Judge's call has lawyer fearing the worst

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The vice-president of the Indigenous Bar Association fears her career is in jeopardy because of remarks she made to Windspeaker criticizing the Native justice task force currently holding hearings throughout Alberta.

Edmonton lawyer Eileen Powless said she received a scathing telephone call from the task force chairman, Court of Queen's Bench Mr. Justice Robert Cawsey, who blasted her for criticizing the government-sponsored probe in the March 30 issue of Windspeaker.

"He was yelling at me. I really hot shook up," she said.

"It seemed to me he was attacking me for comments I made in the article. He was trying to discredit me. It's my reputation at stake,"

Powless now fears she could be subjected to harsh treatment if she ever had to face another Court of Queen's Bench justice in an Alberta courtroom.

"It's such a small community. Justices talk among themselves. If you get good reviews, they all know about it. And the same if you get bad," she said.

Powless had predicted the recommendations to be made by the task force are destined only for library shelves if it proceeds without more binding Native representation.

She had also told Windspeaker the money used for inquiries into Native justice should be used instead to keep Natives out of jail in the first place.

"He didn't like that either," Powless said.

There are two Native people on the seven-member panel -- one Metis and one treaty Indian -- but Powless believes it's token representation, not strong enough to recommend change aimed at helping Natives caught in the web of the Canadian judicial system.

Powless said Cawsey was furious Native lawyers would criticize the hearing process.

She said Cawsey accused the Indigenous Bar Association (IBA) of trying to undermine the efforts of the task force which was set up to study why there is a high rate of Natives in Alberta prisons.

She said her comments about the task force were personal and didn't reflect the position of her national Native law group.

"He was trying to say we were being uncooperative," she said.

"Why is the Queen's Bench justice phoning me and making me the target of this bloody animosity?"

The IBA was established din 1988 in Calgary and now has more than 120 members nationally.

It was formed to give Native lawyers and law graduates a voice into difficulties Native people face within the Canadian legal system.

In a telephone interview, Cawsey admitted speaking with Powless after reading her comments but denied he threatened to damage her career or the IBA.

Cawsey said he invited the IBA to make a presentation before the task force to make their position public.

"If she's worried in the least about it (the telephone call) affecting her career, she can cast that out of her mind," he said.

Later, Cawsey telephoned Windspeaker again, this time to demand his conversation with Powless not be made public.

"I would very offended," he said.

But Michael Crawford, editor of Canadian Lawyer magazine, said Alberta's Native people are the ones who should be offended by Cawsey's reaction to Powless' views on the task force.

Crawford, a lawyer, read Powless' remarks and insisted she hadn't breached any ethical codes by questioning the probe's validity."

"If is inquiry can't stand up to that sort of criticism, I think the Native population of Alberta should perhaps worry a bit about what this inquiry is going to accomplish," he said.

"A commissioner, even if he is a judge, has no right calling somebody up and telling them they have no right making comments (like those)."

Canadian Lawyer, which is published monthly in Aurora, Ontario, has published critical reviews of Canadian judges and their behavior in the past, and is known for its controversial stance on legal issues.

Crawford said there are judges throughout Canada who will try to intimidate lawyers who disagree with their policies.

And, he added, "there is a perception within the legal community if you get in the way of a judge, you wil pay for it."

Peter Freeman, spokesman for the Law Society of Alberta, said it's not standard practice for a judge to reprimand a lawyer for speaking out on a subject.

He noted there is no disciplinary action a judge could take against a lawyer for talking to the press unless it violated the ethics of a particular case.

"In this case, he's not really a judge. He's the chairman of an inquiry," he said.

"Our members speak out on a variety of issues all the time," said Freeman.

Cawsey, who has served in the Canadian Armed Forces and the RCMP, was a Crown prosecutor in Wetaskiwin before being appointed chief judge of the Provincial Court of Alberta in 1976. He became a Court of Queen's Bench justice in 1979.

The task force, a joint effort of the provincial and federal government, kicked off its first round of public hearings in northern Alberta earlier this month in P)addle Prairie and High Level.

The task force is expected to have its recommendations, which are based on submissions by Native groups, ready by year-end for review by the government.