Remember Matlock?
In the pre-streaming 1980s, Andy Griffith played folksy Atlanta criminal defence attorney Ben Matlock, who each week successfully defended yet another innocent client charged with murder.
Matlock didn’t defend the guilty. Like Perry Mason before him (ask your parents), he appeared to deploy his skills only in the service of the unjustly accused, which implicitly suggested good lawyers defend only good people.
Andy Griffith portrayed the wily, witty defence lawyer Ben Matlock in the television series “Matlock.”
It’s a fantasy, of course, one at direct odds with a fundamental cornerstone of our justice system – everyone’s right to a vigorous legal defence.
Now, will someone please tell that to Premier Wab Kinew.
To recap: on Monday, Fort Garry MLA Mark Wasyliw, who is a practising criminal defence lawyer, was turfed from the NDP caucus because of his business relationship with another lawyer.
“The decision came after our caucus learned that MLA Wasyliw’s business partner is acting as Peter Nygard’s criminal defence lawyer,” caucus chairman Mike Moyes said in a news release that announced Wasyliw’s ouster.
“MLA Wasyliw’s failure to demonstrate good judgment does not align with our caucus principles of mutual respect and trust,” Moyes said. “As such, MLA Wasyliw can no longer continue his role in our caucus.”
“Kinew may have had a legitimate reason for removing Wasyliw from caucus, but the MLA’s business relationship with a lawyer, Gerri Wiebe, who was only doing her job, isn’t one of them, and shows either a wilful blindness or profound ignorance about how law is practised in our country”
In a jury trial, much can depend on a sympathetic victim. Through that lens, Wasyliw hasn’t done himself any favours. Wasyliw’s relationship with Kinew has, by all accounts, been stormy. Last October, after Wasyliw was passed over for a cabinet position in the newly elected government, he made a point of not shaking hands with Kinew at the swearing-in ceremony.
“Given that I’m not in cabinet, I’m going to have a lot of time on my hands and I’m going to be taking more cases and working as a defence lawyer still,” Wasyliw said at the time. Critics described his behaviour as petulant.
In the year since then, there is no indication relations have thawed, with Wasyliw on Monday calling Kinew a “bully” and a “toxic” leader. Wasyliw’s decision not to wind down his law practice and devote himself to being a full-time MLA was a continuing sore point.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Premier Wab Kinew defends the NDP caucus’ decision to oust MLA Mark Wasyliw at the Manitoba Legislative Building on Tuesday.
All of which is to say Kinew may have had a legitimate reason for removing Wasyliw from caucus, but the MLA’s business relationship with a lawyer, Gerri Wiebe, who was only doing her job, isn’t one of them, and shows either a wilful blindness or profound ignorance about how law is practised in our country.
Wiebe represented disgraced fashion mogul Peter Nygard, who was sentenced in Toronto last week to 11 years in prison for sex attacks on four women.
In ousting Wasyliw from caucus, the Kinew government unfairly maligned Wiebe, a respected lawyer who, just last month, was appointed as King’s counsel, an honorific that recognizes a lawyer’s outstanding contribution to the practice of law.
Was there nobody in the room — Justice Minister Matt Wiebe, for one — who pointed out just how boneheaded the justification for turfing Wasyliw was?
In the words of one veteran lawyer Tuesday, the Kinew government “scored on its own goal” and inflicted as much damage to its own credibility as Wasyliw’s.
Defence lawyers are used to people asking them how they sleep at night defending people who are accused of horrible crimes. The fact that the same question is effectively being asked by elected officials who should know better is downright alarming.
Kinew, whose pre-politics involvement in the justice system is well known, should appreciate as well as anyone the importance of a justice system that recognizes everyone’s right to a full defence.
It’s dismaying that Kinew is seemingly ignoring that for political gain.
dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca
— Dean Pritchard has reported on Manitoba courts and legal issues since 2000.
Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter
Dean Pritchard is courts reporter for the Free Press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for the Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019. Read more about Dean.
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