What Is Wrong With Kellers Review of Brodsky?
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This article was published 25/5/2018 (1422 days ago), so data in it may no longer be current.
When someone in Manitoba is accused of murder, more times than not it is Greg Brodsky's phone that rings. And it has been ringing constantly for more than five decades.
Brodsky, now in his 55th twelvemonth equally a lawyer, recently reached a milestone few, if whatever, others will; he has now represented 1,000 clients in murder and manslaughter cases.
Toronto lawyer Clayton Ruby, a legal titan himself, calls Brodsky "a hero to united states all."
"A completely tenacious advocate, who knows his duty to his client and to the public," Scarlet says. "Perhaps at his best in the Supreme Court of Canada, where I've appeared with him.
"He works and prepares far in accelerate so that no question from the courtroom catches him by surprise. One of our greatest advocates."
Brodsky has represented a pregnant number of Manitobans in cases that garnered headlines across the country. Names such as Angelique Lyn Lavallee, Thomas Sophonow, Darren Morrissette, Robert Starr, and James Driskell.
But it isn't really the sheer number of cases Brodsky has amassed during his career that will be his true legacy. Information technology'due south the scope and breadth of what he has been able to reach in those cases and how he has changed several criminal laws in this land and what judges have said during their instructions to juries.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Subsequently 55 years as a lawyer, Greg Brodsky has no plans to retire. "I'1000 doing what I love doing," he says.
His fingerprints are all over sections of the Criminal Code of Canada.
But Brodsky is dismissive almost what his numerical achievement means.
"It is really an attendance record," he says. "It doesn't mean I've done a skilful chore... on the other hand, when I fight hard and find a defense force where others can't, nosotros've created jurisprudence we didn't take before."
Brodsky was just 22 in 1963 when he was called to the bar.
Instead of keeping track of how many homicide cases he has handled, he could merely equally easily take been logging how many lawsuits he had filed and how many people he successfully sued.
"I didn't know I wanted to go into law, period," he says. "I applied to go in concern and commercial law. But they said I'd be bored."
Brodsky ended upwardly practising at Walsh Micay, a firm known for specializing in criminal matters. But criminal constabulary is not where he started.
WINNIPEG Gratuitous Press FILES
In the early 1980s, Brodsky represented Dr. Henry Morgentaler in his fight to perform abortions.
"I was in the ceremonious department and some other lawyer was in the criminal department," he said. "They switched me to criminal. They didn't fifty-fifty ask me. They just did it.
"And that's been my life."
Ane of Brodsky's near pregnant legal contributions involved the so-called "burning bed," or battered woman, defence force.
"I knew I had to educate the courts," he says.
He became the first Canadian lawyer to successfully use the defense force of Battered Woman Syndrome when he represented Victoria Savoyard, a Métis woman who stabbed her common-law husband. She was acquitted in May 1986, when a jury in Kenora accustomed Brodsky'southward evidence.
I would say at Walsh Micay, 'I'll do whatever case you think you can't win.' I had to figure out a defence. Sometimes it was hard and other times it was harder.
But it wasn't until a 1992 Supreme Court ruling involving Angelique Lyn Lavallee that the legal landscape involving Battered Woman Syndrome was changed.
Lavallee fatally shot her mutual-constabulary partner, Kevin Rust, in the back of the head in 1986, as he left the room following an statement. During the trial, court was told she had suffered frequent abuse from Rust.
JOE BRYKSA / WIINIPEG Gratis Printing FILES
Greg Brodsky, seen here in 2004, has often represented people whose cases are followed closely by the media.
But the contentious part of the trial was the judge allowing a psychiatrist to testify that Lavallee would have believed she was trapped in the relationship and the shooting was "a final desperate act past a woman who sincerely believed that she would be killed that night."
"The trick with Angelique Lavallee," Brodsky says, "was to go her to make a statement to the police.
"Tell the story. She said when her significant other was going out he said, 'I'll get y'all later.' (Psychiatrist Fred Shane) and other experts testified what that meant to her.
"I got in that medical show and I went to the Supreme Court. Could the doctor testify? They said the doctor could. We concluded upwardly with Battered Wife Syndrome in Canada. And, subsequently that case, I was able to use that defence more than."
Another landmark example involved Robert Chaulk, 15, and Darren Morrissette, 16. They were both bedevilled of killing 88-year-old George Haywood within a home they bankrupt into in September 1985.
The case is even so seen as the leading decision on mental disorder — insanity — defence.
Co-ordinate to the majority Supreme Court determination, a trial approximate must instruct a jury that if the accused has a mental disorder it means they cannot understand or capeesh social club's moral condemnation of the carry.
The Supreme Court ordered that Chaulk and Morrissette should get a new trial and it was there they were establish not guilty by reason of insanity.
PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG Gratis PRESS
Greg Brodsky talks to the media last yr in relation to ane of his cases.
"That inverse the law of insanity," Brodsky says, noting people were being convicted before if they knew what they were doing was wrong. Now lawyers are allowed to argue the person'due south mental affliction makes them non able to appreciate their acquit will exist condemned past society.
"The change was, if y'all think your neighbours would corroborate of what yous did, and so you're not criminally responsible. That was a big bound. Everybody that uses insanity as a defense has the benefit of that."
Brodsky too represented Robert Starr, who was granted a new trial past the Supreme Court in 2000, after information technology ruled some judges weren't instructing juries correctly about what "reasonable doubt" means when determining guilt or innocence.
Starr was originally convicted of starting time-degree murder in 1994 for the execution-style killings Bernard Cook, the vice-president of the Manitoba Warriors gang, and his girlfriend Darlene Weselowski.
The Supreme Court said judges have to tell juries they can notice an accused person guilty beyond a reasonable dubiousness but if they are about certain the accused committed the offence.
The courtroom said jurors could accept concluded that they could find Starr guilty "on a residue of probabilities."
It said the judge at the Starr trial "told the jury that they could convict on the basis of something less than absolute certainty of guilt, merely did not explicate, in essence, how much less.... The reasonable likelihood that the jury applied the wrong standard of proof raises a realistic possibility that the accused'southward convictions institute a miscarriage of justice."
At the fourth dimension, Brodsky was quoted as saying "the Supreme Courtroom is nervous that people are being convicted who ought non to exist. Nosotros have to be sure nosotros are convicting the guilty."
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG Free Press
Greg Brodsky has represented 1,000 people charged with homicide.
Daniel Vernon Williams was Brodsky's client in case No. i,000.
Williams was recently convicted of manslaughter in the decease of his 21-month-old girl, Kierra Elektra Star Williams. She died July 17, 2014, of internal bleeding from an intestinal injury inflicted by her mother. Williams was convicted considering he was aware of the injuries, simply did not help the kid.
Brodsky had several other active murder and manslaughter cases at the same time.
"I've figured out I've had seven others I've been working on since then at the same time," he says.
"I didn't mark them downwardly because they have a conviction, but non a sentence nonetheless. And right now I have xiv on the go, plus the seven."
Brodsky represented Thomas Sophonow at the first 2 of his three murder trials. Sophonow was defendant of killing doughnut store server Barbara Stoppel in 1981. The Supreme Courtroom finally ruled Sophonow didn't have to go through a fourth murder trial and he was acquitted.
WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG Free PRESS FILES
Greg Brodsky represented Thomas Sophonow in the first two of his 3 murder trials. It was afterward determined he was wrongly convicted.
Winnipeg police and the provincial authorities later apologized to Sophonow, saying he didn't commit the murder, and a judicial inquiry concluded investigating officers had tunnel vision and the Crown had failed to disclose information to his defence attorneys. Sophonow was afterwards paid $2.three one thousand thousand in bounty.
James Driskell is some other of his clients who was convicted of murder in 1991, only later found to be wrongfully bedevilled. Brodsky later on told an inquiry into Driskell's confidence that he believes RCMP labs are biased in favour of police. Driskell was awarded more than than $4 million in compensation.
Brodsky represented Vaughan Pollen, the Sturgeon Creek Loftier School student who shot and killed 16-twelvemonth-erstwhile student Ken Maitland in a shops classroom on Oct. 19, 1978. Courtroom was told that the student had taunted Pollen about his being a fan of the rock band Kiss for weeks before the shooting. Pollen was subsequently institute not guilty past reason of insanity.
"I said, 'Why not ask him how long is decease," Brodsky says. "It's a simple question. My guy thought you could practise a exercise-over. He didn't know when you're dead, it's forever.
"You accept to get involved with your clients and their thinking. That's when you find out what's not manifestly to the average person."
Lawyers generally have to research case law before making a sentencing submission or countering the Crown'south after their clients have been convicted. Brodsky often makes reference to outcomes he's been involved in.
"If at that place is a precedent in a instance, information technology is a precedent I worked on," he says.
When he began, he told colleagues he'd take on any and all homicide cases.
MIKE APORIUS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES
James Driskell spent 13 years in prison house for a murder he didn't commit. Driskell is another of Brodsky'southward clients who was found to exist wrongfully convicted. Brodsky later told an inquiry into Driskell'south conviction that he believes RCMP labs are biased in favour of constabulary.
"I would say at Walsh Micay, 'I'll practise whatever example y'all think you tin't win,'" he says. "I had to figure out a defense force. Sometimes it was difficult and other times it was harder."
Dorsum and then, Brodsky and other defence lawyers were acutely aware of the risks if they weren't able to get their clients acquitted or were unsuccessful in attempts to take sentences reduced. The death sentence was notwithstanding on the books; the last executions in Canada were carried out in 1962, but the federal government didn't abolish information technology until 1976.
Dwayne Johnston, one of the four men charged in the 1971 slaying of Helen Betty Osborne nigh The Pas, and the merely one convicted, in 1987, was Brodsky's final client who could, theoretically, take been sentenced to die. But, because and then many years had passed between the offense and the time the men were charged, that sentence was not a possibility.
Brodsky admits there are times he still has to think about the death sentence even today.
"I still do in a sense because of extradition cases. I accept to check to see if these (American) states have death penalties," he says.
While Brodsky is best known for his homicide cases, he represents clients in other criminal matters where victims are live and able to testify.
Such was the instance when he acted for a soccer actor acquitted of assaulting a goalie later on a judge ruled the kicking and stomping of the goalie's head during a July 2009 game — while "reverse to the rules of soccer, it was not beyond soccer's playing civilization, let alone gravely and then, which is required for sporting misconduct to be a criminal offense."
"It is part of the game," Brodsky says affair-of-factly. "You lot are consenting it; that's why you lot have penalties."
WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE Press FILES
Dr. Henry Morgentaler, with Brodsky to his left, is arrested at his so-illegal ballgame clinic in 1985 following a police raid.
He represented pro-choice abet Dr. Henry Morgentaler who, ultimately, helped convince the government to legalize abortions in Canada. Morgentaler hired Brodsky when he opened the doors to his so-illegal clinic in Winnipeg in 1983.
"His group said, 'Yous should become somebody who supports the cause,' and he said, 'I don't want to be convicted — that's why I got Brodsky.'"
Brodsky credits his wife Sylvia for helping him through police force school. They take 2 sons; Dan is a prominent criminal lawyer in Toronto, and Aaron is a psychologist based in Washington, D.C.
Over the years, Brodsky has served in various roles for several bodies continued to the legal profession, both locally and nationally; the offset president of what's now called the Manitoba Criminal Defense force Lawyers' Association from 1976 to 1983; chairman of the Canadian Bar Association'south justice and criminal justice sections; chairman of the Law Order of Manitoba'due south discipline committee from 1979 to 1981; and its ethics committee in 1984-85.
Brodsky was too honoured by the province decades agone when he was appointed a Queen'south Counsel, which gives him the right to article of clothing silk robes instead of the standard variety lawyers wear when they appear in superior courts such every bit Court of Queen'due south Bench and the Supreme Courtroom.
Away from the law, Brodsky was a president of Skills Unlimited and the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue, and a director of the Sair Centre of Learning.
Even after 55 years in the trenches, he'due south non resting on his laurels.
Brodsky, who is representing one of the 2 women bedevilled of killing nineteen-yr-erstwhile Serena McKay on Sagkeeng Start Nation last year, argued successfully a few weeks ago confronting the court considering victim impact statements from people with no directly connection to the slain teen. In addition to statements from family unit and friends, the Crown submitted statements from McKay'due south family and friends, along with those of eight people living equally far abroad as New York and Texas who had seen a video showing the deadly assail.
SUBMITTED
Surveillance footage of Andrea Giesbrecht from the McPhillips Street U-Haul in Winnipeg on October three, 2014. The footage was supplied every bit evidence at her trial. Brodsky is her lawyer.
The courts "cannot just create eligible writers of victim affect statements by seeing a video," Brodsky says.
He represents Andrea Giesbrecht, the woman convicted of concealing the remains of six dead infants in a storage locker. She was sentenced to eight 1/2 years in prison. Last month, he was unsuccessful in an endeavor to have her released on bail while awaiting her appeal hearing.
As well, Brodsky is representing a one-time Kelvin Loftier School student who was iii months away from his 18th birthday when he fatally stabbed another teen on the school's grounds. He has argued against sentencing the man, now 20, every bit an adult. A judge will render a decision next calendar month.
"When people come to me, it is hard to reason.... They think if they hire me I can go them off. I take to tell them I don't have magic pulverization in my pocket," he says. "If they had a existent defence anyone could come across then they could get any lawyer.
"Sometimes it'due south what Harry Walsh taught me: people come up to me considering of the quality of the fight and not the verdict."
James Lockyer, a founding director of the Clan in Defence of the Wrongly Bedevilled, now known every bit Innocence Canada, said Brodsky "has quite a legacy, to say the least."
"I know he has done the well-nigh of them (homicide trials) in Manitoba, just also the rest of the country. There's no one else in Canada who tin can match him," Lockyer says.
"Greg is just known as an icon for defence counsel — and he is still doing it. Greg has had an extraordinary career and he'southward still going stiff.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE Press
Known as a tenacious advocate, Greg Brodsky has changed the legal landscape in Canada.
"May he alive forever."
Jody Ostapiw, current president of the Manitoba Criminal Defence Lawyers' Association, said the number of homicide clients Brodsky has represented is "unbelievable."
"His contributions to criminal police in this province, and this country, cannot be overstated," Ostapiw says.
"As a lawyer called (to the bar) in 2004, when I look up case law I run into his name over and over... he has probably forgotten more law than I know."
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Ostapiw says she and others besides appreciate how helpful he is to young lawyers when they are starting out.
"He is just an all-circular great guy. He has truly helped change the law. Not everyone can say they helped develop the police force and the legal community."
Most lawyers Brodsky'south age would be talking about retirement if they hadn't already hung upwards their robes.
Brodsky points to Walsh, his mentor, who was yet Canada'south oldest working lawyer when he died at 97 in 2011.
"I'chiliad doing what I love doing," he says, chuckling. "And people are paying me."
kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
Kevin Rollason
Reporter
Kevin Rollason is one of the more versatile reporters at the Winnipeg Costless Press. Whether information technology is covering urban center hall, the police courts, or full general reporting, Rollason can be counted on to not only reply the five Ws — Who, What, When, Where and Why — but to exercise it in an interesting and accessible way for readers.
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Source: https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/brodsky-for-the-defence-the-septuagenarian-millennial-483713893.html
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