What is incredible is that all parties agree on criminal justice, and its not reform. The Toronto lawyer is a key go-to barrister for high-profile accused. It just makes me rear up a little bit more because I dont like unfair play. That nomadic preamble played a key role in shaping her. At night, he helped her perfect her oratorical skills by making her read aloud from Dickens, and he prodded both his offspring to debate. She was 15 when he took her to her first drag show. Glen Jennings, the soft-spoken son of a United Church minister, was instantly smitten. How can we restore and strengthen public trust in our institutions? On June 11, 2019 Marie Henein retired as the chair of the Pro Bono Inmate Appeals Program ("PIAP") after twenty years of service. [2] She is a partner of Henein Hutchison LLP, a law firm in Toronto . Her birthplace is in Cairo, Egypt and was born as the daughter of Lebanese Maronite parents. He originally consulted Brian Heller, a highly respected but lower-profile member of the criminal bar, as well as Neil Rabinovitch, a civil litigation specialist at Dentons Canada, the global giant behind Ghomeshis widely criticized and short-lived lawsuit against the CBC. There, Joseph Henein set aside his own dream of becoming a lawyer for a career in pharmacy that, conveniently, proved to be more portable. Nor was he surprised to hear Ghomeshi had hired her. Her client Daniel Weiz was defended by Henein and was successfully acquitted of the charges of killing a teen named Dmitri Baranovski. There is a point to this. In it, Edelson advised colleagues defending sexual assault cases to whack the complainant hard with every available fact that might call into question her integrity or grip on reality. You would never go to a surgeon and ask them, How comfortable are you [to] operate on me? You expect them to do the job, Henein said. Its so outrageous and its so uninformed. In this final instalment of our interview, editor-at-large Sean Speer speaks with Henein about being disinvited from high schools and university campuses and the chronic lack of leadership stifling our society. With multiple complainants and salacious coverage of the sexual exploits of a powerful figure, it has similarities to the Ghomeshi scandal. Every object in these spare quarters has been edited by the same exacting eye that she brings to each caseall part of a controversial exercise in building her own edgy legal brand. Marie is also contributing as the co-editor of Martins Related Criminal Statutes, Martins Criminal Code and Martins Annual Criminal Practice. In the Hollywood version the setting would be grander, but in the College Street courthouse tucked above a Winners outlet, grandeur is in short supply. Within months, he was dead. He walked into the august halls of the Law Society of Upper Canada to find the benchers chambers transformed into a spooky twilit jungle. Even before the trial started, she had convinced the judge to lift a publication ban on their names. Crown attorney Michael Callaghan announces he is dropping two of the seven sexual assault charges, which, he admits, had no reasonable prospect of conviction. A post shared by Leanne Elizabeth (@leanne.elizabeth) on Apr 1, 2016 at 11:17pm PDT. Toronto Life is a registered trademark of Toronto Life Publishing Company Limited. A Toronto doctor named Marvin Sazant was accused of forcing sex repeatedly for young boys by tying them. I dont know much, but I have woken up a little bit as time has gone on. May Even one of her most grateful clients, former attorney general Michael Bryant, has described her as someone who seemed to channel Hannibal Lecter, and another, one-time minor league hockey coach Dave Frost, dubbed her my shark.. "Maybe some of these people at D.C.F., they . What do you think that says about the culture in our post-secondary institutions? She just tells you the hard facts, he says. Ghomeshi trial: Everything wrong with sexual assault law Very angry at the limited options for her., From her earliest years, her mother impressed on her the imperative of defying gender expectations. She has carved out a lucrative niche defending doctors and other professionals before their regulatory bodies. She agonized over the move, bouncing it off trusted colleagues, including Greenspan. Today's Dialogue is part two of The Hub's conversation with Marie Henein, a prominent criminal defence lawyer and author of a new memoir, Nothing but the Truth. "[6], In 1998, with Greenspan, Henein defended former Nova Scotia premier Gerald Regan on sexual-misconduct charges. You were either a hero if it worked, she says, or you were an idiot.. My job is to persuade., At the Supreme Courtfor which Henein helps train lawyers before their first appearanceher reputation for novel technical arguments often draws its young staffers to the visitors gallery. In a profession where an ad in the Yellow Pages was once considered showy, that website shot has provoked heated debate. It was time, she says. Were a work in progress., That exodus infuriates Henein, but her response is characteristically contrarian. Now, as head of the white-collar crime practice at Gowlings, Jennings gamely co-ordinates his schedule to help raise their sons, aged 10 and 15. I mean, they cant pass nationalized daycare effectively in Canada. I cant focus on that. Even growing up in a neighbourhood populated largely by other immigrants, most from Italy, Henein and her kid brother, Peter, felt they didnt quite belong. So, youre disinviting me because you dont like the job that I do in the justice system? I think our political institutions are in disarray. Thats all I heard: Theres nothing a man can do that you cant. , Her mother found a job in a bank while her father toiled 12 hours a day, seven days a week at the succession of pharmacies he owned, but Henein was far from alone. None of it deals with the real issues the criminal law needs to deal with. Thats one of her assets. Sign up for our free weekly email digest. Well, it certainly played to my outsider, fighter instincts. On her first day of school, Henein didnt speak a word of English and remembers her grandmother dropping her off, leaving her wailing in Arabic, Teta, Teta, I cant understand what theyre saying.. Court documents raise new questions about Brison's involvement in case of Vice-Admiral Mark Norman View page. In some of the commentary on the Ghomeshi case, it seems as if Henein too is on trial. Who do you think is standing there? [7][10], In 2011 Henein's client John Magno received a twelve-year sentence in connection with an arson resulting in a death and one of the largest fires in Toronto's history "forcing the evacuation of 50 nearby homes on Danforth Avenue and requiring the services of more than 170 firefighters. Alan Young arranged for her to co-teach a course with him at Osgoode and hired her to help with an appeal in a sensational drug case, reducing 60 volumes of transcripts from 100 witnesses in a year-long trial to a coherent summary of facts, known in legal jargon as a factum. Though the appeal was denied by the Supreme Court, her client has become free for the verdict of not being guilty. None of it deals with the over-incarceration, in Canada of Indigenous communities and, in the United States, of Black Americans. If she thought I was being morose or lethargic, she had zero sympathy, he says. . Then just as suddenly, Ghomeshis lawyer strides up the centre aisle to the defence table, sweeping past in a stunning black dress and designer jacket like some exotic import from Suits. Beneath the antique stained glass of the societys Convocation Hall, some jaws dropped, incredulous. He and Riley, . They had one son: Peder Hafureng (Hafra) Classon. She made no secret of the fact she was star-struck, announcing to a friend in her freshman year at the University of Toronto that she intended to work with Greenspan. Shes so good that she can get away with it, he notes. "The message is clearly that any right-thinking woman should understand her inherent, natural deficiencies and immediately set off on a lifelong journey of self-discovery and inevitable self-improvement, and probably forgo external things such as the world, life, and work." Marie Henein, Nothing But the Truth Now she intends to do the same for Jian Ghomeshi, even if it means ripping apart the testimony of his accusers. Youre not getting patted on the head a lot here, she says. But to disinvite someone because you feel that a high school or university student cant bear a discussion about the justice system, and what a defence lawyers role is, is something out of Brave New World. Maybe, she mused, well-meaning efforts aimed at helping women find work-life balance were instead signalling that, unlike men, they had to choose between work and family life; they couldnt have both. I believe that if you talk to the public, because I have talked to them about this issue, they engage with you and they want to know. Because they dont know me, generally, when Im disinvited. Whats astounding with me, which is particularly concerningits not the personal part of it, I really dont care if people like meis what are they objecting to? She has also been serving in the Canadian Criminal Cases as its Associate Editor. There was nothing else I wanted to do that would interfere with that, she says. Those statistics echo a larger crisis in the profession: although women still make up more than half of all law school graduates, an alarming number are cashing out after only five to seven years in private practice, just when their careers ought to be approaching liftoff. At a two-day hearing in October that was closed to the press, Henein was expected to argue one of the most contentious aspects of the Ghomeshi case: why the court should give her access to third-party records that may contain personal information about his accusers, including their medical and psychotherapy histories. Here are the highlights: She rejects the idea that she betrayed women, I respect their right to say it. You think of how the Charter was brought about. So, sexual assault, for example. She looks awesome in her black dress and short black colored hair. Then in the summer before she started law school, he arrived back home gravely ill. She was at his side when he was diagnosed with one of the citys first cases of full-blown AIDS. I cant talk about it, she says, fighting off tears. She recalls being singled out in her Catholic grade school, St. Leonards, and called ugly names. . Working late one night, Henein found her colleague Alison Wheeler distraught that a prospective client, convicted of manslaughter and grappling with mental illness, had been refused Legal Aid; he was planning to argue his own appeala daunting prospect even for those with a law degree. Talking about her education, Marie went to the St. Josephs Morrow Park Catholic Secondary School. Despite the obvious time and attention she has devoted to that artful presentation, she waves off questions about her designer wardrobe. degree in the year 1991 and entered the bar in 1992. So, for the Conservatives, it was mandatory minimums. TORONTO (November 3, 2022) Canadian charity The Shoe Project has launched its annual online auction and among the 50+ items up for grabs are Louboutin and Yves Saint Laurent shoes from prominent litigator, Marie Henein. I think that politicians have forgotten that their role is to lead, no matter what part of the political spectrum youre on. Apologies to Breese Davies, whose name was misspelled in the original publication of this story. When a member of her profession is in trouble, says Paul Burstein, a former president of the Criminal Lawyers Association, Maries often the first one they go to for help.. The Cult of Jian: His life as an outcast, whos standing by him, and why hes sure hell walk, Order in the Court: Karines, a brunch spot inside Village by the Grange with a sort-of-secret Armenian menu, Rental of the Week: $7,500 for a two-floor Victorian unit in the Annex with a sparkling staircase, Condo of the Week: $3.3 million for a Yorkville corner unit with three balconies, Whats on the menu at Paradise Grapevine, Geary Avenues new winery and rotisserie, Ring in the Lunar New Year with special menus from these Toronto restaurants. Born as the co-editor of Martins Related Criminal Statutes, Martins Criminal Code Martins! Not reform to lead, no matter what part of the societys Hall. Waves off questions about her education, marie went to the Ghomeshi case, has... Convinced the judge to lift a publication ban on their names are the highlights she... Entered the bar in 1992 is characteristically contrarian despite the obvious time and attention she has devoted to artful. 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