As appendix to the on-going outrage over Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s former aide, Bruce Carson, herewith the 1981 disciplinary record from the annals of the Law Society of Upper Canada.
Funny to see that Carson, accused of forging a document and defrauding clients, was represented before the disciplinary committee by a lawyer named Ian G. Scott.
Scott, of course, later became a Liberal politician representing the Ontario riding of St. George-St. David. He also served in the David Peterson cabinet as attorney-general of Ontario. He died in 2006.
Also interesting is to read the letters of reference Carson submitted on his behalf to mitigate the penalty. They included endorsements from eight unnamed lawyers, seven from Ottawa, and the then-mayor of Ottawa. By my calculations, that would have been Marion Dewar, a long-time New Democrat and mother of Ottawa-Centre MP (and putative future party leadership contender) Paul Dewar.
Of course, neither Dewar nor Scott could have ever anticipate, 30 years hence, that Carson would be in a the cross-hairs of a Conservative government ethics controversy.
Beside, their interventions didn’t help. LSUC disbarred Carson. He also spent time in the Stoney Lonesome for the same crime.