By Kevin Rollason, Winnipeg Free Press July 7, 2011 3:01 AM
Lori Douglas, the associate chief justice of the Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench, Family Division. The CJC, headed exclusively by the country's top judges including Douglas, said that it has concluded a rare public inquiry should be held after a detailed review of allegations that Douglas's husband tried to have his client have sex with his wife.
Photograph by: Handout, Handout
WINNIPEG — Her lawyer husband has called comments from his former client "fabrications," but the Canadian Judicial Council announced Wednesday it believes the allegations could be serious enough to result in removing from the bench one of the highest ranking judges in the province — Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench Associate Chief Justice Lori Douglas.
The CJC, headed exclusively by the country's top judges including Douglas, said that it has concluded a rare public inquiry should be held after a detailed review of allegations that Douglas's husband tried to have his client have sex with his wife.
"A Review Panel of five judges has concluded that the matter may be serious enough to warrant the judge's removal from office," the CJC said in a statement. Douglas has removed herself from all cases since the allegations emerged last year, and she was not on the Review Panel that ruled on her case.
A public inquiry has so rarely been called by the CJC that it has only occurred eight times in the last 40 years.
Alex Chapman, whose allegations against Douglas and her husband, veteran lawyer Jack King, sparked the entire matter, said Wednesday he is pleased with how the CJC is handling the matter.
"I am not vindicated yet," Chapman said.
"But the fact they are going to take this action gives me the confidence that justice will prevail.
"It gives me some faith. It shows them five judges cannot be swayed. In Manitoba, I won't be treated fairly. Judges and lawyers here all go to dinner, they are all friends. For example, my computer was taken away by one of Lori's colleagues.
"I couldn't do my income tax this year because everything I need was on my computer."
A spokeswoman for the Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench said it would have no comment about the CJC's decision.
Neither King nor his lawyer could be reached for comment.
The CJC said the next step will be to appoint an inquiry committee made up of an uneven number of members, with the majority being members of the CJC, with the federal justice minister also appointing one or more members.
As well, the CJC, whose role includes reviewing the conduct of all federal judges and improving judicial service, will select an independent lawyer to bring forward all of the evidence to the committee.
After holding hearings, the inquiry committee would then report its decision to the CJC which can then give its own recommendations about what to do to the justice minister.
The entire matter flows from allegations and complaints made by Chapman, who in 2003 was a client of King.
Chapman has said King not only wanted him to have sex with Douglas, but the lawyer also pointed him to a website where there were explicit nude photos of her. Douglas was appointed a judge in 2005.
Later, King paid Chapman $25,000 to bind him to secrecy, but last year, when Chapman went to the media with his allegations, he tried to return the $25,000, but had it sent back to him.
In March, King pleaded guilty to a Law Society of Manitoba charge of professional misconduct and was given a reprimand and ordered to pay the society's costs of $13,650.
"To my wife, I can never apologize enough," King told the law society panel at the time, adding that his wife had done nothing wrong.
King didn't comment after the hearing, but he later wrote a letter to the Winnipeg Free Press chastising the press for "allow(ing) Mr. Chapman the forum in which to broadcast his fabrications."
kevin.rollason(at)freepress.mb.ca
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