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TAKING ON 'THE MAN'
By Matt Mernagh
Justice Defiled: Perverts, Potheads, Serial
Killers and Lawyers
by Alan Young
Published September 2003
Key Porter Books
304 pages
Osgoode Hall law professor Alan Young
befriends the misfit clients he defends,
something few lawyers would even consider
attempting. Who wants to consort with society’s
so called undesirables? He has donated over
half a million dollars in pro bono legal fees
defending medicinal marijuana activists,
bawdy house operators, and other miscreants
who simply want ‘The Man’ to get off their back
so they can enjoy their vices. Young is an Oxy
pad trying to scrub the law clean of “moral
hygiene.”
For the record, the slightly eccentric lawyer
makes me feel like my literary hero Hunter S.
Thompson. He’s the ten pound shit-hammer I
keep in my arsenal, hopefully never to be used,
in my actions as executive director of the
Niagara Compassion Society. Our relationship
goes back a few years when I set out to
interview him for High Times publication. Part
of my in with Alan comes from my extremely
early membership in the Toronto Compassion
Club. I’ve had the pleasure to conduct lopsided
interviews, where I simply press record on the
tape deck and allow Alan to rant maniacally
until he simply runs out of steam.
For such a colourful and unique character,
Young’s most recent book, Justice Defiled:
Perverts, Potheads, Serial Killers & Lawyers,
fails to capture the ranting,
Lenny-Bruce-meets-Buddha-inspired legal
crusader. It’s as if his personality is being
restrained in the dungeon of the Bondage
Bungalow, by his client, dominatrix Terry Jean
Bedford. Maybe Young was seeking
mainstream acceptance and toned down the
personality and upped the intellect in Justice
Defiled. Then again as far as pot smoking
lawyers writing books are concerned – this is
way out there.
The thesis of the novel is that laws should not
be used to up hold morals. He argues
convincingly that when the law is used as a
moral witch hunt good people with a different
set of values than “community standards” are
persecuted. Young envisions a system where
a local municipal code would be used to
regulate activities that some might find morally
bothersome or upsetting. Such as opening an
S&M dungeon in the middle of the suburbs.
Municipal codes, not police and court
manpower, should be used to regulate
activities that some in society might find
morally offensive.
Arguing about hard-ons and gangsta rap in her
majesty’s courtroom is truly a waste of court
time and Young’s amazing intellect. The courts
have been devalued because of these debates
so that when a bastard such as Paul Bernardo
comes along the courts and the legal
profession are incapable of pulling itself
together to truly act in the victim’s best interest.
Young has been a victim’s rights advocate for
years and sued the government on behalf of
the two women for failing to live up to its
Victim’s Bill of Rights.
Sadly, once again, Young proves that the law is
full of good intention as long as someone
doesn’t expect those in power to live up to
those intentions. Even the judge in the case
half-heartedly admitted the Victim’s Bill of
Rights was a toothless sham.
He writes, “While listening to his [Bernardo’s]
victims’ recorded pleas for mercy, I sat in court
wondering what was being accomplished by
this lengthy trial.” He refers to the trial as a
“slow guilty plea.” Given all the media
surrounding the case we are not one iota
closer to gaining any insight to the sociopaths
known as Bernardo and Homolka.
Instead of wallowing in their beautifully
disguised filth Young calls on his fellow
lawyers and judges to build a better criminal
justice system. “A fundamental reformulation of
the process could assist in making the
criminal trial something other than an excise in
futility.” This is a dire warning from one of the
most influential lawyers in the country. Young
sees legal corruption as ruining a system that
is supposed to mete out justice for serious
offences.
As an educator Young sees that law school
has failed to create intellectual lawyers. Most of
those attending law school want to learn how
to file legal briefs and bill legal aid. They’re
looking for more of a trade school while Young
wants to broaden their horizons. This is a
fellow who throws off first year students by
arriving in class in sandals and kimono and
asking them, “How the fuck you all doing?”
Besides shit-kicking lawyers, law students,
and the law, Young saves some wrath for
judges. “I have met some very good judges
who are dedicated to public service. But more
characteristically I have met judges who reek
from indifference, who strut around with
pomposity, who engage in petty power games,
and who are remarkably lazy.”
In his book, Young recalls spending months
preparing a legal brief only to show up to court
to have the judge ask the crown attorney where
he can find this Section 7 that Young was going
on about. One would believe a judge would
know the Chart of Right and Freedoms like the
Ten Commandments.
For someone who has been constantly on the
losing end of court cases and intellectual
arguments I wonder how Young continues to
pull himself together to fight ‘The Man.’ There is
no financial gain in it. Most people he
represents can’t even afford photocopying and
binding of legal briefs let alone paying for the
hours of legal genius. This is where Justice
Defiled fails.
What is it about Alan Young that makes him
want to take up these lost causes? Does he
just like hanging out with perverts, potheads,
serial killers and lawyers? Tell us Alan.
[BY MATT MERNAGH]
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