the Provincial Judges
Oral History Project in 1995.
At Easter in 1966, he learned he was to be the new magistrate
and juvenile and family court judge for the County of Waterloo.
The news came as a complete surprise. He and his wife were spending
the holiday weekend in New York when he heard the news in a call
from his law partner. In retrospect, he came to believe that
his appointment had occurred as a result of his criticism of
the system.
In 1977, he was named senior judge for Central-Western Ontario,
the same year he was chosen as Kitchener's citizen of the year,
primarily because of his work as an advocate for families. His
greatest influence was in pretrial mediation services and in
reducing confrontational settlements so that families suffered
less dislocation. He also hatched community solutions for young
people who found themselves in trouble with the law, all the
while refusing to be silent about the injustices he discovered.
In fact, he fairly shrieked.
"I was screaming about inadequate resources, screaming about
the terrible way the damned spousal assault cases were being
dealt with, and support locally," he told the history project.
"Screaming about the crown attorneys and everybody else not doing
anything but paying lip service, screaming about the government
putting us in basements and in terrible digs all over the place,
and screaming about the training schools situation."
Meanwhile, he sometimes sidestepped policy in favour of his own
more expedient solutions. For instance, a man who found himself
tangled up in bureaucratic technicalities over a custody payment
arrived in court, along with his ex-wife. The couple agreed that
nothing was owed but that the man's employer continued to garnishee
wages. Judge
FAIR immediately picked up his telephone and called
the company's accounting office.
"He sorted it out in 20 minutes," said his colleague, Justice
Ken PEDLAR of Ontario Superior Court. "He told them: 'The man
is paid up and his wife confirms it. I don't want any more pay
to come off his cheque.' He was greatly offended at injustice,
which is fundamentally about the abuse of power. He tried to
correct it whenever he could, with great insight and understanding
of the human condition."
Over the years, Judge
FAIR went public with his beliefs about
the system and spread the word as president of the Ontario Family
Law Judges Association and with Big Brothers. He also spoke at
high schools, and met with students in social-work programs to
alert them to flaws in the judicial system.
"He went from the dark ages to enlightenment in an environment
where it's always difficult. From youth being delinquent to youth
needing a chance, and he was a leader in that group," said Michael
O'SHAUGHNESSY, a Brockville lawyer who appeared before Judge
FAIR many times.
In 1985, Judge
FAIR and his family moved to Kingston to work
as one of two family court judges in the Kingston and Brockville
areas. To the end, he championed mediation as an effective courtroom
tool for families. He retired in 1993 but continued to work per
diem. In 2003, he had the satisfaction of seeing the Ontario
laws that he had worked so hard to put in place become further
improved and overhauled as the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
Ross Harold
FAIR was born October 25, 1925 in Peterborough, Ontario
He died June 22, 2007, in Kingston. He was 81. He is survived
by his wife Jean and by daughters Janet and Judy. He also leaves
grandchildren Bayley and Zack.
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O'SHAUGHNESSY o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-11-23 published
O'SHAUGHNESSY,
Patrick
Gerald, RCCA
With the stoicism and humility that characterized his heroic
battle, peacefully at age 60 years, on Wednesday November 21,
2007 at Toronto General Hospital. Patrick was the beloved husband
of Margaret and loving father of Thomas of Toronto. Predeceased
by his darling mother Jeanne, father Gerald and brother Jack
(Jo-Anne FIRLOTTE) and remembered fondly by Peggy (Boyd) of Bancroft,
Mike (Linda) of Thunder Bay, Susan (Bruce) of Calgary, the Lesa
family, and his many Friends, including those on Shuylers Island
with whom he spent much time perfecting his golf swing. Patrick's
life will also be richly celebrated by all of his colleagues
in the Ministry of Transportation and
DM Wills Consulting Engineers
where he was dedicated to a rewarding career of public service.
Family and Friends are invited to join in a celebration of Patrick's
life at 11: 00 a.m. on Wednesday, November 28 at Saint_John's Anglican
Church, Bancroft. Reception to follow. Donations (in lieu of
flowers) may be made in Patrick's memory to Toronto General Hospital
Medical/Surgical Intensive Care Unit - www.tgwhf-uhn.ca. Funeral
arrangements entrusted to Baragar Funeral Home, Bancroft.
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