Harry Kopyto

Kopyto returns to Osgoode Hall on Tuesday May 29^th and Thursday May 31^st, 2012 (9:30 a.m.) as Big Law bares its fangs.  Red in tooth and claw, its agenda is now openly hostile.

Pretence of Fairness is Shredding

The Blight Panel’s pretence of fairness is shredding. Earlier in the proceeding, an appearance of fairness was critical for Blight. She was chosen as the gatekeeper for Kopyto’s grandparenting application to continue working as a paralegal because of her appearance of disinterest. After all, she was not a Bencher and therefore not a part of the in-crowd that usually does Big Law’s dirty work.  Her appearance of distance gave her a degree of credibility that Harry’s two previous good character Panels lacked.  Those two Panels were dismissed or resigned. Blight was summoned to finish the job because her hands were not as bloodied by a lengthy history of being a henchman for the Law Society’s bidding (although she had shown her true colours as an advocate for the financial interests of lawyers in other Law Society discipline proceedings).

Blight appeared at first to sport a cloak of fairness needed to create an illusion that the outcome of Kopyto’s good character hearing was not predetermined.  You could see it in the way she deflected the prosecution’s demand to saddle Kopyto with an award of thousands of dollars of costs against him as a result of the Blight Panel’s dismissal of various motions he had brought.  The Panel refused every one of the several procedural motions Kopyto brought to even the playing field in his battle with the Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC). However, Blight backed off awarding costs against Kopyto (at least so far) because it would have undermined her appearance of neutrality. Slick and savvy, or what?

A major costs award against Kopyto at an early stage of the hearings would have revealed too soon Blight’s slavish loyalty to Big Law documented in at least some of her previous rulings as a Law Society adjudicator. She could not go there without losing her halo.  The prosecutors demurred. They know that preserving Blight’s image of fairness would ultimately be to their benefit.

But now, things have changed.  During the last two days of hearings (April 9^th and 11^th, 2012) Blight’s tightened the noose around Harry’s professional neck. How you ask… read on:

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The Law Society will continue its hearings in its relentless efforts to drive Kopyto out of the paralegal profession on Monday April 9th and Wednesday April 11th, 2012. The hearings will continue at 9:30 a.m. in the Museum Room at Osgoode Hall (located at the northeast corner of Queen Street and University Avenue in the city of Toronto).

Kopyto has two other proceedings pending. One is in the Ontario Court of Appeal. He is asking the Court to allow him to raise the issue of the lack of independence from the legal profession of the Law Society Panel judging his character. The Divisional Court upheld the Panel’s ruling that it was not competent to rule on its own independence!

As well, Kopyto will be appearing in Superior Court on July 4, 2012. He has launched an Application to declare the Law Society Act amendments giving lawyers governance over their paralegal competitors as unconstitutional on the basis that it denies access to justice by eliminating competition. The Law Society is trying to head off this application at the pass and has brought a motion to dismiss it on July 4, 2012.  Further details to come.

In the meantime, Kopyto, as always, needs our support.  Your presence next Monday and Wednesday at his Law Society hearings is essential to balance the odds.

Harry Kopyto Defence Commmittee

Blight Gives Green Light to Heakes’ Attacks

It is part of the image groomed by the Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC) to appear fair. In fact, lead LSUC Discipline Counsel Susan Heakes, charged with proving Harry’s poor character to block his licensing as a paralegal, has gone further. At an earlier hearing, she proudly declared that the LSUC has the obligation to set the utmost standard of fairness. That standard, in the prosecutorial context, usually involves an independent and disinterested tribunal, disclosure, a full opportunity to be heard and respectful and fair conduct in dealing with their opponents.  In Harry Kopyto’s good character hearing, each one of these principles has been egregiously breached.

The predisposition of the LSUC to prejudge Harry as guilty of poor character became dramatically evident earlier this month.  At least 4 or 5 times, Heakes has brazenly warned the Panel assessing Harry Kopyto’s good character that the length of the proceedings allows Harry Kopyto to continue to practice as a paralegal. She repeated this ominous warning at the conclusion of the last hearing day on January 10, 2012 as if “outing” Kopyto’s scheming gameplan to the naïve panel in her stern lecturing tone and presuming that the Panel will find him guilty of poor character.

Panel Chair Margot Blight’s response to Heakes was to admonish Harry Kopyto for not hurrying things up.  She, in the role of an adjudicator, therefore implicitly accepted the validity of Prosecutor Heakes’ blatant intrusion of the Panel’s independence. Is this an appropriate response from the supposedly neutral Panel Chair?

The issue can be divided into two parts: the efficiency of the cross-examination process and the appropriateness of Heakes’ comments and Blight’s response. As to the first matter, the perceived efficiency of cross-examination should have absolutely no bearing on whether Harry continues to practice as a paralegal or not. Otherwise, there goes the presumption of innocence. The time taken to elicit evidence should be based solely on the criteria relevant to a search for justice.  What Heakes’ little dramatic explosion ignores is that the time taken in cross-examining investigator Adrian Greenaway has escalated because of 3 additional complaints against Harry added by the LSUC last October and by dramatic revelations made by Greenaway that undermine the LSUC’s case and opened new fruitful lines of questioning.  Even if the Prosecutor sees fit to ignore these facts, why should the Panel?

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Greenaway Brings Administration of Justice Into Disrepute

The three days of Law Society good character hearings concerning Kopyto that took place on January 3^rd, 5^th and 10, 2012 were revealing in an unexpected way.  Yes, investigator Adrian Greenaway was still on the stand being cross-examined by Harry—eight days now, if you are counting.  Other statistics also tell their story. Twenty-eight full hearing days. Three Law Society Panels.  Hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on legal and administrative fees.  For what?  To prove that Harry lacks the good character needed to work as a legal advocate after 38 years of doing so?

Back to Greenaway, the architect of the Society’s case against Kopyto. He now looks totally dejected. He mumbles. He reads his notes instead of answering spontaneously. He stares blankly straight ahead. There is absolutely no eye contact with Harry. Or anyone else. He comforts himself with three huge cardboard boxes of LSUC documents about Harry which he clutches close at hand almost like a shield to deflect Kopyto’s piercing verbal missives.

Kopyto continues to pound him with questions. If it was a boxing match, he would have cried “Uncle” long ago.  He frequently answers, “I don’t know,” hoping that would end the line of questioning.  It seldom does.

Harry is relentless.  January 3^rd was especially hard for Adrian blowing away any festive mood that might have still lingered so close after the New Year celebrations.  Kopyto pounced on him early in the day.  He asked him outright a totally unexpected question—have you, Adrian, ever been found guilty of bringing the administration of justice into disrepute?  Ouch!  What an accusation against a person who is out to prove that Harry is the Bad Guy in this movie.  The Blight Panel leans forward listening intently, unsure why the question is being asked but clearly curious to hear the answer. “I don’t know,” Adrian responds.  The mystery thickens, “What is this about?” the Panel thinks.  But Greenaway knows what it’s about. He suddenly realizes that a career-busting bad dream is coming true.

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Big Law continues its efforts to gun Kopyto down.  His next hearing date before the Law Society is scheduled for Tuesday January 10, 2012 at 9:30 a.m., Museum Room, Osgoode Hall.  Please attend to show your solidarity.

Blight Distances Herself from Greenaway

LSUC investigator Adrian Greenaway is not a happy man.  It’s not only the questions that Harry peppered him with on November 22, 2011, his fifth day of cross-examination.  It’s deeper. True, it’s just not really been a fun time for him at all.  The cocky self-confidence is gone. His answers are now blurted out in a blunt word or two. Then follows a meandering explanation, a “rationale” if you will.

The Law Society is a complicated world for Adrian. The answers are not always easy.  Adrian has to explain himself, justify what he is doing for a living, maybe even get a promotion for his performance as a witness if he pleases his superiors whom he seeks to emulate.  He listens carefully to each question.  He thinks deliberately. His face sometimes breaks out unexpectedly in animated expressions.  He tries to be focused.  Sometimes, he takes off on a tangent.  He gets more easily irritated with each day of being on the stand.  But, the bounce is gone. The bounce is definitely gone.

Ironically, the culprit behind Adrian’s increased moodiness is not Harry.  It is Margot Blight, the Chair of the three-person Panel that is assessing Harry’s character to see if he merits being allowed to work as a legal advocate as he has done for the last 38 years.  What irony—that Adrian’s new nemesis is none other than the demure, accomplished, upwardly mobile Margot Blight!  All three panelists volunteered for this posting.  But Blight is steering the ship.  She is writing all the judgments and orders, meticulously case-managing the hearing that is now in its 28^th day.

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Greenaway’s Credibility Shattered

It was trench warfare on Remembrance Day at Osgoode Hall. Kopyto was in no mood to take prisoners.  He was cross-examining his chief protagonist, Law Society (LSUC) investigator Adrian Greenaway.  Greenaway is a loyal foot- soldier in the LSUC’s war to impugn Harry’s good character.  The strategic LSUC goal is to expel Harry from the ranks of paralegals.  Paralegals were recently colonized by Big Law representing the expansionist financial interests of lawyers.  Lawyers have already disabled their more affordable competitors by limiting their scope of practice in a war for lucrative markets in legal services.  The result has been a lawyers’ monopoly which the Law Society controls, wants to protect, and which Harry is seeking to breach.

Greenaway’s credibility as a witness against Harry’s good character has already been shattered by Harry in a battle of attrition.  How many times have the Panel Chair, Margot Blight, and the LSUC chief prosecutor, Susan Heakes, stated that the opinions of Mr. Greenaway are of little value to the proceedings? Despite open bleeding wounds, Greenaway continues to respond to a call to duty carrying the can for the LSUC Brass. He sits on the edge of his seat eager to deflect Kopyto’s aggressive cross-examination.  But he does it out of a sense of duty.  He has better things to do.  His heart is really not in it. Greenaway wants it all to be over.  A bead of sweat dribbles down his forehead.  But now, at 10:00 in the morning, sizzling with firepower, Kopyto makes sure that Greenaway will not forget Remembrance Day, 2011.

All the reports from the front were unanimous―it was a rout for the LSUC.  The Law Society’s strategy was in tatters at the end of the day.  They are down but not out.  They will be there again, soon. On Tuesday November 22, 2011, they will rise to fight Harry another day. However, on this sad day, which commemorates those who gave their lives for democratic rights like access to justice, Kopyto attacked the battle-weary Greenaway on two fronts.

First, Harry savagely destroyed the carefully crafted myth that he defrauded the Ontario Legal Aid Plan.  (See box below detailing the chronology of Kopyto’s dealings with the Legal Aid Plan.)  Greenaway admitted under fire that his two-year- long-scouting expedition in the archival bowels of Osgoode Hall confirmed that the Legal Aid Plan paid Kopyto for all the legal aid accounts that it froze when the LSUC disbarred him in 1989.  Somewhat dazed, he conceded that not a cent was deducted for any alleged “overbilling.”  Yet this mythical “overbilling” was the reason the majority of Convocation― lawyers elected by lawyers to run the LSUC gave to justify Kopyto’s disbarment.

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Web of Deceit Breached

On the third day in the witness box under searing cross-examination by Harry Kopyto, the Law Society’s (LSUC’s) chief witness, Adrian Greenaway, laid a bombshell. He blew a major hole in the Law Society’s efforts to deny Harry the right to continue working as a paralegal.  Greenaway admitted that Harry, disbarred in 1989 for allegedly defrauding the Ontario Legal Aid Plan, was never asked to pay the Plan back any fees that it paid him for the 643 accounts that the LSUC claimed were “overbilled”.  Indeed, all his legal accounts “frozen” during and after the disbarment were settled and paid as valid accounts. This admission reveals that the only fraud committed was by the LSUC itself in disbarring Harry.

Greenaway’s admission is the ultimate vindication of Harry’s character and exposes in the starkest terms the phony frame-up of Kopyto on trumped-up charges. It also vindicates Bencher Tom Carey who courageously backed Harry Kopyto at that time against his colleagues in the first written dissent in the LSUC’s 200-year history. As well, it shows why then Attorney-General Ian Scott refused to respond to Harry’s public letter challenging him to lay criminal charges.

Investigator Greenaway’s admissions are critical. Ultimately, the case against Harry’s good character rests on his disbarment for allegedly overbilling Legal Aid.  But there can be no fraud without deprivation.  And so the skein of lies against Harry’s good character continues to unravel as the blinding truth shimmers into the dark recesses of Osgoode Hall where Harry’s good character hearing is scheduled to resume at 9:30 a.m. in the Museum Room on Friday November 11, 2011.

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LSUC Witness in Tangles

At the end of the day on Monday October 24, 2011 the Law Society (LSUC) chief investigator into Harry Kopyto’s good character hearing looked pale and worn. A cop for 17 years in a dead-end job without prospects of promotion and looking to escape, Adrian Greenaway became the chief investigator in about 100 out of 240 grandparenting applications after he was hired by the LSUC in 2007.  On the stand for a second day and facing fierce cross-examination by Harry, Greenaway found himself tangled in some embarrassing revelations that have punched a hole in the LSUC’s prosecution.

First, he admitted that the decision to force Kopyto into the good character hearing grinder was made as soon as Harry applied to be grandparented, not at the end of an investigation as the LSUC claims.

Second, in an attempt to counter Kopyto’s charge of a biased investigation, Greenaway testified strenuously that he agreed that Harry was fearless in his commitment to justice and to exposing the frailties of the judicial system. This unscripted admission caught the entire hearing room by surprise as the LSUC had attacked Harry for using intemperate, offensive and disrespectful language in criticizing judicial institutions.  (In fact, Kopyto was charged with professional misconduct by the LSUC for saying that “the RCMP and courts are stuck together with crazy-glue” in the 1980s).  This shocking admission by Greenaway resulted in desperate objections by the panicking LSUC prosecutors who were quickly over-ruled.

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