Keywords Lawyers, Judges, Criminals

On the other side are lawyers who criticize McLellan for not adding a third woman to the nine-judge court, not choosing a sitting judge or not picking a lawyer with broader trial experience than Binnie, who, for the most part, has acted for corporations and the federal government. Last month, he represented Dow Chemical in a dispute with an Indian band over 1,000 hectares of land in downtown Sarnia. The judge reserved his decision.

Binnie's supporters were quick to applaud his appointment to the $189,000-a-year post (he will be sworn in on Feb. 2). "He's very well-qualified, very shy, not at all forward and pushy like me," said Toronto trial lawyer Ian Outerbridge. Earl Cherniak, who divides his practice between Toronto and London, Ont., and opposed Binnie in the Sarnia case, described his frequent courtroom adversary as "a first-class lawyer, first-class mind and a first-class person." Defence counsel Silas Halyk of Saskatoon said he had no opinion one way or the other about Binnie. However, he added, "not enough people with criminal law experience are named to the appellate courts."

Critics of the appointment, facing the prospect of one day arguing a case before Binnie, requested anonymity. "He's very bright, he's very good but there is a horrible imbalance of women on the court," said one. "There's something funny going on - there's no Jews, only two women, right? - because the profession is full of great, competent Jews and women." Said another: "He's never acted for the little guy, so I don't think he understands the problems of the little people."

The controversy recalled the conflict generated last October when McLellan named New Brunswick appellate Judge Michel Bastarache to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Gerard La Forest - a fellow New Brunswicker. That flouted the tradition of rotating appointments among the Atlantic Provinces. And McLellan also miffed Newfoundland, which has yet to have a representative on the high court.

The day after her announcement, Binnie was in a reflective mood. Following the phone call, he said, "I had a sense of shock when I realized I was leaving a practice I was very fond of." As for what lay ahead, he said: "The Supreme Court is more significant now than it has ever been, and the work it does happens to be the kind that interests me. I've done a lot of constitutional work, charter cases and so on, and it's going to be nice to look at the scene from the other side of the bench."

Reminded that his income was about to shrink substantially, he said: "Well, that's right, but that's neither here nor there so long as your children are old enough that you're not going to compromise their education." He and his wife, Susan, have four: Daniel, 29, an aspiring writer, currently "doing his own thing in India"; Matthew, 27, a physician; Alexandra, 22, a Rhodes Scholar now at Oxford University where she is pursuing a doctorate in immunology; and Mackenzie, 17, completing high school.

In what little spare time he has had, Binnie said, "I have become an avid gardener, I sail a boat - a 21-foot Shark - on Lake Ontario, I play squash and ski, the usual kind of things." Pushed to pick a favorite activity, he said: "We have a place northeast of Toronto where we've got a great rose garden and I spend a lot of time fussing around." The boat, the squash and the skis can easily make the trip to Ottawa. But the rose garden may become a memory.

Maclean's

January 19, 1998

Author RAE CORELLI