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Dahn now has his own blog with over 300 archived opinions be it local or international matters of great interest. Dahn's opinions are certainly a great read for the layman or the great legal minds of the world.click here for DAHN BATCHELOR'S OPINIONS.
- Introduction
| I discovered years ago that writing is not unlike painting. On some occasions, you have to use a heavy brush and apply a bold stroke for those who have difficulty grasping what you are trying to say and on other occasions, you can use a lighter brush and get your point across with a fine stroke. I tried but never mastered the medium of paint on canvas but I like to think that I have mastered the art of applying words on paper. Only those who read my words will be the judge as to whether the words I have written are those of a Rembrandt or a child learning the art of finger painting, but whatever my style, I like to think that I got the messages across to those to whom I wrote personally and in my essays, articles, books and speeches. |
- My Quotations
| When Lord Baden Powell created Boy Scouts, he wasn't in an era when
he could envision that other organizations for young boys would compete
with his idea of a youth organization. Many of our boys of today have
chosen to leave scouting and join army, sea or air cadets. I was given the
task of finding a way to keep boys scouts within scouting but in doing so,
I am mindful of the responsibilities and great adventure that awaits you
in cadets. And that is why you are here today--to consider my proposal
that a new organization within scouting fill your needs for responsibility
and adventure. I have created for you, an organization for those of you
who are capable of trust, responsibility, and equally important, a
willingness to continue in scouting. The new organization is called, The
Order of the Bow. It will be run like companies in which there are
directors whom you will elect. You can join those companies that you feel
will meet your ideals and in which you feel you can best serve in. The
scoutmasters will be playing a different role than you are accustomed to.
They will act as your advisors---but it is your organization and it is up
to you to make it work. If you are successful in your participation in
this new scouting organization, you will learn at an early age that
responsibility is a direct result of self discipline and with many of the
responsibilities you will undertake in your future, they will be fraught
with risk but the rewards for taking those risks will be a sense of
accomplishment and the respect of your peers. If in joining this new
organization, you achieve those two attributes, then this new organization
will have achieved its own goal--being a catalyst in making good citizens
and great leaders out of you all and giving each of you the opportunity to
reach your full potential as adults.
Opening speech given during the Spring of 1956 in Vancouver, Canada, upon the first meeting of the new Scouting organization created by the author at the request of the Scouting Commissioners. A hundred boy scouts attended that first meeting. It was then called, The Order of the Bow. In 1968, the new organization changed its name to Venturers and since its beginnings in 1956, it has had hundreds of thousands of boys (and now girls also) between the ages of 14 and 18 join it in Canada, England, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. |
| I have been asked to put a price tag on freedom but I am not sure
that anyone can ascertain what the true value of freedom really is. The
loss of freedom to one who is powerful and rich can be just as painful to
the beggar on the street. Those of us born into freedom recognize it as
the sweet wine that it is. Those less fortunate, who are subjected to acts
of repression recognize it as a sour vinegar. What is freedom to me might
be confinement to you and what is confinement to you might be slavery to
our neighbour. Men and women have chosen death over the loss of freedom
and many have given their lives so that the rest of us don't have to
choose between death and the loss of freedom. The perception of freedom is
like the perception of beauty---it is all in the eyes of the beholder.
Excerpt from a speech given in June 1971 at the Canadian Congress on Corrections and Criminology held in Ottawa, Canada while serving as chairman of the Committee for Innocent Persons, a non-government, ad hoc task force that was to report its findings to the Attorney General of Ontario, on compensating innocent persons sent to prison and whose members of the Committee comprised of criminal lawyers, law professors, a member of the Ontario Law Reform Commission, provincial court judges and three legislators, all of whom later became either ministers of justice, attorneys general, a chief justice of Ontario, justices of the Federal Court of Appeal in Canada, a member of the Supreme Court of Canada and the Ombudsman for Ontario. Years later, the provincial and federal governments began paying compensation to innocent persons and in one case, as much as ten million dollars was awarded to a man who spent 23 years in prison. |
| Whenever anyone shows me statistics, I invariably think of a
beautiful woman wearing a bikini. What is intended for me to see, I find
most revealing. On the other hand, it is what I am not shown that
tantalizes my curiosity.
A comment given on November 5, 1983 at the Ontario Association of Corrections and Criminology conference held in Toronto, Canada immediately after being shown some statistics by a government official and being invited to comment on them. |
| The police officer must not forget that he was never endowed with
God-like qualities, that he a servant of the people and like all servants,
he must show respect for those who employ him. The officer might well
ponder the possibility that the citizen he unnecessarily manhandles or
calls a punk, may return in the future to haunt him. The citizen's
returning may be in the form of a police commissioner or the solicitor
general of the province.
A statement made on television show in Toronto, Canada on October 29, 1979, as host of the TV call-in show called Community Forum, with the head of the Police Complaints Bureau as a guest, a show which dealt with the role of the police in society and the police force's complaint procedures. |
| Children have a natural right to be protected against abuse,
exploitation, drug experimentation, brutality and callous indifference. If
the United Nations doesn't take a firmer stance on this problem, then
thousands upon thousands of our children will continue to suffer in the
name of justice. If what is happening to these unfortunate children in
some of the institutions is called justice, then justice is going under an
assumed name.
Excerpt from a speech given on August 20, 1980 at the Sixth United Nations Congress on the Treatment of Offenders and the Prevention of Crime, held in Caraccas, Venezuela. As a direct result of that speech, the delegates voted the next day to direct the Secretariat of the United Nations to conduct conferences around the world for the following five years for the purposes of creating what was later to become, the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules on the Administration of Juvenile Justice. The Rules were passed by the United Nations General Assembly in New York in January 1986 and the Rules have an effect on the lives of millions of children around the world. |
| The only thing that makes bad journalism worse is to pretend that
it doesn't exist. Pretending that it doesn't exist is akin to swimming in
a cesspool and pretending that it doesn't smell.
Excerpt from a letter addressed to A.R. McGarry, publisher of the Globe & Mail in Toronto, Canada on November 16, 1983. He published it in his paper the day he received it. It was part of a letter of complaint against one of his reporters who got the facts of a story wrong and upon learning of her mistake, she chose not to correct her mistake. |
| Some doctors have advised me that in their opinion, only medical
doctors should go probing into the orifices of prisoners as custodial
officers may, in their zeal, end up skewing the prisoners. I sincerely
hope that this matter will not be merely shuffled from one Congress to
another, decade after decade because this issue is like a festering boil
on the cheek of one's backside. Moving the boil to the other cheek will
not remove the pain. If you sit on this issue, as you might sit on a boil,
it will simply continue to fester.
Excerpt from a speech given on August 31, 1983 at the Second World Congress on Prison Health, held in Ottawa, Canada. Some time later, the Canadian Government ordered that no prisoners in any federal correctional institution was to be searched via his or her rectum. |
| When whole classes of people are labeled as blacks or as whites,
the particular black man or white man is unlikely to be considered on his
merits as an individual but rather as 'one of them' when in reality, we
must think of each other as 'one of us'. The difference between blacks and
whites is merely the pigmentation of our imaginations. With some of the
people, their imaginations are only skin deep---with others, it goes right
to the bone.
A statement made on a television show in Toronto, Canada on November 12, 1979, as host of a TV call-in show called Community Forum, with the head of the Human Rights Commission of Ontario (a black man) and the head of the Ku Klux Klan for Ontario (a white man) as guests. |
| Custom looks to things that are past and policy looks to things
that are present but both of them are somewhat slow in accepting changes
that are inevitable.
Excerpts from a letter addressed to Sidney Linden, Public Complaints Commissioner, (later to be the chief justice in the High Court of Ontario) dated November 4, 1983 on the problem of police officers parking illegally on certain streets because they always did it before. |
| Some judges make the presumption that, notwithstanding their leap
from high school to university and finally to law school, and coupled with
ten years in private practice, this alone makes them authorities on the
complexities of life. In reality, only those who have endured the anguish
of unemployment and welfare, those who have been victims of crime, those
who have being abused by police authorities, those lonely souls who pine
for human companionship and never seem to enjoy the bliss of married life,
those who enjoyed the fruits of their labour and then later have to go
hungry because their pension cheques aren't sufficient to house and feed
them, or those who suffer from a handicap or from prejudice ---- only
those people and others like them, can truly understand the complexities
of life. And yet, time after time, we hear judges pontificating to those
before them like the aforementioned, on areas of life they know nothing
about. If they wish to give lectures, let them lecture on law and stay out
of the forum of the complexities of life----especially those judges who,
for the most part, invariably passed over the complexities of life on
their way to the bench.
Part of a brief submitted to the Ministry of the Attorney General of Ontario in November 1992 titled Judicial Accountability. |
| If the College ignores the complaint of my client as it relates to
Dr. Chaudhris' tardiness, then the College is no different that the
so-called do-gooder who directs a blind man in need of help to the
doorbell of the Institute for the Deaf. The roles of the College and the
do-gooders in instances like that become futile.
Excerpt from a letter sent to the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Toronto October 27, 1996 as part of a complaint written for one of this author's clients. |
| I suppose when we open the door to reason, we can expect the cold
and biting winds of racism to enter. But if we keep the door closed, we
are deluding ourselves into believing that it is warm outside. It is far
better to face the cold and biting winds of racism head on, because from
that experience, we soon learn that by cloaking ourselves with some form
of protection, it makes the cold and biting winds of racism more
bearable.
Published on the Internet on the subject of racism on February 15, 1998 saying we should accept racism on the Internet so that we can face it head on. |
| I made a great effort to stop myself from falling to the floor in
an uncontrollable fit of laughter when I realized what the lawyer for the
plaintiff had just done to her client. I should get the Academy Award for
best actor for looking the plaintiff's lawyer in her face with a straight
face of my own and not letting my lips show any sign whatever that there
was a gradual smile growing on my face. Another minute however and I would
have exploded. It was like wanting to pee and trying to maintain bladder
control at the same time when the inevitable was about to occur.
Excerpt from a letter to a Small Claims Court judge in Toronto written on May 7, 1998 about a case where a lawyer refused payments from the defendant not knowing all along that her client's judgment was useless because she didn't know that she had carelessly misspelled the defendant's name in the court documents. |
| In your letter, you referred to me several times as 'Fatso'. It's
true that I am fat and it is equally true that you are ugly. There is on
the other hand hope for me because at least I can diet. May the blessings
of whatever God you choose to believe in be upon you and guide your ways
and help you with your handicap so that you can hopefully in the future,
function in society without your stupidity rising to the surface like an
un-lanced festering boil on your backside.
Letter sent to a dissatisfied client on December 26, 1997 who previously sent an equally insulting letter. |
| Like that great black orator in our past, Martin Luther King, I too
have a dream. I dream that someday, all my friends and my acquaintances
and the billions of people I don't know, be they white, black or whatever
colour their skins are, be they whatever race they are, and even those
people whose beliefs they have chosen for themselves are different than
those of my own, I dream that they will all recognize as I do, a truism in
nature, that with the combination of all our colours, all our races and
all our creeds, each of us is a thread in that tapestry that tells the
story and will always tell the story of our species that our common god
has weaved and continues to weave and who always will weave the thread of
every man, woman and child who was in our past, who is in our present and
who will be in our future, into that beautiful tapestry that will forever
be, evidence of our collective existence on this world of ours.
Statement made on the Internet on September 21, 1998 and addressed to two racists who mocked whites mingling with blacks. |
| I abhor family violence because it tears at the very fabric that
keeps us all together as a family unit. But the last thing I want to see
is something like this unfortunate incident creating a wedge between
father and son that might later cause a serious fracture within this
particular family unit. Since both father and son apologized to each other
over this incident, perhaps in the interests of justice and family unity,
the guardians of society should back off and let this family carry on with
their own lives as if this incident had never happened.
Letter sent to a crown attorney in Brampton, Canada on May 14, 1997 re a client of the author, charged with assaulting his grown up son. The crown attorney withdrew the charge and the father and son walked out of court together, both happy at the outcome. |
| We, the motorists who are the victims of the highway thugs that are
out there in force, are on our own and yet, when we take the time to file
a complaint with the OPP re the thuggery on the highways, the OPP officers
accept the complaint and then go back to their knitting or whatever other
time-wasting activities they choose to do as an alternative to good
policing.
Excerpt of a letter to the Commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police on January 1, 1998 re one of his officers not doing her job. She was later reprimanded for failing to do her job properly. |
| It follows that you would have an obligation to inform your
mortgage lender of this "new" discovery and of course once the lender knew
that tidbit of information, your loan would dry up faster than a raindrop
on a cactus in Arizona during a mid-summer heat wave.
Excerpt from a report sent to two clients on February 8, 1997 who were about to purchase some land owned by the city of Toronto in Canada when they learned that it turned out to be a landfill dump comprising of toxic waste and costing millions to remove. |
| Paying court costs and process server's costs on behalf of a client
is akin to giving away money to a friend. It is a well-accepted rule that
the fastest way to lose a friend is to lend him some money. It follows
that the fastest way to lose a client is to pay his court fees for him.
Just as a friend will betray that trust, so will a client. Your proposal
came across like a captain calling out to his crew to abandon ship. When
that happens, the crew knows that the ship is sinking. You called out and
I abandoned your ship.
Letter sent to deadbeat client on February 14, 1997 who wanted the author to pay all his costs out of his own money. He promptly closed her file. |
| Upon receiving her letter and learning of that latter aspect of its
contents, I feel like a reprieved condemned man having the weights of the
peine forte et dure lifted from his chest.
Letter sent to a lawyer on August 4, 1997 about a client taking over her own hopeless case herself. The peine forte et dure was a form of torture used to extract confessions from prisoners several centuries ago. Heavy weights were placed on the victim's chest until he or she confessed or was crushed to death. |
| I love to get into debates with people and sometimes I even lose.
But when you get into debates on race issues with bugs like 'raid1 and
pick-u-knows', you finally come to the conclusion that you are not in a
debate with other humans at all---you are looking down a deep abandoned
well where the bugs have taken over. The voice you get in response to what
you have said is your own. After a while, one finds listening to one's own
voice coming back from the bottom of the well, a bit boring. I'm going to
move onto another well were the water is fresh and bug-free.
Statement made on the Internet on September 26, 1998 to another person about certain racists who never stopped making racist remarks no matter how much others and the author tried to reason with them. |
| Canada is a cosmopolitan country where we invite peoples from other
countries to come to Canada and start their lives afresh. Most of them
turn out to be great citizens and they contribute their customs and ideas
to our culture which makes us one. Racists who feel that only whites
should live in North America and everyone else should move out, are fools
to the nth degree. Even if their wishes were to be granted, soon they
would discriminate against hair colour and then size and then education
and finally sex. And eventually, as the result of a natural consequence of
their racist stupidity, these fools would be no more.
Excerpt from a statement the author made on the Internet on September 27, 1998 |
| Does a drug addicted mother who gives birth to ten and more
children who are going to cost the tax payers millions of dollars and then
gives them up for foster care, really have a moral right to keep giving
birth to more drug addicted babies when she has every intention of
continuing to exercise her fundamental right to bear children while she is
still an addict? The answer to that question is academic. It comes down to
what is the greater wrong, sacrificing the interests of the individual for
the majority or sacrificing the interests of the majority for the
individual. I believe that in cases where the individual is irresponsible,
that person's interests must be sacrificed for the good of the
majority.
Excerpt from a statement made on the Internet on September 10, 1998. |
| Our society of today must rely on the judgment of those who
researched the atrocities of the Germans right after the war when they had
all the facts and witnesses at their fingertips and on hand. For those who
were born after that horrible event in our history to then make
unsubstantiated allegations that the facts were twisted or simply made up,
is an insult to not only the researchers who were there but most
importantly, to the millions of victims who suffered at the hands of their
German oppressors. At the same time, we should not blame the millions of
Germans, both soldiers and civilians who abhorred what was going on in
their names during that time and we should certainly not hold our contempt
for that kind of inhumanity against those German citizens who were born
after the war. Nothing is going to change history. It happened. We can
however learn from it, albeit, that is the only good thing that came out
of such a terrible occurrence in the history of Mankind.
Excerpts from a statement submitted on September 27, 1998 on the Internet about those who debunk the existence of the Holocaust during the Second World War. |
| Clinton fooled them all. But it wasn't because he was smart---it
was because the lawyers in the Paula Jones case and Ken Starr were stupid.
Clinton was asked if he had sexual relations with Lewinski. He said he
didn't. He told the truth because Webster's Dictionary defines sexual
relations with one word: COITUS. That is the fancy word for sexual
intercourse. Lewinski never said she had sexual intercourse with Clinton,
she said she had oral sex. It was a grand jury member who submitted the
question as to whether or not Clinton had oral sex with Lewinski and Ken
Starr was the one who asked the question. Clinton skipped around the
question by stating that he was again referring to the definition of
sexual relations and that he was again denying he had sexual relations
with Lewinski. Starr should have pinned Clinton down and specifically
narrowed the question to that of Lewinski having oral contact on her part
with Clinton's penis. Instead, Starr skirted the question and went onto
something entirely different. Just as the prosecutors in the OJ Simpson
trial screwed up (oh my, there is a pun if there was ever one) so did
Starr and the other oafs in the Paula Jones case. Where did the USA get
these bunglers from? Didn't anyone ever look at Webster's Dictionary to
see what the real meaning of sexual relations was? Clinton and his lawyers
did and that was the oil Clinton needed to slither in and out of their
questions like a greased pig. Slippery Bill slithered right through their
fingers leaving them the oil and nothing more. It is my opinion that the
manner in which the questions were prepared in the interrogatories in the
Jones matter and asked during the Grand Jury hearing were ill prepared and
his inquisitors were careless in the manner in which they put their
questions to the president. If they had simply looked in any decent
dictionary to find out the meanings of the various words they used in the
questions in the interrogatories and verbal questions asked at the hearing
or even the Criminal Code in Washington D.C., they might have re-worded
the questions and got the desired results they were seeking. As it turned
out, they got nothing. Watching it from afar was like watching a seal
skirting a hole in the ice and slipping away while a polar bear raises its
head out of the hole trying to figure what went wrong. The reason is
obvious ---- Clinton's definition of sex is narrower than the spaces
between three cars parked in a two-car garage.
Statement published in the New York Times forum on October 8, 1998 |
| Surely Cochrane isn't comparing paralegals with Eagleson. That's
like comparing sparrows with vultures. To suggest that paralegals were
eating at the same table where Eagleson ate is to suggest that both he and
the paralegals were feasting off the flesh of their clients. To do so is
an insult to all and any decent, honest and hardworking paralegals who
have their client's best interests at heart.
Statement published in the legal journal Law Times on January 25, 1999. |
| Do we not praise the jury even when the truly guilty is acquitted
and with greater zeal, praise the jury when the innocent is condemned?
This flies in the face of Voltaire who said that it is better to risk
saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one. Although a crime
appears to us as being expiated in prison even on the imprisonment of an
innocent person, thousands, perhaps even millions of wrongdoings are
committed in our collective minds by the rest of us in society, through
our acquiescence to the injustice we have brought upon the innocent
person, by our indifference to his or her plight.
Statement made in one of author's web pages---Justice and Injustice |
| Let me put you straight as it concerns your threat. A threat from a
lawyer, especially one that threatens to bring the Law Society into the
picture is like a fart from a beer horse on a windy day. It's noisy but
has no appreciable effect on anyone in the immediate area. Since I am not
answerable to the Law Society, I couldn't give a tinker's dam about your
noisy but non-appreciable fart.
Excerpt from a letter the author sent to Alfred Kwinter, a lawyer in Toronto, Ontario on July 5, 1996 |
| You may have noticed that I did not add the acronym Q.C. after your
name. The term Queen's Counsel in Ontario was an accolade that brought
great respect to the lawyers permitted to wear the silken gown in the
past. But as the years went by, the people of Ontario, including the legal
profession and the government of Ontario, slowly began to realize that
anyone, I mean, ANYONE could ask for and a receive that accolade and
considering the fact that in many cases, sleaze balls did get that
accolade, its value began to slide until the accolade almost became
meaningless. This is the real reason why such an accolade is not given
anymore by the Ontario government. The fact that I chose not to place Q.C.
after your name is a sign of the contempt I have for you and the acronym
that has slipped into the mud and become dirtied because of you and your
ilk.
Excerpt from a letter sent to William Andrews, a lawyer in Toronto on July 6, 1996. |
| It seems to me that when a suspect tells the police that he wishes
to remain silent until his lawyer arrives on the scene, all questioning
and offers should cease until his lawyer arrives. To do otherwise, not
only brings justice in disrepute, it also brings police conduct into
disrepute. When justice and police conduct become disreputable, then the
Charter (of Rights) becomes meaningless, not unlike the sweet mouthings of
the community tart.
Excerpt from a letter sent to the editor of the Law Times on July 17, 1996. |
| ....some time ago, my parents shipped an expensive 18-inch solid
ivory crocodile from Washington State to Toronto through UPS and when it
was delivered to me, it arrived in three pieces. Despite the promises from
your people to resolve the matter very quickly, it took your firm four
months before they finally paid for the repairs and refunded the monies re
the duty they improperly took from me because they hadn't read the
government documentation stating that it was an heirloom. Four months of
waiting despite the promise of an early response to my claim. Needless to
say, I don't use or intend to use in the future, UPS unless of course, I
am shipping an anvil across the country.
Excerpt from a letter sent to the United Parcel Service in Mississauga, Ontario on July 17, 1996. |
| Terrorists do not care about human suffering. They care about their
goals and will kill hundreds at a time, even babies, if it will accomplish
their goals. Such persons do not have the right to life and their lives
should be extinguished as soon as possible after they have been convicted.
To do otherwise, is to perpetuate terrorism right into the next century.
Lets stamp them out of existence with the same contempt we have for
cockroaches when we crush them beneath our feet.
Excerpt from a letter sent to the editor of the Toronto Sun on July 31, 1996. |
| The case of the single 22-year-old addict who is soon going to be
giving birth to her fourth child, is a case in point. This baby factory is
sending out defective goods because her own machinery is defective....I
think that if she wants to sniff solvents and have a baby at the same
time, she should be committed to an institution until she gives birth to
the child. That way, it will have a chance and society will get a
break.
Excerpt from a letter to the editor of the Toronto Star on August 9, 1996 after the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that a fetus is not a human being and therefore has no greater rights than the woman carrying the fetus. |
| I am not so prude as to suggest that even if a boyfriend doesn't
live with a single mother but visits her every day, she should be cut off
of benefits. She is entitled to a normal relationship with a boyfriend.
But I draw the line at live-ins. If a woman is silly enough to support an
unemployed live-in boyfriend on her meager support allowance, then I
question her fitness as a mother. Silly mothers shouldn't be given the
responsibility of caring for their children.
Excerpt from a letter to the editor of the Toronto Sun on November 1, 1996. |
| This former car salesman has the audacity to imply that as Minister
of Transportation, he is more qualified to address the subject of safety
of Highway 407 than the OPP who have to deal with accidents on other
highways like the 401 all the time. That's akin to a chicken telling
Colonel Sanders how to roast chickens.
Excerpt from a letter to the editor of the Toronto Sun on November 30, 1996. |
| I read with considerable anger the bleatings of Wayne Hagerty, an
archaeologist employed by the Ministry of Transportation. He bleats that
after seven years of work, he is being laid off. Didn't anyone tell him
that there is very little work for archaeologists anywhere in the
world.....I will quote from this man as he tried to blubber his way into
our hearts. "I'm going home to tell my 3-year-old son that Santa Claus
won't come this year." I'm glad that this whiner has been laid off. It's
about time that he and others like him realize that the taxpayers don't
owe him a living.
Excerpt from a letter the editor of the Toronto Star on November 27, 1996. |
| ...........there are a great many police officers in Canada who are
fine officers and honest investigators and they do their jobs properly.
But there are also bunglers and cads in the police forces and unless you
can differentiate between the honest ones and the bunglers and cads, the
less you say to them when you are not with your lawyer, the better it will
be for you. Remember, all those innocent persons who served many years in
prison, did so because the investigators in charge of their cases were
bunglers and cads.
Excerpt from Letter to the editor of the Toronto Star on November 26, 1996. |
| It is ludicrous to suggest that because a person is a lawyer, he or
she is qualified to practice in criminal law. Many times, lawyers who only
practice in other areas of law and have never stepped inside a criminal
court room will act for a client charged with a criminal offence as a
favour to his client....(and) some do with unfortunate results. Criminal
laws and procedure are always in flux and one has to be constantly
practicing in that area of law to keep up with the changes. There are some
lawyers who occasionally step into that forum and don't even possess law
books on criminal law.
Excerpt from an article sent to the Toronto Star on December 9, 1996. |
| It makes his (Judge Marvin Morton) conduct on the bench highly
suspect. Admittedly, he may appear normal and perhaps even righteous on
the bench but that could be a facade. If, while sitting on the bench, his
real mind is similar to what his mind was on December 19th when he was
taken away by the police, perhaps he should consider some other
occupation. If he remains on the bench, everyone who learns of his
outrageous conduct and stands before him will ask himself, "Is this
judge's decision anything like the one he made when he decided to act as
an ass on December 19th?
Excerpt from a letter to the editor sent to the Toronto Star on December 27, 1996. |
| Now in 1997, Kruze is having one of the surviving abusers charged
with sexually abusing him. Although the alleged abuser (if convicted)
should be punished for what he did, one is forced to ask why Kruze is
doing this now when you consider the fact that back in 1993, he refused to
lay charges against him. Now he says he wants justice. He got justice
after prostituting himself for nearing six years. Aside from the favours
he got from the two men, he also got $83,000 for his services (after
threatening the abuser's employer that he was going to go public) and now
he bleats about wanting more justice. He had the option of walking out of
the building at any time. He even had the option of saying NO at any time.
But instead he offered his body like a cheap prostitute for favours. What
more is he really after? Could it be that after hearing everyone praising
Sheldon Kennedy, another victim of child abuse (Canadian Hockey player who
also reported his abuser to the police) for his courage to speak out,
Kruze wants a piece of the action too?
Excerpt from a letter sent to the editor of the Toronto Star on February 21, 1997. As an interesting aside, on the day his abuser was sentenced to two years in prison (later increased on appeal) Kruze killed himself by jumping off of a high bridge in Toronto. His jump was premature. Since his suicide, a special barricade was placed on the bridge to prevent further suicides. |
| You can't legislate courtesy but you can legislate for the common
good of others. I will back up any legislation or bylaw that will protect
me and my family and anyone else for that matter against those persons who
would infringe on the rights of the rest of us.....Our rights extend to
our throats, our noses, our lungs, our ears and our eyes.
Excerpt from a letter sent to the editor of the Toronto Star on March 4, 1997 on concerns for the rights of non-smokers. |
| Ever since the news media began tearing at you like wild dogs, I
have watched with considerable interest on how you reacted to all the
publicity. In my opinion. you have failed to rise above your failings. Now
you have tried your hand as a politician. Right from the beginning, you
have put things in your application to the Liberal Party which simply
wasn't true with respect to your credentials. In politics, that's a no-no.
When a politician lies about his credentials, he has little credibility
left.....As a politician, you have been so thoroughly roasted and cut up
by the public, your fellow parliamentarians and the news media, your
political fate has contrasted the fate of any chickens Colonel Sanders was
intending to serve his Kentucky Fried Chicken patrons. Considering what's
been happening to you, those chickens should be able to walk out of the
KFC kitchens and promenade down the streets in their entirety.
Excerpt from a letter sent to Jay Bhaduria, a then member of the Canadian Parliament on March 25, 1997. This man ran again for Parliament and was thoroughly beaten at the polls. |
| Your airline simply doesn't give a damn. And it is for this reason
that I shall continue to tell everyone I meet to stay clear of Air
Transat....The truth will steer travelers away from your airline so that
they too will have an opportunity to travel in comfort (your seats are too
narrow) an opportunity to travel with flight attendants who care (from
what I have experienced and heard, some don't give a damn) and most
importantly, know that if something does go wrong, they won't get a letter
from a customer relations person such as yourself who has great
expectations that a mushy response from you to a dissatisfied customer
will work every time. Do you have the feeling that I am a dissatisfied
customer? Do cats have whiskers? There is no need to respond to this
letter. If I want more mush, I will go to my kitchen for it.
Excerpt from a letter sent to the airline Air Transat on April 13, 1997. Note: The seats are the same but the service has improved. |
| You called me the other night at 8:00 p.m. while I was watching my
favorite TV show. Somehow you are under the impression that I work 24
hours a day or alternatively, that I will respond to your beck and call no
matter what the hour.....In the legal profession, lawyers and paralegals
alike have this common expression they use. When they don't like working
with a particular client, they fire them. Mr. Green, in order that this
message will reach your eyeballs, I will capitalize it. YOU'RE FIRED.
Excerpt from a letter sent to a former client on April 24, 1997. |
| .....let me say that there is an onus on police officers to conduct
proper investigations of all complaints and presuming that that maxim is
excepted as being true, it follows that if a police officer cannot
properly investigate a simple hit and run case, how then will he ever be
able to conduct an investigation of a more serious matter? Perhaps
Constable Singh will have learned from this experience and if he does,
then perhaps he will be willing to meet the standards that the OPP and the
public in general will expect from him. If not, he can always apply for
work as a security guard where the expectations of security guards are not
so stringent.
Excerpt from a letter addressed to Sgt. Dunbar of the Ontario Provincial Police on May 4, 1997. |
| Terrorism has become a blot on the Twentieth Century and thousands
upon thousands of innocent victims around the world have died because of
it. Terrorists know that no-one but their own kind sympathize with them
and they know that when a fire-fight ensues, it's kill or be killed. They
know that they are more likely to die before the hostages and yet they
risk death. Some even embraces it as martyrs thinking that young virgins
are waiting for them in heaven. If any of your readers think summarily
executing terrorists during and after a fire-fight is unthinkable, they
should ask themselves how they would feel about justice for terrorists if
they were one of the 93 victims (men, women and children) in the small
village in Algeria who were systematically slaughtered by Islamic
terrorists the other day by being hacked to pieces with knives, hatchets
and shovels. The victims became part of the more than 60,000 killed in
that country by Islamic terrorists. The bleeding hearts should ask
themselves if they would feel empathy for the terrorist murderers while
watching them hack to pieces, before his or her own eyes, screaming
members of his or her own family. If the bleeding hearts were closer to
death at the hands of terrorists, perhaps they too would cry out with
their last breaths for vengeance. But some people being indifferent to the
suffering of others not close to them, often tend to sit safe in their
homes, far from the scenes of murder and mayhem and sympathize with those
who would, if they could, butcher the bleeding hearts right where they sit
and pontificate.
Excerpts from letter to the editor of the Toronto Sun on April 24, 1997. |
| The idea of an investigating police officer brow beating a
frightened complainant into withdrawing his complaint against another
police officer without having the right to have a relative, a friend, a
paralegal, a lawyer or even his MPP present, is outrageous. It gives
powers to chiefs of police that they would not otherwise have. And all of
this is done in the name of justice. If that is justice, then it is going
under an assumed name. What is really being done, is in the name of police
protection. The protection I speak of is not afforded to the citizens for
their best interests but rather that which is afforded to the police for
their own interests.
Excerpt from brief presented before the Justice Committee of the Ontario Legislature on May 12, 1997. As a result of this brief, citizens complaining against the conduct of police officers may be represented by third parties. |
| The acceptance of the cable TV services provided by the only cable
TV service available cannot and should not be construed as accepting all
the firm's terms and conditions carte blanche nor should paying the amount
printed on the other side and the conditions be construed as accepting all
of its terms and conditions. To permit this would be no different than a
customer printing on the back of a cheque that the cashing of the cheque
is to be construed to mean that the cheque represents the balance in full
when that is not so.
Excerpt from a letter sent to Rogers Cable Systems Limited on June 20, 1997. The firm agreed and reduced the administration charge for a late payment. |
| Obviously, your message isn't getting across to them (his police
officers under his command) And if that is so, it is because of a failing
on the part of those police officers senior to them. For this reason,
which I can appreciate to some degree, the OPP officers are turning out to
be looked upon by other police forces and the public in general, as the
provincial police farce.
Excerpt from a letter to Thomas O'Grady, the Commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police on March 16, 1997. The police officer written about was reprimanded for not doing his investigation properly. The officer in question later wrote on May 12, 1997 and said in part; "I failed to contact you within a reasonable time and inform you of the staus or findings of the investigation. Looking back, yes, I should have requested the other driver (involved in a hit and run accident this officer was investigating) (to) attend the O.P.P. Detachment in Aurora before reaching my conclusion. I obviously did not go that "extra step" before closing this case. The incident was definitely a LEARNING EXPERIENCE for myself." unquote |
| To protect Johnson (Ben Johnson, the disgraced Olympic runner) from
drugs is like trying to protect grain from locusts---a fruitless
effort....I love the part where he squeaks that if he can't run, he can't
work. The blind find work, the deaf find work, the lame find work, the
illiterate find work and even ex-convicts find work but only Ben Johnson
who can't make millions in ads and commercials because no-one trusts him,
can't find work. They are always looking for a big strapping man like
Johnson to lift boxes, rocks, lumber, shovel snow and whatever. Samuel
Butler (1835-1902) an English author quoting his friend, Henry Festing
Jones, said of achievement; "There are two great rules in life, the one
general and the other particular. The first is that every one can in the
end get what he wants if he tries. This is the general rule. The
particular rule is that every individual is more or less of an exception
to the general rule." Well Johnson tried to get what he wanted and he is
not getting it. There will be in his case, no exception to the second
rule.
Excerpt from a letter to the editor of the Toronto Star on July 16, 1997. Johnson later worked for the Libyan dictator, Gaddafi as a soccer coach for his son. Now Johnson can be internationally despised along side of his employer. |
| One can understand the frustration of the man when he had to
constantly listen to the yapping of his neighbour's dog but there were
better ways to deal with the dog than the way he chose. (he threw the
barking dog off a six-floor balcony) As to the owner of the dog, the woman
who referred to her dog as her baby, I have absolutely no sympathy for her
at all. She obviously didn't care about her neighbours. If she did, she
never would have brought a yapping dog into her apartment. To the man who
threw the dog over the balcony, I say this, "You were wrong in the manner
in which you tried to solve your problem. Move out." To the woman who
didn't care about her neighbours, I say this, "If you get another yappy or
barking dog, get out." To the do-gooder who is also insensitive to the
woman's neighbour's rights to peace and quiet, I say this, "Butt out."
Excerpt from a letter to the editor of the Toronto Sun on August 28, 1997. |
| It didn't surprise me one bit when I read in the paper that Metro's
six school boards are planning their swan-song parties before they go into
extinction. Something like this occurred in 1956 when the American
government decided to boot out of their country, the notorious gangster,
Lucky Luciano. At least with Lucky's party, the gangsters at the party
paid for the food and drink themselves.
Excerpt from a letter sent to the editor of the Toronto Star on September 20, 1997. |
| To suggest that Prince Charles and the man on the street were born
equal is a fallacy. To suggest that if two persons committed the same
traffic offence, they would be treated equally, is even a greater fallacy.
To suggest that the son of very rich parents will receive the same kind of
treatment given to the son of very poor parents, borders on foolishness.
To suggest that an accused whose father was a respected police officer
will be treated the same as an accused whose father was a convicted
murderer, borders on lunacy. To suggest that the son of a boot maker has
the same opportunities given to him as the son of the prime minister, is
idiocy....Despite the writing and speaking of great words by great people,
the reality in our life is that no-one is born equal and there is no
equality amongst ourselves, even in a democracy that believes that all
persons are born equal and should be treated equal.
Excerpt from a speech written for a police officer giving an address on human rights on March 4, 1997. |
| At no time in my life, have I ever read such a boring essay as the
one written by Michael Bradley, the author of "The Iceman Inheritance" in
his piece, "Born of Beast" which is supposed to be a critique of mankind
and more specifically, the Caucasoid race. I began appreciating the
significance of the word "drowsiness" when I reached the end of the first
page.....This is the sort of clap-trap that one expects to read in a
treatise written by a psychoceramic (crackpot) nerd.....It's the kind of
nonsense that doctors should prescribe to patients as an alternative to a
sleep potion.
A review of an essay on October 18, 1997. |
| Tailgating someone at speeds of 105 feet (32 meters) per second
when a tailgater is three feet (one meter) behind another car has to be
one of the stupidest things in the world for anyone to do and yet you see
it every day on our highways. Let these tailgating thugs bleat. I for one,
don't intend to switch lanes for one of these thugs when I am doing 115
kilometers (75 miles) an hour in the passing lane. If these thugs want to
drive faster than that, let them do it on the Bonneville Salt Flats in
Utah where there is no speed limit or alternatively, get a pilot's licence
and fly to their destination.
Excerpt from a letter to the editor of the Toronto Star on October 27, 1997. |
| ......I do take issue with the statement of Duncanson in which he
said that Kruze had "endured years of sexual abuse" as a teenager by
Gordon Stuckless and the other abuser now deceased....In actual fact, he
prostituted himself, like many other street kids and he obtained what he
wanted after being seduced and then molested by those two former employees
of the Gardens. He, like the other victims were free to walk away from
these child molesters at any time but the lure of getting to see the games
for free, to visit the locker rooms where the great ones had been and to
enjoy good meals in expensive restaurants, was greater than the disgust he
and the others felt when they were molested by these two men.....he
certainly knew that what he was continuously doing while doing it up to
his late teens, was wrong, disgusting and to some degree, damaging to his
mental health.
Excerpt from a letter to the Editor of the Toronto Star on November 2, 1997 This letter was written a short time after Kruze threw himself off of a high bridge in Toronto. The public for the most part was saddened by his death but many didn't think he was the victim many people were trying to make him into. He even blackmailed the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto and got a heafty payment from the Gardens and then later welched on them and went public after he spent the money they gave him in hopes that the payment would keep him quiet. |
| I agree with those former residents in B.C. (who are now adults)
who say that when they were children, they underwent a very traumatic
experience when the RCMP would smash their ways through their parent's
homes in the early hours of the morning to snatch the children from their
beds or hiding places and then take them to the dormitories....Now some of
them want to sue the B.C. government and the RCMP for what happened to
them.....If they really want to sue anyone, they should sue their parents
who were foolish enough to actually try and deny their children an
education.
Excerpt from a letter to the editor of the Toronto Sun on November 17, 1997. The author worked with some of these Doukabour children at the New Denver Dormitories in British Columbia whose parents were called Freedomites, 40 years before he wrote this letter. |
| If you intend to win this case and others that follow, I sincerely
hope Mr. Lamb and other salesmen realize that there is an obligation on
their part to explain all aspects of all contracts they expect their
customers to live with. If he remembers discussing the terms of the RCI
contract with the Grubics, then your ship will head into the sunset with
full sails flapping in the wind. If he didn't discuss the terms of the RCI
contract with them, then your ship will head in the only other destination
that befits all ships that have large holes in the area of their
keel----to the sandy bottom of the sea. For me to then go into court and
try and raise your ship when its keel is deeply imbedded in the sea
bottom, is akin to asking me to go into court and play the role of
Rumplestilskin and weave gold out of your straw.
Excerpt from a letter written to a client on November 14, 1999. |
| In view of the fact that your insurance company intends to raise my
wife's insurance premiums an outrageous $284 per year for six years for a
$500 claim, we have decided to cancel our home and car policies when they
come up for renewal....We always thought of the Cooperators as family but
when your family shits on you, it's time to move. We are moving.
Excerpt of a letter sent to The Cooperators Insurance Company on September 24, 1999. |
| I am sick and tired of apathy in our police forces. Please put this
constable back on the streets again where he can learn what life is really
about instead of permitting him to sit on his ass in a police station
doing nothing for citizens, who instead of taking the law in their own
hands, come to him for assistance and then are shit on by this man.
Excerpt from a letter of complaint sent to the chief of police of the Peel Regional Police Force about a police officer in Mississauga, Ontario on March 29, 1999. The officer was later transferred out of the police office and onto the street. |
| Who is to blame? That's easy. Everyone. I blame the parents of
bullies who don't know how to bring up their children to be decent and
caring or alternatively, who don't give a damn how their kids grow up. I
blame the school authorities who for the most part are indifferent to
bullies in their schools and of course, I blame the bullies themselves.
They are the losers in the world who later turn out to be psychopathic in
their family and workplace relationships with others.....We as adults and
taxpayers and parents should stand up for these youngsters who are bullied
and teased and fight for their rights to a proper education----an
education without fear.
Excerpt from an article sent to the Toronto Star on April 21, 1999. |
| The function of colleges is to give young adults an opportunity to
improve their education and to learn how to relate with other adults-two
important factors in a young person's life. Colleges should not condone
immature students harassing students of the opposite sex just so that
these immature students (no I will call them for what they are-jerks) can
get their jollies by watching their victims squirm. This kind of conduct
slithers its way into the workplace after it has had its insemination in
the schools and colleges.
A statement made at a hearing before the president of Sheridan College on March 7, 2000 as part of the author's recommendation that a male student be expelled because of his sexual harassment against a female student. The male student was suspended for 14 months and the complainant was given back her tuition. He never returned to the College. |
| All employees of all companies, have a right to be able to work in
a bully and tease--free environment. Anyone who teases a fellow employee
because of some impediment should be fired. All employees should post
signs that clearly forbid bullyism and teasing in the workplace on penalty
of immediate dismissal. If the six victims had in fact teased Lebrun, then
I have no sympathy for them at all. They didn't deserve what they got but
they shouldn't have been surprised when it came in the form of an angry
man with a rifle determined to kill them all. I really blame their
employer, OC Transpo for letting the problem fester like a boil until it
erupted as it did.
Excerpt from a letter sent to the editor of the Toronto Star and the Toronto Sun on April 8, 1999. Pierre Lebrun, who was suffering from mental illness and was constantly teased by some of his fellow employees, systematically hunted down his tormentors and shot four of them to death and wounded two others before turning the gun on himself. |
| You have an attitude problem. This causes you to be argumentative
on the drop of a hat. Get rid of that problem. If you don't, you wont get
hired and if you are, soon after that, you will get fired. Young men don't
like young women with an attitude. They can find young women without
attitude problems. Those who are prepared to live with your attitude
problem are only after your body and you don't want them. The decent men
want women who are not argumentative. If you keep this attitude problem
with you, you will end up living alone and on welfare as being
unemployable.
Excerpt from a letter sent to a young woman who had been thrown out of her home by her parents after she assaulted one of her parents when she was 17-years old. Letter sent March 28,1999. |
| Paralegals are here to stay. The government, the courts, the Law
Society and most lawyers accept that fact as does the public in general.
The paralegals are cutting into the lawyer's turf as it relates to income,
of that there can be no doubt. But then, our laws don't say that only
lawyers can practice law and if they charge Cadilac fees to people who can
only afford Chevy fees, then the lawyers will have to accept the fact that
the next phone call made to an advocate, may very well be to the paralegal
whose office is in the same building as that of the lawyer.
Excerpt of a letter published by the Law Times on August 8, 1998. |
| Again, another lawyer (this time, Gary Gottlieb) has gone off
firing a salvo at paralegals for the failings of lawyers. I am afraid that
his salvo was a series of blanks---lots of smoke, fire and noise but that
was all it was.....To Mr. Gotlieb, all I can say to you, Sir is; "Lower
your flag or aim your guns somewhere else. Your salvos weren't even
close."
Excerpt of a letter written while serving as the Vice President of the Paralegal Society of Canada to the editor of the Law Times on March 31, 1999. |
| The independent paralegal and court agent profession is undergoing
growing pains like all new concepts but it will mature and hopefully be
recognized by all as a suitable and in some instances, a necessary and
hopefully in all instances, an honourable alternative to hiring lawyers
for those areas of law that don't necessarily require their expertise.
Excerpt of a letter sent to the editor of the Toronto Sun on June 15, 1998. |
| When I read the newspaper articles on the demise of Frank Barbetta,
the retired cop who died July 25th, I nearly regurgitated....Thank God,
Barbetta and his ilk are icons of the past. The citizens of Toronto, be
they upright citizens or downright crooks, are entitled to the best in
their police force. Police officers who torture suspects are not Toronto's
finest, never were and will never be. The reason is obvious. A confession
obtained by the likes of Barbetta are always suspect and if you or a loved
one ever goes to jail because you or your loved one confessed under
torture to a crime you or your loved one never committed, you will
understand what I mean.
Excerpt from a letter sent to the editor of the Toronto Star on July 27, 1998. This police officer was renown for torturing suspects. Once when there was a hostage situation and negotiators were trying to arrange the release of the hostage, this cop walked right up to the 17-year-old kid holding the girl as a hostage and shot him right in the face. When he applied for the position of Chief of the Toronto Police Force, the Board of Commissioners refused to consider him and he promptly resigned. Everyone said at the time--"Good riddance." |
| I am concerned about the squeegee people taking over the
streets....if they are permitted to take over the streets, soon the flower
sellers will come, followed by those selling beads and watches, then
magazine sellers will want to get into the act and when they do, the
furniture people will be out, hawking lawn chairs and then dining room
sets and finally, car salesmen will take over and deals will be made while
the lights turn green, amber and red repeatedly while the rest of us
scream out, "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Has my point come across?
Excerpt from a letter sent to the Ontario Crime Control Commission on July 28, 1998. The province of Ontario subsequently passed a law in January 2000 prohibiting anyone, including squeegee people from interfering with the flow of traffic. |
| If you really want your party to win the upcoming election, you had
better get your ship in order. As I see it, right now you have some crew
members who are sabotaging your ship. And while you and the rest of your
crew are attempting to prepare your ship for the hurricane of discontent
that's brewing as the election approaches, your Mrs. Churley and some
other ministers on board are boring holes in the bottom of your ship. By
the time they finish their deed, the hurricane of angry voters will have
passed over you with a vengeance while your sinking ship slips beneath the
waves and heads towards that muddy bottom that bad governments invariably
end up in.
Excerpt from a letter sent to Bob Rae, the then Premier of Ontario on November 21, 1994. He replied to my letter, assuring me that the voters would vote him and his party back into power again. The hurricane I spoke of in my letter swept him and his party out of office. |
| One of the stupidest bills I have ever heard of being presented to
Parliament is that of Conservative MP Peter MacKay. He is proposing that
convicted pedophiles be banned from being alone with children even in
their own homes.....Now admittedly, there are some pedophiles who molest
their own children and perhaps such a bill might be appropriate in such
cases but because a pedophile molests other children doesn't automatically
mean that he will molest his own children. This bill would in effect,
destroy existing families. I doubt such a bill will pass second
reading.
Excerpt from a letter sent to the editor of the Toronto Star and also sent to MPP MacKay on August 14, 1998. The bill didn't pass second reading, just as I had foretold. |
| There is no justification whatsoever for anyone to be carrying
knives on their person in a city. There are only two types of persons who
do this ---- those who carry them in self defence and those who intend to
use them in furtherance of a crime and both purposes are illegal......
Just don't stand about doing nothing about the problem. It seems to me
that your non-response is somewhat akin to a fire chief watching a house
burn to the ground and not calling the fire department.
Excerpts of a letter sent to Norm Gardiner, the chairman of the Toronto Police Services Board on August 14, 1998. He subsequently sent me a letter giving me statistics on crimes committed with knives in Toronto. |
| I read the piece on how stewardesses are being treated in passenger
planes by unruly passengers and I, like other passengers and crew am
concerned when unruly passengers get aboard our planes. For the most part,
flight attendants are very nice people and deserve better. However, I
would be remiss if I didn't mention to your readers that some flight
attendants, both male and female can be quite rude and sometimes outright
stupid.... Obviously, not all airline flight attendants are rude and
stupid but it only takes one to ruin a flight and make people swear off
using the airline again.
Excerpt from a letter to the editor of the Toronto Sun on July 14, 1998. |
| Our country is cosmopolitan and as such, we recognize the worth of
every person in Canada, be that person a citizen, a guest or a tourist. It
matters not to us what the national origin is of our peoples because each
person who migrates to Canada brings with him or her a part of their
national heritage which is another thread in our great tapestry of life
which adds colour to our nation....One thing I am truly convinced of, is
that any advances we in Canada have made in art, music, culture,
literature, science and health have not come from a centralized government
but instead, we possess these fine things in life because we as citizens,
each contribute what we can towards those attributes one finds in a truly
civilized and democratic country.
Excerpt from a letter mailed to Mohammad Khatami, the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran on August 9, 1998. I later got a reply from one of his deputies advising me that my letter was brought to the president's attention. |
| I blame the parents for the crimes of their children. These young
criminals get away with it at home and they think they can get away with
it everywhere else. If the parents paid more attention to their children
and explained to them at an early age the difference between right and
wrong, and enforced their own rules, their children would be less likely
to break the law. I also blame the schools because they have made learning
a boring exercise. No wonder so many of them want to quit. The kids want
to experience life before they succumb to an early death of boredom in the
classroom. And the blame for being with bad company falls squarely on the
youngsters themselves. They are trusted to have good judgment and if their
judgment in choosing friends fails, it is because they didn't learn at
home what is right and what is wrong. If they did learn it and still hang
out with bad company, they have only themselves to blame when the sky
falls down on them.
Excerpts of an article sent to the Law Tines and the Lawyer's Weekly on May 18, 1998. |
| We offer you everything you could ever want if you are prepared to
work for it. We offer you our friendship if you are prepared to accept it.
We offer you are laws that guarantee you your rights if you are prepared
to live by them. We offer you our love if you are prepared to be receptive
to it.
Excerpt from an article titled, Dear Newcomers and sent to the magazine Women's World on May 11, 1998. |
| I take issue with Clair Hoy's recent article "Justice Denied" in
which he said that the sexual assault victims of Gordon Stuckless had
every right to be outraged when they learned that Stuckless only got two
years less a day in jail.....Stuckless' sexual activities with these young
people was then and still is the product of a sick mind. Although
imprisonment was then and still is a good deterrent, both generally and
specifically, treatment of a sick mind is what must be uppermost in the
mind of a judge when passing sentence in a case like this. The reason is
obvious. Sooner or later, these people are released from jail. No matter
how long they are incarcerated, be it 25 years or 25 months, if they are
released untreated, then we as a society, not to mention the offender, are
back to square one and nothing has really been accomplished except for a
while, the offender hasn't re-offended in the interim. The worse thing
society could have done in a case like this is to imprison a sexual
predator for a long period of time and not treat him and then throw him
back into society as an animal with a vengeance.
Excerpt from a letter to the editor of the Law Times on November 27, 1997. |
| Everyone has a right to live a full life without being murdered. It
follows that anyone, be he white, black or any other race, must expect to
forfeit his life if he murders someone. But executing a murderer does not
bring the murder victim back to life. What it does do however, is ease the
anguish the murdered victim's family and friends undergo after their loved
one has died at the hands of a killer. This raises the issue of whether or
not the members of the victim's family have a right to watch the killer
die. In my opinion, they have that right. Vengeance is with us all as it
has been since humans began inhabiting this world. Those who suggest that
this is wrong, don't really understand the human mind. Some people can go
through life forgiving others who rob and beat them or rape and murder
their loved ones. That is their right. But since vengeance is a human
trait that is instilled in all of us, it is also the right of the loved
ones of the victims of murder to want vengeance.....Call it vengeance or
call it closure. It's probably the same. But once the killer is no longer
with the living, closure is more readily reached by the families who seek
peace of mind.
Excerpt from a letter sent to Detective News on November 27, 1997 via the Internet |
| After a few moments after our brief conversation, you approached me
and asked me if I had just previously recorded our conversation. I told
you that what was in my coat pocket was a Walkman tape player and I pulled
it out for you to inspect. My word should have been sufficient enough for
you when I told you that I did not record our conversation. I can't
imagine in my wildest dreams how you could presume that anything we talked
about was worth recording in the first place. If it wasn't for the fact
that you act as a deputy judge in small claims court matters in which I
appear before you, I never would have let myself be subjected to the abuse
you put me through. If as a lawyer (and not as a deputy judge in which we
are compelled by circumstance to meet) you asked me if I recorded our
conversation, I would have denied it and walked away. If I heard one peep
from you after my denial, I would have made short shrift of you right on
the spot. You have never seen what I do to lawyers who are foolish enough
to cross swords with me. Those who did, have regretted the experience,
both in and out of courtrooms.
Excerpt from a letter to a deputy judge sent to him on January 12, 1998. |
| When a murderer kills another human being, he creates three kinds
of victims. The person who is murdered is of course the primary victim but
the family and friends of the murdered victim are the secondary victims.
Those of us who are outside the circle of family and friends of the
primary victim are also victims for in one sense, we too suffer. We are
the peripheral victims, for most of us have compassion and in some degree,
we suffer. We don't suffer the agony of the primary victim or the anguish
of the secondary victims but the loss of an innocent victim takes
something from all of us. When an innocent person dies, a little of us
dies also.
Excerpt from a speech given at a United Nations crime conference held in Milan, Italy in September 1985 and later broadcasted all over Italy that night. |
| What is justice? In its simplest form, it is to right the wrong.
But as you know, justice is far more complex than that. A single crime is
a single injustice for with every crime there is a primary, secondary and
peripheral victims. It is universally accepted that when there is a
victim, there is a perpetrator and it is not only God's law but also the
law of Man that every perpetrator of a crime must be punished with very
few exceptions. You do not fall into the category of exceptions for you
were not insane when you participated in the Tate/Bianca murders nor where
you forced into committing those crimes. Crimes of murder shatter the
social pact of humans, the pact that we shall live with one another in
harmony. Your crimes shattered that pact between yourself and your victims
and the breaking of such a pact is considered very serious among human
beings of which you are obviously very much aware. The taking of a human
life by another human being is not unlike a form of gangrene eating away
the flesh of the whole body. Every part of the body suffers as a result.
When that happens, we cut away the gangrene. We don't want to see it again
under any circumstances. Salvation must come from within. Justice must be
given from others. As much as I try and I am sure that I speak for the
majority of others, I cannot find justice in your eventual release. I can
forgive you for what you did but not advocate your release.
Letter sent to Charles (Tex) Watson who was convicted of participating in the Tate/Bianca murders in Los Angeles on August 9th and 10th 1979 in which seven people were murdered by him and three women. This letter was sent to him via the Internet on December 27, 1999. He is serving a life sentence in a California prison. His wife Kristin wrote me back and said that her husband Charles isn't seeking release from prison and expects to remain in prison for the rest of his life. |
| Finding a competent lawyer who isn't lazy, inept or indifferent to
your needs is no different than looking for a good bed-mate. You can take
your chances with the first one that comes along or you can be selective.
If you choose to take the first one that comes along, then you may end up
feeling like the drunken sop who awakes to find out that what looked good
to him in the dark of night, is unbelievably ugly in the light of
dawn.
Opening statement in an article on Lawyers. |
| There is an old saying that may be applicable in a case such as
this one. It is, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." I really don't have
any sympathy for any Muslim girl or any other person who hates to listen
to Christmas music at school. What does she do when she walks into a Mall
and Christmas music can be heard everywhere? Do the Jews stick cotton
batten in their ears when they walk into a Mall where Christmas music is
being played? I think not. Neither should she. When her school plays
Christmas music, they are not trying to convert her. If her faith is
secure in her heart, then she should be able to listen to the music (which
by itself is very beautiful) and appreciate it without having to pay that
much attention to the words of the carols. The idea that one girl in a
school can dictate to all the other kids in the school what music they
should or should not listen to is so gross---one is tempted to pay her
airfare and send her back where she came from---preferably to a country
that prohibits girls from going to school.
Statement made on Fox News Forum on March 11, 2000 |
| There is very little that will get my ire up than read the blather
of some religious twirp who pontificates about his religious views on his
interpretation of the holy scriptures. The one I have read in this forum
is from one of those twirps who did nothing but quote from the Bible about
the fate of sodomites. Speaking for myself, I would not want to be an
active or passive partner in a act of sodomy but I learned a long time ago
that when it comes to sexual preferences, the adage, "Different strokes
for different folks" has real and accepted meaning in this modern era we
are in. If gays and heterosexuals want to indulge in an act of sodomy and
suffer the pain that goes with it as a passive partner and also risk
getting AIDS as a result, who am I to condemn such persons? What I will
condemn outright however without any hesitation is of course anyone that
forces himself upon another and sodomizes his victim. Such a sodomite
should be locked in a cell and the cell then air-lifted to a large body of
water and dropped into it.
Statement made on Fox News Forum on March 11, 2000 |
| I don't have any sympathy for anyone who deliberately murders
another human being. Such persons as far as I am concerned, forfeited
their lives the moment they killed their victims. What is left for society
to do after that is to make a determination of whether or not there are
extenuating circumstances that merit mercy. There can be situations where
mercy would be appropriate. For example, killers who are insane, who are
defending themselves, who kill another in a state of extreme
uncontrollable anger, who are so impaired by alcohol or drugs, they don't
realize the full impact of what they are doing etc, etc. But terrorists,
hit men, persons who kill for financial gain, persons involved in filming
the murder of victims, serial and mass murderers, killers who torture
their victims to death and war criminals should be executed. I recognize
the dignity of human beings but I get quite angry when I hear
abolitionists cry out that even the most vilest of murderers should be
treated with dignity. The only concern I have about capital punishment is
best quoted from a statement I made in a brief I made to the Canadian
parliament (and was quoted in Parliament) when I said, "One of the
greatest arguments against capital punishment is the danger of executing
an innocent person. No miscarriage of justice is more terrible to
contemplate." Considering that the United States is now discovering that a
lot of condemned prisoners on death row are innocent and are being
released for this reason, brings weight to my statement to the Canadian
Parliament. It is for this reason that I am advocating imprisonment for
natural life without parole for murders. I would rather pay monies towards
the support of ten murderers than execute one innocent person.
Statement made on Fox News Forum on the Internet on March 11, 2000 |
| The sentence of five years unsupervised probation for a woman who
beats her 22-month old baby to death because at 61 years of age, she is
too old to be incarcerated, is gross. Obviously the judge is either too
old or too young to be sitting on the bench. In Canada, a teacher who
molested a number of boys in the orphanage he worked in 40 years ago was
68 years of age when he was sent to prison for 11 years. The judge said at
his sentencing, "Although the accused was relatively advanced in years, he
is also in good health. I am not persuaded that advancing age alone should
cause any reduction in the normal range of sentence. The offender has had
the benefit of his more youthful years of a free lifestyle without having
to account for his criminal behaviour." I have said it before and I will
continue to say it again and again. Soft hearted judges who give
ridiculously low sentences for violent crimes are the single most cause of
crime. If they awarded sentences that are appropriate and just, perhaps
most criminals would be deterred from committing violent crimes because
the fear of severe punishment might scare them into being straight and
crime free. If you were to mix the brain matter of some of these judges
with the brain matter of some of the violent criminals they slap on the
wrist, you would get a witch's brew unequalled in the annals of mankind.
These judges want the public to swallow their idea of a fair sentence.
That's like serving us a bowl of mush with dirt thrown in for flavour.
Most unpalatable.
Statement made on the Excite Forum on the Internet on March 18, 2000 |
| To have better gun control, lock the triggers with ID control which
can be built into the handle. This is the answer we may be looking for.
Whoever buys a gun must have his fingerprints and palm prints registered
with the seller who will then send them into the police and the gun maker.
Only the purchaser can fire the gun. If he or she wants someone else to
fire the gun, that other person must also register his or her fingerprints
and palm prints and the gun mechanism must then be adjusted to accept the
prints of the other person registered to use the gun. This way, anyone
else who gets possession of the gun cannot fire it. Only those registered
to use the gun can fire it. Then make it a law that no-one after five
years would be permitted to own a gun that isn't already built with the ID
control mechanism built into the handle.
Statement made on the Excite Forum on the Internet on March 25, 2000 |
| I suppose all of us have the ability to take a sentence in
legislation and twist it around in such a way, that it would make a
pretzel look like the main mast of Nelson's flagship. ..........I think
the legislation as it relates to agents in criminal courts is clear,
unambiguous and needs very little interpretation. If you let the lawyers
interpret the pertinent sections of the Criminal Code for you as it
relates to agents in criminal courts, you will see how they will take a
simple reef knot and twist it until they hand you the Gordian Knot.
Statement made at a government sponsored conference on March 26, 2000, dealing with the role of paralegals being permitted to represent accused persons in criminal courts in Canada. Present at that conference were members of the Criminal Lawyers Association, the Paralegal Society of Canada and a former member of the Supreme Court of Canada. |
| Women have no right to slap anyone across the face and that goes
for men also. The woman you were breaking up with expressed her
disappointment by slapping you in the face. What would she have done to
you if you were married to her and were breaking up with her? Kill you?
Kill your children? You were wise to break up with her. As to the woman
you complimented about her legs, she shouldn't have called you a pig and
then slapped you. She should have ignored you and continued walking. This
woman has a problem with men and she too should be ignored. I should add
however that it's impolite to make comments to strangers about parts of
their bodies, even if the comments are complimentary. People don't like
being sized up as if they are slabs of beef. It embarrasses them. Admire
them if you wish and even express your views to your friends but don't
express your views about body parts to a stranger. You could end up being
called a pig and be slapped in the face.
Statement made on the Excite Forum on the Internet on April 2, 2000 |
| There has been one interesting thing I have learned however, as no
doubt so have many millions of others in our world. I could have been born
with a silver spoon in my mouth and lived a life of ease. But having been
born poor, and having to struggle all my life to achieve whatever I did,
life was far more challenging to me, having come from humble beginnings.
The rewards are far more enjoyable when life is treated as a scavenger
hunt as apposed to a continuous birthday party.
From the autobiography of Dahn Alexander Batchelor, Volume Three, Rising from the Ashes |
| If the issue of compensating the Jews who were victims of the
holocaust came up long after the last victim had died, compensation
wouldn't have been considered. Compensation is for the living, not the
dead. The same principle applies to the issue of compensating the former
Afro-American slaves. Don't compare compensation with restitution. For
example, although many Jews in the holocaust died before the turn of this
century, their families who are still alive are given restitution for what
their parents and grandparents lost, such as homes, businesses and savings
etc. Since black slaves had no property when they were enslaved, their
descendants in this century could not claim restitution either. The
history of black slavery in the USA is a sorry black mark in American
history but that occurred in the previous three centuries. We are in the
Twenty-First Century now and the way to make up for not only the wrongs
done to the blacks but also to the Jews, the North American Indians, the
Japanese in North America (during the Second World War) and other
minorities is to continue to treat them as equals with the white
population. If that is done (and I think it is being done for the most
part) then White America is repaying for the wrongs they did to the
minorities in the past and that should be suffice.
Statement made to the New York Times (Abuzz) via the Internet on May 20, 2000. |
| I think it is most inappropriate for you to refer to the NACP as a
bunch of thugs or to refer to that organization as the black Klan. I am
white and proud of my race but when whites were tormenting blacks in the
USA during the first half of the last century and treating them as if they
were no better than serfs, there was a need for the NACP. You may not like
what they are doing but to compare them with black-hating Klansmen who
lynched blacks by the thousands and burned their homes and churches over a
century of abuse, is akin to wanting to shoot a song bird because it shits
on you once in a while.
Statement made to the New York Times (Abuzz) via the Internet on May 22, 2000 addressed to a bigot. |
| If President Clinton is disbarred because of wrongdoings he did as
a lawyer prior to his election as the president of the United States, his
legacy will go so far down the toilet, even Nixon's former plumbers won't
be able to retrieve it. He has one strike against him already. He is a
lawyer. The only thing the public hates worse than a president who does a
wrong, is a crooked lawyer. If Clinton is disbarred because of dishonesty,
he will get as much sympathy from the public, now and in the future as
chickens got from Colonel Sanders. In Canada, we had a judge who was tried
in the criminal court for conduct he did when he was a lawyer. He was
convicted and then immediately kicked off the bench. Canada doesn't want
former dishonest lawyers as judges sitting on the bench. It seems to me
that Americans won't be too happy if it is established that their
president was disbarred for dishonesty.
Statement made to the New York Times (Abuzz) via the Internet on May 23, 2000 |
| The US government is spending billions of dollars combating the
trafficking in illicit drugs and yet the government does nothing to stop
the manufacturing of cigarettes and instead spends billions of dollars in
health care for the millions who suffer from the direct effects of smoking
tobacco. The government will shut down factories when their smoke from
afar reaches our lungs but they still permit the factories of tobacco
companies to remain open 24 hours a day notwithstanding the fact that the
smoke from their cigarettes hits our lungs from up close. I think this
anomaly comes down to two things --- taxes and votes. The government
doesn't want to lose the taxes and the politicians don't want to lose the
votes.
Statement made to the New York Times (Abuzz) via the Internet on May 30, 2000. |
| Stevenson's statement is ludicrous. He thinks that sex offenders
only commit crimes because of lust. Castrating a sex offender would create
a greater problem on society. The offender would feel that his body had
been violated (and rightly so) and he would retaliate by finding another
way to get back at society. Such angry criminals wouldn't hesitate to find
another way to get their jollies such as torturing their victims to death
or mutilating them. One of the reasons why whipping isn't applied to sex
offenders anymore is because it was established years ago that violence
begets violence. You cannot treat sex offenders by castrating them either.
There are means in which you can force them to take inhibiting drugs
(chemical castration) that reduces the sexual drives of sex offenders but
using surgical castration isn't just against the law and contrary to the
constitution as cruel and unusual punishment, it would be looked upon in
the future with the same disdain that enforced lobotomy and sterilization
is looked upon now in this modern era.
Statement made to the New York Times (Abuzz) via the Internet on May 30, 2000 |
| There are a number of wrongs that a government can commit against
its citizens but I don't think that there is any wrong that can be worse
than for the government to execute an innocent citizen. Even in those
countries where human rights abuses are commonplace and innocent victims
are murdered by government troops, they at least can die knowing that they
are martyrs. But when an innocent person is executed in the name of
justice, that person dies in shame because the general public probably
believes in his or her guilt of the crime he or she was convicted of. That
person dies knowing that he or she is innocent and believing right up to
that last spark of consciousness still left in them that their death was
pointless because the real murderer is unpunished. I realize that there
are some cases where the evidence is so strong, that one is forced to ask
the rhetorical question, "Can this person really be innocent?" Generally
there can only be three persons who could possibly know. The first was the
victim and that person is no longer with us. The second person is the
condemned and that person too is no longer with us. The third person is
the real murderer and that person is keeping his or her mouth shut. So we
are forced to ask ourselves, "What have we gained by executing an innocent
person? The victim gained nothing. The condemned lost everything and the
real murderer is laughing at our system of justice. To paraphrase an often
quote: "It is better to let nine guilty murderers go free than to execute
an innocent one." I like the concept of murderers spending the rest of
their natural lives in prison. If we err in the name of justice with these
people we send to prison, we can free them and compensate them. If we err
in the name of justice and execute them, there is nothing we can do for
them to correct that terrible error. I sincerely hope that the day will
come when natural life in prison becomes the suitable and acceptable way
to punish murders. Again, my congratulations for reviewing the cases
involving the death penalty as it relates to federal crimes in the USA. It
is obvious to anyone being apprised of your thoughts on this matter that
you too are concerned about the executing of innocent persons.
Message sent via the Internet to President Clinton at the White House on July 27, 2000. |
| A person can be poor but if he is educated, he has a greater chance
at getting a fair trial than being rich and have little education at
all.
Statement made to the New York Times (Abuzz) via the Internet on August 12, 2000 |
| This particular piece of Canada's past as it relates to the sexual
abuse of the wards of the church and government has scarred not only
former students, but also former staff members, all innocent of any
wrongdoing and I include myself as one of them, who feel our reputations
have been damaged by the onslaught of publicity, even though we personally
did not abuse students in our care. The smear of wrongdoings by those who
did abuse the children in the residential schools cheapens the sacrifices
of many lay workers and missionary men of the cloth who, over long periods
of time, gave years of their lives in the service of Indian children. But
life being as it is, we, along with the children, all suffered and
continue to suffer for the actions of the few who abused the trust of
those whom they were there to protect and care for.
Paragraph from the Autobiography of Dahn Alexander Batchelor" |
| I am still of the belief that the Churches and the federal
government were wrong in trying to assimilate the Indian children into our
society at the expense of their culture. We wouldn't permit that in this
era and it shouldn't have been permitted in the last two centuries either.
I think the words, 'cultural genocide' is a bit strong but the words do
import the real message of the Indians who suffered because of the loss of
their culture. But when a society attempts to destroy the culture of
another society, one is forced to wonder if there is another phrase that
will serve as a suitable substitute. I think not. We owe it to the Indian
nation to rectify a problem that Canadians acting as another distinct
nation created for them. The payment of that debt can begin with
recognizing the Indian nation as being distinctive. If we don't do that
right from the beginning, than we will forever be in their debt.
Excerpts from a letter sent to a Canadian law firm which acted for the Presbytarian and United Churches in Canada re the lawsuits by Canadian Indians, the letter having been sent on September 15, 2000 as part of the consultations the law firm had with me on the Indian complaints. |
| If we start denying gays and lesbians their rights, then after
succeeding, we will begin aiming at other minorities. And when we deny
them their rights, we will turn on ourselves until none of us have any
rights whatsoever.
Excerpt from my commentary published in the New York Times (Abuzz) via the Internet on September 29th, 2000 |
| Surely there can be no evidence of a mother's love that is greater
than that of a mother who willingly forgoes her desire to have full
custody of her children if in fulfilling that desire, it conflicts with
the best interests of her children. Such love which is expressed in a
court of today is not unlike the love of one's child that was expressed in
the court of Solomon many millenniums ago.
Statement made in family court in Brampton, Ontario on November 8, 2000. |
| It was obvious to me that in your mind, your rudeness was better
than any reasonable argument you could put forward but in my mind, your
rudeness totally eclipsed your intelligence.
Letter written to Mark Skursky, a lawyer in Brampton, Ontario who bad mouthed me on November 10, 2000 |
| Looking back during my years as a young man, I now realize that
growing into maturity is not unlike young trees in a crowded forest
fighting for space. Those that survive the ordeal, will take their place
in the crowd and can reach the heights of their expectations.
Unfortunately, with some, their growth is stunted. But even those whose
growth is leading them nowhere, can surpass their handicap and in doing
so, eventually exceed their expectations. To do that however, they must
have determination. I had determination but during my life as a young man,
all my determination was leading me nowhere. It wasn't until I had grown
into a mature adult that the adversity I endured in my life as a young
man, prepared me for the task of achieving more than my expectations in
the years that were to follow. That can be attributed to me keeping my
determination on the front burner. As a young man, I wasn't then aware
that determination is not unlike an aspirin. It takes a while for its
effects to be appreciated.
From the Autobiography of Dahn Alexander Batchelor. Introduction to Volume Two---Riding the Roller Coaster. |
| What brings human beings together is not law but love. What keeps
them together is not law but love. Recognition is merely the trappings.
From a comment published in Abuzz on December 21, 2000 on the subject of Gay and Lesbian marriages. |
| It was my younger years of adversity that was the stuff that made
the building blocks of the foundation of my ambition but it was my
willingness to sacrifice myself in the name of ambition, that was the
cement in the structure that made it possible for me to realize my dreams
of leaving my mark behind me.
From the Autobiography of Dahn Alexander Batchelor. Introduction to Volume Three---Rising from the Ashes. |
| Truly the most substantial glory of a nation can be found in its
leaders, be they political or otherwise. Leadership however entails
learning from one's mistakes. But continuing to make mistakes and not
benefiting from the lessons learned, diminishes the glory and reduces the
credibility of the errant leader to a nonentity. Can you think of any
reason why we citizens of Canada should take anything you have to say in
the future, seriously? I do sincerely doubt that you can answer that
question because no matter what answer you give, it's unlikely that it
would be taken seriously by anyone anymore.
Excerpt from a letter sent on March 26, 2001 to Hedy Fry, the Canadian Secretary of State for Multiculturalism after she accused two cities in Canada of having racists who placed burning crosses on the lawns of citizens in those cities. It turned out that there were no incidents whatsoever of burning crosses implanted on anyone's lawns in either city at any time. She was later fired from the cabinet. |
| Even though I am heterosexual, I do not condemn homosexuals, be
they gay or lesbian. We of this 21st Century have to come to grips with
the reality of our era. Remember that in the Nineteenth Century, blacks
were recognized only as slaves and in the early Twentieth Century, women
couldn't vote and Jews were un-welcomed in our hotels. Are we now going to
say that gays and lesbians in the 21st Century are an abomination? The
beauty of the human race is that it does have the ability to adapt as time
moves on. Do we want our ascendants in the next century to say that we in
this century were so backward, that we condemned a large segment of our
society simply because they were different than the majority?
Statement published in The New York Times (Abuzz) on May 5, 2001. |
| I want to say why I am not afraid to speak out for the rights of
those who perhaps are perceived as being an unpopular minority. When I was
a child, the blacks were downtrodden but I didn't notice. As I grew older,
I noticed that the Jews were downtrodden but I didn't care. As I grew
older even more, the gays and lesbians were downtrodden and I mocked them.
Now I am physically disabled and I realize that if society doesn't notice
or care about minorities and worse yet, mocks them, then who will there be
left to notice and care about the disabled?
Statement published in The New York Times (Abuzz) on May 6, 2001. |
| All of us can find fault with one another. What is difficult when
we are verbally abused by another, is communicating with our abuser
without that other person's faults clouding our judgment about that
person. All of us in this forum (as well as other forums) are strangers to
one another and yet, we, like passing ships in the night, recognize the
existence of one another. We do not fire on passing ships in the night and
I think we should refrain from doing the same thing in these forums.
Statement published in The New York Times (Abuzz) on May 8, 2001. |
| To suggest that we on Earth are the only life forms in the universe
is preposterous. That is like saying that in all the sand on the surface
of the Earth, there is only one life form.
Statement made in Abuzz Forum of the New York Times on August 28, 2001 |
| You have re-established in my mind what I have known for the past
38 years of practice and that is that with some lawyers, (such as
yourself) citizens going into their office for help, experience that which
is not unlike promenading through some Jurassic Park.
Excerpt from a letter dated October 6, 2001 sent to a lawyer who ripped off his clients. |
| We must always be on guard against being abused by critics who
would unfairly use our hate laws to stifle our voices simply because they
disagree with our views. If we permit that kind of abuse, we would enter
an era which would make Orwell's book seem like a primary school
reader.
Excerpt of article published in The Lawyer's Weekly on October 12, 2001. |
| Strangely enough, children will talk amongst themselves about how
babies are born, they will tell dirty jokes to one another but they won't
talk amongst themselves about how they are raped and molested by family
members. Incest is truly the best-kept secret in the community.
From the Autobiography of Dahn Alexander Batchelor, Volume 1, Whistling in the Face of Robbers |
| It is politicians like this man who gives politics a dirty name. It
is politicians like this man who gives Liberals a dirty name. It is
politicians like this man who gives Canadians a dirty name. We can't kick
him out of Canada even though he is a disgrace to Canadians. We can't kick
him out of parliament although he has brought shame to that institution.
But surely you can kick him out of your caucus because to do otherwise is
to bring your party down to the level of this man. I urge you to remove
him from your caucus before the stink of this man permeates the entire
Liberal Party.
Excerpt from a letter faxed on May 10, 2001 to Jean Cretien, the prime minister of Canada about a Liberal member of parliament Tom Wappel, who wrote a war veteran in his riding, stating that because the war veteran didn't vote for him, he wasn't going to assist him. A copy of the letter was sent to Tom Wappel that same day. |
| There are two professionals in which the average citizens looks
upon with utter contempt--lawyers and politicians. It doesn't surprise me
one bit that Tom Wappel who is both a lawyer and a politician is now being
publicly berated for his refusal to assist a veteran who didn't vote for
him and for the filth he wrote in one of his letters on his parliamentary
letterhead. Here is a man who has two strikes against him by being a
lawyer and a politician and now he won't even accept the fact that he has
struck out in his latest stupidity and leave the game of politics to those
who have more understanding of the plight of others and possess more
couth. The man is a bully and should be dumped from the Liberal Party. No
political party needs his ilk and Canadians don't want him either so it
follows, that he should pack up his tent and quietly slip away in the
night. But true to form, this creature from the bottom of the swamp will
hang on, spiting his venom in every direction and in his reptilian brain,
he will still convince himself that he has done no wrong. What are the
chances that this creature will actually be re-elected. I can answer that
question by comparing that answer to my next question which is; "When will
the Pope give up Catholicism?"
Statement sent to the Toronto Star on May 13, 2001 |
| I am no different than anyone else. I make mistakes like everyone
else and I am slower than younger people when it comes to physical feats
but I am not dead yet and until I am, or alternatively, unless I end up
suffering from Alzheimer's disease, I expect to be treated with respect by
everyone. And my expectations are no different than anyone else who is old
enough to be getting their pensions.
Statement published in Abuzz of the New York Times on June 13, 2001. |
| My personal feelings about the interpretation of the word
'morality' is that it defines a condition of human beings whose interests
are directed to the good of others. It is, in a sense, like water; two
parts decency and one part honesty, and like water, it can be as cold as
the waters in the Arctic or as warm as the waters of the South Seas but
whatever its temperature, it encompasses all who are willing to be
embraced by it.
Statement published in Abuzz of the New York Times on June 14, 2001. |
| The founding fathers of the United States were prepared to put more
than their names on paper. They were prepared to put their lives, their
property and their well being at risk and more than that, they were even
willing to place the good of their country above that of their own
families. They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and
their sacred honor. There is one word that describes them more than any;
that word is sacrifice. But it must not be forgotten that their wives
stood beside them when they made their decisions and they too sacrificed
themselves for the good of their country. Standing at attention with one's
hand across one's chest and proudly singing the national anthem is not
enough to claim to being a patriot when there is no sacrifice involved.
When Americans watch their flag rise upward, they should each ask
themselves , "How far am I prepared to go to sacrifice myself for the good
of my country?" Their country does not ask them to give up their lives for
their nation. It does however ask them to place their lives and well being
at risk if it will keep their nation free from dictatorship and from its
enemies. So when they enjoy the benefits given to them by all those men
and women who sacrificed themselves for the good of all the people of
their nation through its strife and wars and for the good of all those who
will follow them, let them think of the 56 brave men and their families
who risk all and in many cases lost all. Their sacrifices made their
signatures indelible in the lives of every American from the moment the
ink dried on that great parchment in which their declaration meant so much
to them.
Statement published in Abuzz of the New York Times on July 5, 2001, 250 years after the Declaration of Independence was first signed. |
| I suggest that you call your pack together and tell them to stop
their braying. It appears on the surface as if some media professionals
have been writing their scripts for them. It is so gross. It isn't just
enough to make me queasy, it's enough to make me regurgitate. In one of
your statements to the press, you said that you will let the people
decide. Well I was a voter who voted for your party and I am saying like
so many other people in Canada ---"Go! For God's sake, Go!" PS: And don't
come back.
Excerpts from a letter sent to Stockwell Day, the leader of the opposition in the Canadian House of Commons, dated July 10, 2001. After months of enduring public criticism over his ability to lead the Canadian Alliance, Stockwell Day on July 17, 2001, called for a leadership race and announced that he would resign 90 days before the vote. He resigned as promised. |
| I, like thousands of other composers desire fame but we don't seek
it. We just keep creating our compositions amid the calm of our retired
lives in hopes that when we are gone, our music will also become some day
in the future, the monuments of musical composition that can stand
somewhere in the vicinity of the great ones.
Excerpts from the autobiography of Dahn Alexander Batchelor, Volume 2, Riding the Roller Coaster |
| I think you are definitely wrong when you say that the suicide
bombers are freedom fighters rather than terrorists. A freedom fighter
fights the armed forces of the other side. That's why the word fighter is
included in the term freedom fighter. The marquis in France fought the
German armed forces and that's why they were called freedom fighters. They
were fighting for their freedom. Terrorists however who indiscriminately
murder innocent women and children and yes, even babies are not fighters.
One does not kill babies under the guise of being a fighter. These bottom
feeders are terrorists. Lets call them for what they are. We should never
forgive terrorists and as far as I am concerned, they are open game for
anyone who wants to dispose of these bottom feeders in any manner they so
choose. We do not put wild dogs on trial. We shoot them on sight. The same
should apply to terrorists.
Statement made to a contributor to the Abuzz Forum of the New York Times on August 11, 2001. |
| There comes times when laws created for the good of all can in fact
inadvertently harm those to whom they apply. Put another way, such laws
that in effect, single out citizens to their detriment, are not laws that
are for the good of the people.
Letter sent to Hazel McCallum, Mayor of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada on August 14, 2001. |
| I am still of the same frame of mind. I honestly believe that you
will not survive the next election for the leadership of the Party. By
resigning your post, or at least, not running for the next leadership
election, you will appear much more nobler having fallen on your own sword
than being hung from the cross as a dishonourable man. It's a shame that
you have this failing of not choosing your words more wisely. You had the
experience and the makings of a great leader. But then so did Edward
Kennedy. His failing however was cowardice and it ended his aspirations to
be president. Your failing on the other hand is irresponsibility and it is
ending your aspirations to be prime minister. I am still of the same frame
of mind. I honestly believe that you will not survive the next election
for the leadership of the Party. Please, for the sake of the party, resign
before you tear the party into shreds.
Excerpts from a letter I wrote to Stockwell Day, the Leader of the Opposition in the Canadian Parliament on August 20, 2001. |
| We as the taxpayers of this municipality can do better than
employing a police officer with his deplorable background in police work.
He is in my respectful opinion, a blemish on the face of our police force
that, if continues to remain on our police force not unlike an bulbous
wart, will make what appears to most as being beautiful, incredibly
ugly.
Excerpts from a letter sent on August 31, 2001 to the chief of police in the Regional Municipality of Peel in Ontario in respect to the actions of one of his police officers who was the driver of the vehicle that hit another and then denied hitting it by claiming that someone else had hit it and who was also facing criminal charges for trafficking in drugs. |
| Jerry Falwall is evidence conclusively that religion is by no means
a proper subject to be discussed amongst the mentally disturbed.
Admittedly, this zealot, after hearing president Bush chastise him
publicly for his outrageous outburst, subsequently apologized but I ask
you, should we accept his apology or should we treat him any differently
than the dog that pees on our collective pant legs?
Excerpt from a statement made on Abuzz of the New York Times on September 23, 2001 after Jerry Falwall, a religous zealot, blamed the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001 in which over 3,000 perished in the USA, on the gays and lesbians and abortionists by saying that the loss of lives was attributed to God's revenge because of the sins of the Americans. |
| Alas, the right to free speech is not entirely absolute. There is a
line out there in which those rights may be crossed. All free speech is
curtailed to some degree and in respect to the news media, constrained to
responsible journalism and the sensibilities of the public. Let me close
by giving this analogy. The farmer drives the fox from the hen house for
which the hens thank the farmer for giving them their rights to live,
while the fox denounces him for the same act for denying him his right to
eat. Plainly, the chickens and the fox are not in agreement as it relates
to their definitions of rights.
Excerpt from a Letter to the Editor sent to two law journals, The Lawyer's Weekly and The Law Times on June 22, 2002 |
| Whenever I think of the Law Society and its willingness to bed with
the PPAO, I think of that poor drunken sop who was willing to bed the
first woman that came into his life. What looked dazzlingly beautiful in
the dark of night, turned out to be incredibly ugly in the light of
dawn.
Excerpt from the author's web site, Paralegals in Peril. |
| I realize that lawyers have an obligation to look after the best
interests of their clients but if their clients are accused of murder, it
seems to me that they must seriously consider the best interests of the
public also. To suggest that an accused murderer be placed in a insecure
facility is to mock society and in doing so, the lawyer has shown us that
he or she cares more about the welfare of his or her client than the
safety of the public. A pox on such lawyers.
A statement made on the Canoe Forum on October 12, 2002. |
| Normally I am against martial law because it generally results in
the loss of human rights and freedoms but there are times when it is
absolutely necessary to combat terrorism. The terrorist act in Bali which
has resulted in the deaths of 187 people in the car-bomb blast in the
popular tourist location, is highly suspected to have been brought about
by members of the Indonesian Islamic group, Jemaah Islamia, as the chief
suspects for the bombing. The Indonesian army is a powerful force in
Indonesia and should take over the national security of the country to
fight terrorism in their country. I know the risks inherent when armed
forces take over a country but unless they do, the entire country will be
in the grip of the terrorists. Indonesia will have to go through a healing
process and like all healing processes, it can be painful but it is better
that the people living in Indonesia suffer the pain of the surgical
removal of terrorism than remain untreated and slowly watch their country
necrotize until it turns into a country of rotting flesh.
A statement made on the Canoe Forum on October 14, 2002. |
| There are two forms of discontent. The first results in someone not
getting what they want. The second is the loss of what that person already
had. There generally is not much hope of getting what a person wants
unless they work hard at it and are prepared to incur expenses to obtain
it and there is very little chance of recovering what was lost unless they
are extremely fortunate. You don't have sufficient funds to now get what
you want and you are no longer fortunate enough to recover what you have
now lost. This can be attributed to your folly of failing to recognizing
what you had in the first place and then lost and your foolishness of then
throwing away any chances you might have had in recovering it.
From a letter sent to a previous client on December 27th 2002 who blamed me for not completely winning her case in court and asking me to appeal at my expense. |
| When Richard Addinsell composed the Warsaw Concerto in 1941, he had
the bombing of Warsaw in mind. Whenever I played that piece at concerts, I
had the bombing of Warsaw in mind. Come to think of it, whenever I pounded
any piece on the piano, my listeners had the bombing of Warsaw in
mind.
From autobiography of Dahn Alexander Batchelor, Volume One, Whistling in the Face of Robbers. |
| The more I think about politicians, the more I am convinced that
the running of government should never be left to the politicians. It's
not unlike asking rookie cops to run the local cathouse. They will keep
everything in order and lose money in the process.
From a letter addressed to Dr. Kildip Kular, member of the Ontario Legislature on October 6, 2003 |
| When a frog pines for the attention of a princess, it is a sign of
hope. When a bug pines for the attention of a princess, it's a sign of
sheer stupidity.
From a message sent on November 11, 2003 by E-mail to Tom Jacobek, a man who ran for mayor of Toronto. He had previously lied at a hearing. I previously wrote him and suggested he withdraw as he would fail to win. The results showed that he only garnered 1% of the votes. |
| Our private opinions should be entirely separate from those related
towards those whom we serve. No greater calamity can befall any
organization that promotes justice than to not recognize the distinction
between the two.
Excerpt from the author's letter of resignation sent to the Board of Directors of the Paralegal Society of Canada on February 18, 2004. |
| I appreciate the concerns of some people who refuse to be tested
for DNA as they feel that their rights are being abused. However, it makes
them suspect in the eyes of the police and in some instances, for very
good reason. The police however should not have to go to the expense of
conducting surveillances on suspects in order to obtain DNA samples. On
the other hand, honest people shouldn't really have fear and should
cooperate so that they can be eliminated as suspects. If DNA sampling
should become mandatory, it should only be used to solve the case in which
the sampling was sought and no other case. Then once the case is over, all
the samples should be destroyed and the destruction of the DNA samples
should be witnessed and accounted for by civil rights people who would be
present for such a procedure. If this proposal were followed, there would
be no valid justification for anyone to refuse to provide a DNA sample to
the police, unless of course, they are guilty of the crime in which the
DNA sample was originally sought.
Excerpt sent to CNN on April 14, 2004. |
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