BENCH AND BAR

Are you reading this on a summer night? If so, you might want to look around to see if any of the mischievous fairies from A Midsummer Night’s Dream have emerged from the twilight to join you. For those who don’t keep a copy of the play handy, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust summarizes it as follows: “[f]our Athenians run away to the forest only to have Puck the fairy make both of the boys fall in love with the same girl. The four run through the forest pursuing each other while Puck helps his master play a trick on the fairy queen. In the end, Puck reverses the magic, and the two couples reconcile and marry.”

Edward F. Macaulay decamps from practising as a sole practitioner on Howe Street to join North Shore Law. Emily M.G. Stockley goes in-house with the First Nations Financial Management Board, leaving Lawson Lundell to do so. C. Geoff Baragar, K.C., moves to Mitha Law Group from the Office of the Attorney General. Carrie L. Koperski sets sail to Pulver Crawford Munroe LLP’s Victoria office, departing Roper Greyell to do so. Sonia Kainth joins Clark Wilson from Henderson Heinrichs. Connie Risi lands at Alexander Holburn Beaudin + Lang, having set sail from Bernard LLP. Kimberly-Anne M. Kuntz, once of Bull, Housser & Tupper and then Norton Rose, has moved to Scion Law, a boutique estate firm. Meridian Law Group welcomes Ross E. McLarty and Murray T. Wolf, both formerly of McLarty Wolf, and Leon Beukman, formerly of Borden Ladner Gervais. Nathan Van Kampen sashays from Priddle Law Group to Mair Jensen Blair in Kamloops. Sean P. Jones and Katie Bellett, both formerly with MLT Aikins, and Andrew J. Kim, formerly with Powell Grey Kim, are all now with MacKenzie Fujisawa. Mona Yousif leaves Lawson Lundell to go inhouse with Methanex Corporation. Angie N. Riaño is now with Henderson Heinrichs, having departed from Dentons. William S. Wijaya joins Pulver Crawford Munroe after completing articles at Farris.

Lawyers who have moved their practices should e-mail details of their past and present circumstances to Peter Roberts, K.C., at <benchandbar@the-advocate.ca> to ensure an appearance in “Bench and Bar”. Note that we do not report changes in lawyers’ status within their firms (from associate to partner, for example) other than in cases where persons formerly articled have been hired as associates.

William T.H. Lovatt is now at Harper Grey, moving from Echo Law. Özge Yazar says goodbye to Lawson Lundell, joining Miller Titerle. Aynsley P.P. Severide returns to Harper Grey after a stint with Severide Law. Mark G. Ritchie and Denise Kwo leave Radelet & Company to start up Ritchie & Kwo. Kimberly Little moved from Haddock & Co. to the Lawyers Indemnity Fund. Megan E. Young is now at Clark Wilson, moving from Miller Thomson to get there. Jessica Park joins Legacy Tax + Trust Lawyers from Alexander Holburn Beaudin + Lang. Craig Dennis, K.C., Owen James, Eric Aitken, Ray Power, Emily Lennox and Mitchell Ferreira have split off from McEwan Partners to continue their litigation practice together under the new firm name of Dennis James Aitken LLP. Connor Pouryekta joins Lawson Lundell from O’Neill Law.

Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is premised on a law that Theseus, the ruler of Athens, describes as follows to Hermia, whose father insists that she marry Demetrius rather than her beloved, Lysander. When Hermia asks “[t]he worst that may befall me in this case, / If I refuse to wed Demetrius”, Theseus responds: “Either to die the death or to abjure / For ever the society of men.” He urges Hermia to reflect on the situation, whereupon she and Lysander embark for the home of his widowed aunt because “[f]rom Athens is her house remote seven leagues; … to that place the sharp Athenian law / Cannot pursue us.” Hermia, her friend Helena (who loves Demetrius), Lysander and Demetrius are the four earlier-mentioned Athenians in the woods.

The Provincial Court was recently boosted with the appointments of Jeremy P. Hermanson, Jaqueline G. McQueen, K.C., and Nicholas J. Preovolos as judges, and Nicole L. Cederberg as judicial justice.

“This matter has come before us as a procedural morass. The misidentification, blending, and overlapping of entities and motions constitute a virtual legal counterpart of A Midsummer Night’s Dream—but without the whimsy and charm of Shakespeare”: Post v. Lee Brick Co., LLC, 2012 WL 3236566 3 (Ky. App. 2012) (unpublished).

On April 12, 2023, Barbara A. Carmichael, K.C., was appointed as the Deputy Attorney General of British Columbia.

In Midsummer Night’s Dream, Oberon is the king of the fairies, and Titania is the queen. In related matters, Oberon and Titania are two moons of the planet Uranus. Oberonia is a flowering plant in the family Orchidaceae. Oberon and Titania are mentioned in Pink Floyd’s “Astronomy Domine” and Queen’s “The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke”.

Kate M. Campbell and Alison C. Wake were appointed members of the Civil Resolution Tribunal for a term of three years. Sherelle Goodwin and Eric M. Regehr were appointed as vice chairs, each for a term of three years.

“A Master is not a fairy godmother capable of making that which may be wrong, magically right”: Inform Cycle Ltd. v. Rebound Inc., 2008 ABQB 62.

Stacy F. Robertson was reappointed to the Hospital Appeal Board as a member and designated as chair for a term ending December 31, 2028.

Chief Judge Lagueux noted in Iacampo v. Hasbro, Inc., 929 F. Supp. 562 (D.R.I. 1996) that “[l]ike a battlefield surgeon sorting the hopeful from the hopeless, a motion to dismiss invokes a form of legal triage, a paring of viable claims from those doomed by law.” The judge described the case as “[a]t heart, … a simple sexual harassment and disability-based discrimination case, made complicated by overly creative lawyering. As Shakespeare wrote: ‘So quick bright things come to confusion.’ W. Shakespeare, A Midsummer’s Night Dream, act 1, sc. i, l. 149 (1595-1596).”

Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons, is among the characters in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and ultimately marries Theseus. She is also, by the way, reputedly the mother of Wonder Woman.

Graeme Bowbrick, K.C., was appointed as a member of the board of governors of the Notary Foundation of British Columbia for a term ending May 19, 2026.

Donna M. Turko, K.C., was reappointed as a director of the Legal Services Society for a term ending April 22, 2025.

The Bench & Bar Dinner was held on June 15, 2023 at the Fairmont Waterfront. During the course of the evening, Eloise Spitzer was presented with the 2023 Law Society Award in recognition of her more than 40 years of extraordinary work in the legal profession and the administration of justice.

Her extensive contributions to Indigenous reconciliation and women’s equality, as well as her continued involvement in and dedication to the mentorship of young lawyers, makes her a worthy recipient of this award. Also recognized for his many years of dedicated service to the profession was Edward L. Wilson of Lawson Lundell, who was this year’s recipient of the CBABC Georges A. Goyer, QC Memorial Award for Distinguished Service. In addition to being just a great guy, Ed has been a CBABC member for 43 years and has given years of service as the CBABC representative on the BC Real Estate Association’s Standard Forms Committee, as well as being a past chair of the Real Property Section.

June is the month for you if you are of Italian heritage (Italian Heritage Month) or of Filipino heritage (Filipino Heritage Month).

The Battle of the Bar Bands returned to the Commodore Ballroom stage in Vancouver on June 2, 2023 for the first time since 2018. This was the 18th battle since its inception, and this year the event raised the most money it ever has for the CBA(BC) Benevolent Society. Hosts Derek Brindle, K.C., and Terry La Liberté, K.C., were accompanied by Stephanie Hacksel of the sponsor, Hunter West Legal Recruitment, in presenting no fewer than seven bands determined to enthrall a sell-out crowd of 1,500 to cover songs ranging from ABBA to Rage Against the Machine. Ms. Hacksel presented the award for top fundraiser to Actus Lex Machina (which loosely translates as “the act of the law machine” but is not a complete defence to a regulatory complaint), and the award for top legal sponsor went to Bennett Jones LLP.

In order of performance the bands were Standard of Hair, Still Living at Home, Crown Jewels, Actus Lex Machina, The Twenty-Seven Club, SHAG the Band, and House Arrest. The panel of judges included the Honourable Lynn Smith, the Honourable Jon Sigurdson, Paul Seale, Jonathan Meadows and Michael Bain, K.C., who each used entirely different criteria for ranking the bands in order. After some complex arithmetic involving the addition of single digit numbers (it was a long night, and Sigurdson had downed at least three Diet Cokes … with lemon!), third place was awarded to SHAG the Band (Gillian McLennan, vocals; David Joyce, vocals and guitar; Kurt Mang, lead guitar and backing vocals; Jonathan Wai, guitar; Georgialee Lang , backing vocals; Mike Meitner, bass guitar; Paul LeBlanc , keyboards; Casey Carmody, drums). Second place went to long-time stalwarts, House Arrest (David Hay, K.C., vocals; Dan Burnett, saxophone; Shabaz Khan, bass guitar; Chiko Misomali, drums; Jonathan Monk, guitar; David St. Pierre, guitar and vocals; Tilden Webb, keyboards).

First place once again went to the first-ever winners of the battle back in 2002 (and a winner many times since then), Still Living at Home (Howard Mickelson, K.C. , vocals, keyboards; Chris Ainscough, bass guitar and vocals; Les Toth, guitar; Mark Slay, drums, shaker and mark tree; John Logan, K.C., drums, vocals and congas). Mickelson (once described as “the Max Verstappen of showbiz”) commented that he is “getting too old for this shit” but by that time of the evening, few were left to hear his grumbling and those who were there do not remember the witticism.

Other key sponsors of the event were North Shore Law, JML, Koffman Kalef LLP, McCarthy Tétrault, Synergy Business Lawyers, Singleton Reynolds, ALF, Thorsteinssons LLP, Madaisky Pollock, Lawson Lundell LLP, Veritext, 123Dentist, Harbourside Oral & Facial Surgical Centre and Clark Woods LLP. The volunteer band members and event organizers, including the incredible Alex Fane (of the group Standard of Hair), did a tremendous job of creating the sold-out event and supporting a very worthy cause! Huge thanks to everyone involved.

The scenario in Hricko v. State of Maryland, No. 255 September Term, 1999 (2000) resembled, the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland noted, “[a]s with ‘The Murder of Gonzago’ in Hamlet or ‘Pyramis and Thisbe’ in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, … a play within a play”. In the case of Hricko, it was one where the husband was allegedly “lured to the scene of his fatal poisoning by the reconciliatory promise of a romantic St. Valentine’s weekend at the Harbourtowne Resort in St. Michael’s. A highlight of the getaway weekend was a dinner-theater murder mystery which the dinner guests were invited to solve. That play within a play was called ‘The Bride Who Cried.’ Our real-life drama may well be called ‘The Widow Who Lied.’”

The B.C. Supreme Court welcomed the appointment of Justice Bradford F. Smith, K.C., of Kamloops. Justice Smith replaces Justice S. Dev Dley, who elected supernumerary status on November 1, 2021.

The “play within a play” from Act V, Scene I, Pyramus and Thisbe, was performed by The Beatles on April 28, 1964 at Wembley Park Studios. The performance, before a live audience, was part of a television special titled Around The Beatles and the Shakespeare performance was included to recognize Shakespeare’s 400th birthday. Paul McCartney appeared as Pyramus. John Lennon played his love interest, Thisbe. George Harrison portrayed Moonshine (somewhat irritably as he was heckled) and Ringo Starr made a convincingly dangerous Lion.

Karen R. A. Ameyaw, Yasin S. Amlani, Christine H. Arnold, Janice L. Thomas and Robert V. Wickett, K.C., were all appointed as members of the Property Assessment Appeal Board for three-year terms.

In Commonwealth v. Deberry, 57 Mass. App. Ct. 93 (2003), a case where the defendant had punched a hole in a wall, the principal issue on appeal involved valuing the damaged property. If it was worth more than $250, a conviction could be obtained for the felony offence of malicious destruction of property. In analyzing this issue, the court concluded that, given the indivisible nature of the wall vis-à-vis the whole structure, the value of the structure as a whole should be considered. The court commented: The formulaic analysis in this case has, of necessity, focused on the characteristics of, and the valuation of, a wall within a legal framework in order to resolve a controlling issue of whether the criminal conduct at issue (the malicious destruction of a wall as the predicate property) crossed the felony threshold. We do not leave the topic of “wall,” however, without noting, in passing, that, in a wholly different genre, a more abstract analysis—marked by much less serious import—has been undertaken in consideration of the characteristics of “wall.” In the latter genre, a wall—even if staged as an important thing, essential to the unfolding drama—is not, it would seem, easily replicated in any freestanding, foundational manner—a consideration that reflects (for stage production, at least) the inherent impracticality of trying to value wall qua wall.

SNOUT: “You can never bring in a wall. What say you, Bottom?”

BOTTOM: “Some man or other must present Wall; and let him have some plaster, or some loam, or some rough-cast about him, to signify wall; or let him hold his fingers thus, and through that cranny shall Pyramus and Thisby whisper.”

Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 3, Scene 1.

In conjunction with the three levels of court in British Columbia, the Justice Education Society over the last year has redeveloped and relaunched its self-help online resources for each court (<courtofappealbc.ca>; <supremecourtbc.ca>; <smallclaimsbc.ca>; <courtsofbc.ca>). JES’s efforts were acknowledged by Chief Justice Bauman in the 2022 Annual Report of the Court of Appeal for British Columbia.

Peeter Wesik was reappointed to the board of directors of the Royal British Columbia Museum for a term ending July 31, 2024.

The Fairy Creek watershed on Vancouver Island has been the focus of various protest and enforcement activities that have in turn been the subject of many court hearings.

There are three lakes named Fairy Lake in British Columbia.

“Chandler wobble” is not a descriptive for one of the characters on the show Friends , nor does it refer to one of the principals at Chandler Fogden Lyman. It is, rather, the name given to a small, irregular movement of Earth’s geographical poles across the surface of the globe. The normal amplitude of the Chandler wobble is about three to four metres at Earth’s surface; however, from 2017 to 2020 it disappeared altogether. Since 2020, however, the wobble has reappeared, and as a result Earth has started to rotate more quickly. On June 29, 2022 the shortest day ever recorded (since the invention of the atomic clock in the 1960s) occurred: 1.59 milliseconds less than 24 hours. In general, Earth’s rotation is slowing down at a rate of a couple of milliseconds per century, but thanks to the Chandler wobble, it speeds up every now and then.

Felix Mendelssohn’s often-played “Wedding March” is from his suite of incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He died at age 38, in 1847, five years after this piece was written. He died within months of his older sister Fanny, also a composer.

George Balanchine’s two-act A Midsummer Night’s Dream ballet, set to Felix Mendelssohn’s music, was first performed in 1962.

Man Lin Chang and Dawn A. Wattie were reappointed to the Employment and Assistance Appeal Tribunal for a four-year term ending April 30, 2027.

Asked the Court of Appeals for the State of New Mexico, “So what happens if—sometimes by a plaintiff’s own doing, as happened here—the invocation of federal jurisdiction is successfully withdrawn, the case ends up solely in state district court, and the defendants raise a statute of limitations argument? Which claims are timely, and against whom? To paraphrase the Bard, the course of litigation in such cases ‘never [does] run smooth[.]’ William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, act 1, sc. 11 1. 12 {14}”: Williams v. Mann (No. 34,1805) (2016).

Barbara Carmichael, K.C., Peter Juk, K.C., Colleen Spier, K.C., and Taryn

A. Walsh were all appointed as members of the Justice and Public Safety Council. Barbara Carmichael was also designated as chair of that council.

If you are a car buff, rejoice because July 2023 has been proclaimed Automotive Heritage Month. After all, there are many among us who hope to see automotive heritage as only a risky historical anomaly.

Maureen E. Baird, K.C., was appointed as acting chair of the Safety Standards Appeal Board for a term ending November 26, 2023.

In West v. Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc. (No. 14-2168) (2015), a case that fits the Bench and Bar theme for the second issue in a row, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit included among the poets who have remarked on the “beauty of flight” William Shakespeare, referring to his words “My soul is in the sky” from A Midsummer Night’s Dream act 5, sc. 1. The court also quoted Igor Sikorsky: “The helicopter approaches closer than any other (vehicle) to fulfillment of mankind’s ancient dream of the flying horse and the magic carpet.’ ”

After something of a delay, in early May 2023 the Attorney General of British Columbia announced the first new King’s Counsel list in British Columbia in 73 years. The worthy recipients are William McLachlan, Simon Buck, Cameron Belsher, Shafik Bhalloo, Rosanne Kyle, Brendan McCabe, Michael Libby, Joseph McArthur, Mark Underhill, Amy Mortimore, Stacey Ederza Fox, John Gareth Morley, Mark Gervin, Marko Vesely, Li-Jeen Broshko, Cristen Gleeson, Peter Lawless, Sarah Westwood, Louise Jane Kenworthy, Karen Snowshoe, Brent Olthuis, Katrina Harry, Grace Pastine, Micah Rankin, Elin Sigurdson, Zara Suleman, Clare Jennings, Colleen Spier and Peter Senkpiel

The cast of the 1968 film version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream included Ian Holm as Puck, Diana Rigg as Helena, Helen Mirren as Hermia, Ian Richardson as Oberon and Judi Dench as Titania.

Merle Oberon was the stage name of Estelle O’Brien Merle Thompson, a glamorous actress of partly South Asian descent.

Amanda R. Baron was appointed to the board of directors of the Vancouver Foundation for a three-year term ending April 3, 2026.

Oluwatobi Olaoluwa Abisoye was appointed as a lay councillor to the council of the Applied Science Technologists and Technicians of British Columbia for a term ending May 17, 2024.

“[E]quity does not light up as a neon tooth fairy to blind the law to the valid exercise of creditor’s rights”: 59459 Manitoba Ltd. v. Keller , 1993 CanLII 15004 (MBQB).

In The Juryman’s Tale (Bloomsbury, 2000), journalist Trevor Grove wrote of his experience on a jury after a months-long kidnapping related trial: For week after week we had been guided and misguided through a forest of bizarre criminal intrigue. … Our credulity was alternatively appealed to and abused. Then, after four months of this, we had been abruptly abandoned and ordered to resolve our confusions as best we could on our own. We were like the befuddled lovers in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, after Puck had scrambled their wits and left them sleeping on the forest floor. The judge’s summing up was supposed to provide signposts towards the truth, which it did; but those that might have been of most use were subtly camouflaged in the legal undergrowth … Yet somehow we had found a road through the woods.

Wayne N. Plenert was reappointed as a director of the board of the Northern Development Initiative Trust for a term ending May 1, 2026.

After being unceremoniously turfed from its historical place of trade in the Vancouver Law Courts, the Law Courts Inn has arisen to live again. Debuting its new space at Charest Reporting (600-885 West Georgia St.), the Inn held its (nearly) annual trivia night on April 27, 2023. Taking home top prize among the 24 teams competing was “You’re on Your Own Kids”, the team from Roper Greyell captained by Jaime H. Hoopes, with a score of 49/50. Sharing second place were “Bro, do you even Triv?” (Webster Hudson & Coombe) and the “Ruthless Bader Ginsbergs” (Kornfeld LLP). The Inn is the “home for the bench and bar” with a purpose to provide a space for fostering and promoting understanding and the exchange of ideas among members of the legal profession.

U.S. District Judge Bumb, of the District Court for the District of New Jersey, Camden Vicinage, opened a decision regarding a suit under the Copyright Act regarding the printing and distribution of sheet music with the words: “I never heard so musical a discord”, quoting from A Midsummer Night’s Dream act 4, sc. 1: Music Sales Limited v. Charles DuMont & Son, Inc., 800 F.Supp. 2d 653 (2009).

“The Bank after they acquired the freehold may have been, as they claimed in evidence, indifferent as to who the persons were to whom they looked for payment of the rent. They may have been content with an airy nothing, so long as it was given a local habitation and a name”: Eng Chuan & Company v. Four Seasons Communications Bank Limited (1982) (UKPC), per Lord Diplock, citing Midsummer Night’s Dream Act V, sc. 1.

Brenda L. Edwards was reappointed as a member, and appointed chairperson, of the British Columbia Review Board for a term of three years.

Denese C. Espeut-Post Post, Glen J. Johnson and Manpreet K. Mand were all appointed as members of the Mental Health Review Board, each for a term ending June 21, 2026.

The opera A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with music by Benjamin Britten, was first performed in 1960.

Puck—as noted above, a mischievous fairy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is also known as Robin Goodfellow.

In a case about a tragic accident during the hoisting of cargo onto a ship, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania noted the ship’s “poetical and melodious name”, “Robin Goodfellow”: Dunn v. Atlantic Refining Company, 391 Pa. 65 (1958).

Thought du mois:

The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was.

(Bottom, Act 4, Scene 1)

William Shakespeare, playwright (1564–1616)