James Harbic "Defender of Rights & Liberties"

In 1990 prominent Ottawa lawyer James Harbic was invited to address a Law Symposium at the University of Ottawa. Among those who attended was the then Chief Justice of Canada Antonio Lamer, who would play a pivotal role in breathing life into the new Charter of Right and Freedoms.

 

He told the gathered jurists that "….the most important achievement of humanity was the development of the ideals of human rights, civil liberties, and the principle of equality". [1]

 

James' passion for defending our rights evolved naturally. He was born only 17 months after Canadian lawyer John Peters Humphrey helped draft the "United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights". Harbic was raised during the cold war era when government prosecutorial excesses, such as the American McCarthy Inquiries destroyed many innocent lives. Harbic was inspired by the struggles of the Civil Rights movement in the United States.

 

His father was a university chemistry professor while his mother stayed home and raised James and his sister Patricia as well as his two younger brothers Robert and Peter. James early formal education was uneventful. He attended Ridgmont High School in Alta Vista, a suburb in Ottawa where he played defensive end on the varsity football team and was a member of the School Debating Society. [2]

 

Perhaps a defining moment happened when James was disciplined for coming to the defence of a fellow student who was being humiliated for a deformity. Three years later upon his graduation, his English teacher paraphrased Paul Simon and wrote in the school year book: "In the clearing stands a boxer... and his name is James Harbic". [3]

 

From a young age, he enjoyed reading about Hyperides, Demosthenes, Cicero, Saint Ivo Helory of Kermartin, Sir Thomas More, Daniel Webster, Abraham Lincoln, Clarence Darrow and Gandhi. As a student James followed with sympathy Mandela's fights against apartheid in South Africa. His interest in human rights and civil liberties continued throughout the sixties. As the Ottawa Correspondent for the Whitehorse Daily Star, he interviewed John Diefenbaker whose government enacted the first Canadian Bill of Rights. [4]

 

As the youngest member ever of the Parliamentary Press Gallery, he witnessed the brilliant speech of Arthur Maloney in the House of Commons advocating the abolition of the death penalty. He also covered the convention that elected Pierre Trudeau as leader of the federal liberals whose government would initiate the legislation that finally abolished the death penalty in Canada and amended the Canadian Constitution to include a Charter of Rights and Freedoms. [5]

 

As a university student activist James was instrumental in establishing Leblanc Hall Student Day Care Center which was the first facility that enabled mothers to continue their studies while their children were properly cared for. [6]

 

While attending the University of Ottawa, he experienced the suspension of civil liberties first hand. Soldiers arrested suspects at the bilingual campus pursuant to the declaration of the War Measure's Act which was the government's response to the FLQ Crisis. This tyrannical action motivated him along with 21 fellow students, to campaign for equal educational rights for Ontario francophones at "The New Wave" Tory Convention in 1971 which elected William Davis. [7]

 

It was a very nervous James Harbic, who addressed the thousands of delegates in Maple Leaf Gardens and millions of Canadians on National TV. Earlier that day his life, and those of his fellow volunteer students had been threatened. The reports by a Toronto radio station suggested the threats were made by anti-French bigots. The threats were taken seriously as four O.P.P. Officers were assigned to protect them. The theme of his speech was the importance of respecting the educational rights of francophones so that they would have the same opportunities as Anglophones enjoy in Quebec. [8]

 

The delegates responded with a standing ovation. More importantly, he was approached by the new leader William Davis, who assured him: "that you are right.... some day francophones will share equal educational rights in this province" In 1984, shortly before he retired as Premier of Ontario, Mr. Davis "startled" the province by initiating legislation that finally provided equal educational rights for francophones. [9]

 

James studied at the Universities of Ottawa, Saskatchewan, and Dalhousie. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts in 1972 a Juris Doctor in 1976 and a Barrister at Law Degree in 1978. His academic honours include being named to the "Dean's Honours' List" and graduating "Cum Laude". He was called to the Bar of Ontario on April 19th, 1978, and subsequently was certified by the Law Society as a specialist in criminal law. Although there are thousands of lawyers in Ottawa and Eastern Ontario, James Harbic is one of only 17 who are certified as "Specialists in Criminal Law by the Law Society of Upper Canada."

 

Upon completion of his formal education James traveled extensively across North America as well as to Europe. The "United Nations Year of the Child" was in 1979. In recognition of this initiative the Official Guardian of Ontario established a program to provide children who were involved in litigation with legal counsel to protect their rights. One of the first lawyers appointed to the child representation panel was James Harbic.

 

In 1981 James showed his determination where he ran in the National Capital Marathon in a respectful official time of 3 hours fifty-eight minutes and fifty-six seconds. He was married to Claire in 1982 and fathered two sons, Robert who has joined him in the practice of law and John, who after graduating from Trent University, obtained employment and continues to be employed in film production.

 

He has been a sessional lecturer on substantive criminal law, evidence, advocacy, ethics and criminal procedures at the Faculty of Law University of Ottawa, Carleton University, Algonquin College as well as lecturing to police cadets and to candidates to the Ontario Bar Program. He has also sat on continuing education panels dealing with Human Rights and Civil Liberties issues.

 

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms became part of the Constitution on April 17th, 1982. The following year James successfully pleaded one of the first "Charter" based constitutional Appellate challenges to federal legislation.

 

The case became a landmark decision in which the Ontario Court of Appeal declared that the "Charter" recognized that Canadians had constitutional rights that the courts would give effect to. [10] The legacy of "Charter" case law that has followed has been applied throughout the world and has earned for Canada an international reputation for human rights and civil liberties jurisprudence. [11]

 

James' judicial demeanor of a humane but skillful trial lawyer has brought him considerable success, especially with jurors. In 1987 an Ottawa court room broke out in cheers when a 12 person jury returned a not guilty verdict in a brutal rape case where Harbic's cross examination revealed that the complainant had lied to deflect the anger of her husband. [12]

 

In 1989 James represented a politician who was charged with defrauding the Federal PIP (Petroleum Incentive Program), a case that was featured on CBC-TV "Fifth Estate" and involved millions of dollars being spent on drilling for oil on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. [13]

 

The seasoned lawyer ensured the freedom of an aboriginal woman who was charged with attempted murder for stabbing her abusive husband with a knife. He carefully presented evidence that underlined a history of physical and emotional abuse, abject poverty parental neglect as well as alcoholism. In imposing a non-custodial sentence, Mr. Justice James Fontana of the Ontario Court accepted James Harbic's argument that the hardships that our first nation people experience must be acknowledged by the Courts. This decision predated both the battered women syndrome defence as well as the Gladue principles of providing sensitivity to cases involving aboriginal Canadians. [14]

 

By effectively cross examining a manipulative ex-wife Harbic was able to convince the court that his client was not guilty of sexually assaulting his daughter. [15]

 

In 1990 James successfully used the "Marijuana is for the Iguana defence." When the police found a basement in Renfrew County full of home grown cannabis, his client told them that the dry leafy substance was not for the purposes of trafficking to other humans but for her pet iguana to eat. The officer dutifully recorded her statement and charged her with possession for the purposes. At a pre-trial Harbic was able to convince the Crown and the Court that there was a reasonable doubt as to what the purpose of the "prohibited substance" was for and his client plead to a far less serious charge of simple possession. Instead of going to jail his client was fined. The case received international attention and was featured on the NBC-TV "Current Affairs" and the "National Examiner". [16]

 

James Harbic's ' first book, "Profiles in Nobility", identifies the framers of Canadian values of human rights and equality. It was published in 1992 and was distributed throughout Canada [17], and described as a "noteworthy idea" by critics.

 

Harbic, in 1989, skillfully used police officer's notes to contradict a deceptive complainant in cross-examination and in so doing secured an acquittal for a man charged with a brutal attempted murder. [18]

 

In 1991 James successfully defended a police officer who was acquitted of obstruction of justice. Harbic was able to convince Mr. Justice Hugh Poulin of the Ontario Court (General Division) that the police officer lacked the necessary criminal intent. [19]

 

In 1994, during a break in a conference at the University of British Columbia on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, James skied Blackcomb and Whistler mountains which in 2010 hosted the world Olympics. In 1998, during the Centennial of The Klondike Gold Rush, he paddled down the Yukon River between Bonanza Creek and Forty Mile with his eldest son Robert.

 

The following year James traveled to Washington DC with his youngest son, John, and visited the Supreme Court of the United States, as well as the Abraham Lincoln Memorial, built in Honour of the “Great Emancipator”.

 

On July 14th, 2000, James won the first acquittal on a double murder case in the new millennium, when his client was found not guilty after a seven month long trial in Perth, Ontario. [20]

 

In 2004, Staff-Sgt. Lengacher, on behalf of the Ottawa Police Force, promised "to learn from its mistakes" after The Superior Court of Ontario, accepted the submissions of Defence Counsel James Harbic, and ruled that the method employed by the police to obtain a confession from his client was an "oppressive tactic that breached the constitutional rights of a man accused of murder "and was therefore involuntary and inadmissible.” [21]