May Pages 321-480.qxp_Layout 1 2023-04-18 9:48 AM Page 365
THE ADVOCATE
VOL. 81 PART 3 MAY 2023
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BE IT RESOLVED THAT NO ONE SHOULD BE THE JUDGE IN THEIR OWN CASE: A REVIEW By Virgil Braithwaite
A
t the Roundhouse Theatre on March 2, 2023, under the auspices of the BGuiled Debate Society, I found myself in an audience of lawyers listening to the above question being debated by three solicitors and an allegedly unregulated barrister. Their performance was being judged by the crème de la crème of the legal profession: a B.C. Supreme Court judge, an attorney general, a law journal editor, a vice president of the CBABC and a lawyer who was a former BGuiled Debate winner—now event sponsor—who looks funny. When I entered the theatre, the show was ready to go. The five judges were seated between the audience and the debaters. The irony did not escape me that those supporting the negative motion could simply rest without a word, arguing they had already won as “judges in their own case”. But there would be no fun in that. As the lights dimmed, I made my way to a front-row seat next to a young woman and two older persons whom I thought I recognized. Kaja Marinic, barrister and comedian, chaired the debate, which she promised was meant to emphasize joy and hilarity in our often dreary profession. She spoke on behalf of the committee that is responsible for this lighthearted night: herself, Michael Larsen, James Struthers, Tanya Thakur and Nazanin Khodarahmi. She introduced the teams. For the resolution stood Eli Zbar and Nazanin Khodarahmi, the “returning losers” from the 2020 BGuiled Debate. Against them on the “con” team stood Kai Benson, the lawyer allegedly unregulated by any Law Society, and Robert Biggar, a stillregulated lawyer who finds comedic debating costs less than his therapy sessions. First, Nazanin began by questioning why she was even allowed to be a debater, because she is both a solicitor and a director of the BGuiled Debate Society. Within her speech, she proposed some large-scale changes by the Law Society, including a rule wherein opposing counsel should have to text first before calling her, and that all judges should sit in swivel chairs like
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