"Free Blackie!" It all starts here Law Society of Manitoba!

"Friend to those who have no friend ..... enemy of those who make him an enemy - that's Blackie!"

Good Day Readers:

Through vaious innovative means we'll be championing Blackie's cause. We've already started by making an easily missed but significant change. Since CyberSmokeBlog came online (March 2006) it's byline has been, "It all continues here David!" a reference to Manitoba Metis Federation President David Chartrand. To explain.

Terry Belhumeur founded www.manitobametisfederation.com during the summer of 2000. It seems the MMF had made the rookie mistake of failing to register that name with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). In what was then termed "cybersquatting" Mr. Belhumeur paid approximately $50 to acquire the naming rights to www.mmf.com as he'd also done with 5-other Aboriginal sites subsequently choosing the, "It all starts here David!" byline. Mr. Belhumeur went on to display the Federation's logo but was threatened with legal action by MMF lawyer Murray Trachtenberg if he did not immediately remove it which he did.

www.ptlaw.mb.ca; mtrachtenberg@ptlaw.mb.ca

Once the site had reached approximately 3,000-4,000 visitors, Mr. Trachtenberg then filed a 107-page 23-tab formal complaint (Wonder what that cost taxpayers?) with ICANN signed April 18, 2001 by current MMF Executive Director Donald Rouletter. Not surprisingly Mr. Belhumeur lost. He could have appealed the decision to the Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench but that would have entailed legal costs which he wasn't preparied to incurr. It's interesting to note at the time had he done so it would have made Canadian legal history. No one had court challenged an ICANN ruling. Thus CyberSmokeSignals was born and the, "It all starts here David!" byline lived on.

On March 31, 2005 the MMF filed a lawsuit against CSS.com. In late February of 2006 after failing in an attempt to purchase the registration rights to CyberSmokeSignals Mr. Belhumeur arbitrarily and unilaterally changed the Password and Username thereby denying us access. Our lawyer at the time, Mr. Jeff Niederhoffer, then encouraged and with his technical expertise helped establish CyberSmokeBlog as you know it today. Thus "It all continues here David!" was born.

Fast forward to the present. A lawyer whom we know to be of high integrity and ethics,Blackie, is facing multiple complaints of misconduct launched by a Winnipeg attorney "Mr. Y" ("Mr. Y What a guy!") and his accomplance who has also filed a separate complaint. Organization ZZZ is also mentioned in the Law Society of Manitoba Citation which we recently published because no LSM or Queen's Bench publication ban exists. Further, under the terms of The Legal Profession Act [Section 79(1)] the name of an accused cannot be identified until a disciplinary hearing has taken place and a decision rendered. Therefore we chosen Blackie based on Jack Boyle's famous character of the 1920s-1950s Boston Blackie (books, radio, movies, television) a highly successful safecracker and jewel thief who "graduated" to become a detective.

If you can believe this the actual initals of those involved and that of the organization were used in the Citation. As a further precaution we changed them to Mr. X, Mr. Y and organizaiton ZZZ. As part of our publicity campaign we decided it was appropriate and time to change our byline to, "Free Blackie! It all starts here Law Society of Manitoba."

Blackie is a former LSM member who left a few years ago to practice criminal defence law in another province which he does to this day. He has filed a Motion to have the Law Society lawyer appointed to prosecute him (David M. Skwark - FillmoreRiley; dskwark@fillmoreriley.com) resuse himself on the grounds a few years ago both he and Blackie were on oppsite sides of an alleged employment sexual harassment case. At one point, athough never realized, Mr. Skwark threatened Blackie with a defamation lawsuit which Blackie will argue constitutes a conflict of interest. Both sides have agreed Winnipeg lawyer Grant Mitchell (Taylor & McCaffery) will hear the Motion arguments.

On February 8th there will be a conference call involving the Law Society's Disciplinary Committee and Blackie. It is our understanding Blackie will confirm he has received the Law Society's opposing Motion Brief and a date will then be set for the formal Hearing of his Motion. CyberSmokeBlog will be there covering the meeting although it's expected to be rather short much like the two previous ones we've attended and reported upon.

In the near future we'll begin rolling out our "Free Blackie!" campaign. Please stay tuned it should be interesting.

Sincerely/Clare L. Pieuk