Anyone who cares about the poor should be mourning the death of Dugald Christie. The 65-year-old legal crusader died when he was struck by a motorist while cycling to Ottawa on one of his summer pilgrimages for justice. He was killed near Sault St. Marie, according to CBC.

In 1998, the Straight reported that Christie, a nonpractising lawyer at the time, had burned his legal robes while standing on the steps of the Supreme Court of Canada. It was part of a protest against a decision by Federal Court Justice Francis Muldoon. On another occasion, Christie told the Straight that he thought the courts had a "callous disregard" for the disabled.

Christie had resigned from the profession after Muldoon had described his client, former Vancouver longshoreman Buddy Lee, as a “misfit”. Christie and Lee later led a “misfits walk for justice” to the Parliament buildings in Victoria.

In July, 1998, Christie told the Straight that he decided to cycle to Ottawa after the Law Society of B.C. refused to support a dues increase of $100 per member lawyer to fund a free legal-aid program that he had created in Vancouver.

“If lawyers do not have one cent in every $10 to pay for the poor, I think there's something radically wrong,” Christie said a few days before he took off on his journey.

Christie eventually persuaded 200 lawyers to donate time for pro bono work. But he failed in his attempts to get B.C. Supreme Court Rule 18A thrown out.

This rule allows summary trials based on affidavit evidence, and gives a judge the right to refuse a litigant a jury trial based on an application from one party in a dispute. Christie said that he felt this court rule, created by judges and lawyers, violated the Magna Carta. It certainly gives large companies the opportunity to keep citizens out of court and judging their actions.

More recently, Christie successfully challenged the B.C. government's decision to impose provincial sales taxes on legal bills. This year, he won a second time in the B.C. Court of Appeal after the government tried to overturn the ruling.

Here are various court rulings in connection with Christie's constitutional challenge against the provincial sales tax on legal services: http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb-txt/ca/06/01/2006bcca0120.htm

http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb-txt/ca/06/00/2006bcca0059.htm

 http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb-txt/ca/06/02/2006bcca0241.htm

The Straight published several stories about Christie, including one that appeared in the June 22-29, 1998 issue. If you want to see how Christie called things as he saw them, read the following article:

A veteran Vancouver lawyer has resigned as a practising lawyer and sold his practice because the Supreme Court of Canada refused to grant leave to appeal a decision that labelled a disabled client a “misfit”.

Dugald Christie wrote a surprising letter of resignation to the Law Society of B.C. on November 26 saying that he has decided to work for free for the poor, particularly for the disabled.

Christie, 57, now spends much of his time volunteering at the Salvation Army's storefront office on Fraser Street near Kingsway.

“It is not just the words of this particular Judgment that give offence but the attitude of the vast majority of lawyers and judges which I find has changed since the days when I took my oath of allegiance to the Court in 1967,” Christie wrote in his letter to the law society. “It is only the exceptional lawyer who will help the really poor (and by that I do not mean the ordinary client who runs out of money). Most judges...insist on a written process that is beyond the pocket or patience of the disabled.”

For the past 12 years, Christie has spent two hours every second Thursday afternoon providing free legal advice to the poor at the Salvation Army's office.

Christie told the Georgia Straight that one of his current goals is to set up a pro bono program on the Sally Ann's premises so other lawyers can come and offer free legal advice to the poor.

He said one way to get lawyers to do more free work is to offer them a location outside of their office, so the pro bono clients won't call them at the office and take up time that could be used for paying clients. He also said he hopes to attract funding to conduct research on court delays, with the goal of increasing access to justice for the poor.

Christie emphasized that he didn't resign as a practising lawyer to become a martyr but because he disliked working at a time when so many costs and delays are being imposed on clients.

“I'm not just resigning to make a point,” Christie told the Straight. “I'm resigning because I can't stand it.” He claimed the courts have a “callous disregard” for the rights of the disabled and the poor, but he then pointed out that the legal profession probably isn't any different from people working in other segments of society.

As an example, he described some doctors who act as expert witnesses as “terribly greedy”, often demanding hundreds of dollars up front before they'll consent to write a report for a plaintiff in a civil lawsuit.

He also described a few lawyers and doctors as “saints” who will provide professional services even when they know there's no chance of making any money.

Christie said that what triggered him to sell his legal practice was a decision of the Federal Court of Canada in a review of the Canadian Human Rights Commission's dismissal of a complaint from former longshoreman Buddy Lee.

Lee, who suffered a brain injury as a child in a car accident, found work on the docks as an adult. In 1983, however, the B.C. Maritime Employers Association “de-registered” him for allegedly being a danger to himself and others. Lee's complaint of discrimination on the basis of a physical handicap was later dismissed by the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

“Buddy Lee is a very able guy,” Christie told the Straight, adding that Lee recently helped him move, and carried heavy boxes and delicate equipment until midnight.

Christie said that when he took the case on for free in an application for judicial review in the Federal Court of Canada, he had a report from a neurologist saying that Lee was perfectly able to do his job. However, that report was deemed inadmissible because it hadn't been entered in the original human-rights complaint before the commission.

During the judicial review, Christie relied on evidence that a BCMEA member had said he opposed having “misfits” working on the docks. To this day, Lee and Christie object to the use of the word misfit, which they say indicates prejudice.

But in his decision dismissing the appeal, Justice Francis Muldoon wrote: “ ‘Misfit' is not a happy word, but it does not show that BCMEA or the member companies were prejudiced against Buddy Lee, as alleged by counsel. It is, as the witness testified, a waterfront word, meaning not delicate about sensibilities.”

Muldoon also wrote that the word misfit was used long after Lee was deregistered, and not directly to his face. “The word is entirely descriptive without connoting criminality or immorality,” Muldoon wrote. “It relates only to the activity or skill about which it is spoken.”

Lee appealed Muldoon's decision to the Federal Court of Appeal, where Christie again represented him for free. During this appeal, Christie declared that he would resign from the law society within 30 days if the court didn't dissociate itself from Muldoon's conclusion that the word misfit was free of prejudice and accurately described Lee.

This appeal was dismissed, and then on November 13, 1997, the Supreme Court of Canada denied Lee's application for leave to appeal. “I work extensively with disabled persons and now find my position as an officer of the Supreme Court of Canada incompatible with my work,” Christie wrote in his resignation letter.

He told the Straight that he was very disturbed that Lee spent seven years pursuing his case, when he deserved a decision in far less time.

Over the years, Christie has taken an active interest in reducing trial delays. Last year, he submitted a 32-page paper to a committee that is examining this issue, headed by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Duncan Shaw.

“The great plans now under discussion for access to law (by the Shaw committee and others) are being undermined by the majority of lawyers for whom money is everything,” Christie wrote in his letter to the law society. This letter was addressed to Ben Trevino, who was the law-society treasurer until the end of last year.

In the letter, Christie praised Trevino for his position on contracting out legal work, wherein the former treasurer defended the client's right to choose his or her own lawyer.

“I understand that you did not receive the unanimous and whole hearted support your high minded and correct position deserved,” Christie wrote. Christie told the Straight his goal is that by the year 2000, B.C.'s civil-justice system will deliver judgements in all trials within a year of a writ being filed, except when it's not possible because all the evidence isn't available or if both sides give informed consent waiving a one-year rule.

Christie, secretary for the Lower Mainland Society to Assist Research of Trials, wrote in his submission to the Shaw committee that the average length of court claims, excluding divorces, is now approximately three years and 3.3 months—down from three years and 5.8 months in 1987.

But he noted that the cost of filing a writ has increased, discouraging lawsuits, so he said it's not possible to conclude that there has been any improvement in dealing with delays. He said if trial delays can be reduced to a year—as is now the practice in Quebec—and poor and disabled people gain better access to justice, he will resume his legal practice.