Motions, bails and curfews - wonder what Lori Douglas is doing at the courthouse?

Sympathy is in short supply for Robert Dewar

March 4, 2011/Page A4

There will never be a Law & Order:Criminal Motions and Bails. You don't make a legal reputation sorting through paperwork. Motions and bails are the plodding necessities of the legal system, a few of the thousands of small cogs necessary for the wheels of justice to slowly grind forward.

That's where Justice Robert Dewar found himself Thursday morning, perched behind an elebvated desk in Courtroom 401. A battery of lawyers joined him, taking turns presenting curfew adjustments and bail requirements. Learned friends, as lawyers quaintly refer to each other in court, chatted with other learned friends, everyone cordial, amiable and professional.

Cordial, that is, when Dewar was in the courtroom. When he wasn't, a handful of learned friends buzzed like hornets, whispering sotto voce they were glad their clients weren't sex offenders, nudge, nudge. One young attorney assured a colleague she "wasn't a feminist but ..."

No one knew just how bad Robert Dewar's day was about to get.

Courtroom 401 might have seemed a safe harbour for a judge whose character and honour are being questioned after comments he made in sentencing a rapist last month. In truth, there may be no such secure place left for a judge with his fallen reputation.

Dewar suggested the victim's clothing and "flirtatious behaviour" were factors in letting the guilty man off with a conditional sentence. He called the criminal a "clumsy Don Juan" and commented that "sex was in the air" the night the rape occurred.

The splatter from his remarks was felt across the country. In short order, Dewar has "agreed" he will no longer be hearing sexual assault cases pending the Canadian Judicial Council's review into complaints about his contuct.

And on Thursday afternoon, the Canadian Judicial Council stepped forward to state what was plain as day.

"Canadians rightly expect that those who serve as judges have the legal skills, competence and temperment suited to the difficult task of deciding criminal and civil disputes," they wrote.

If this were a football game, the sympathetic would be looking for a piling-on penalty. But sympathy is in short supply for Robert Dewar.

All this is scene-setting before Thursday afternoon, when Dewar was pulled from a soon-to-start manslaughter trial. No reason was given although the case is not related to a sexual-assault charge. Will the jury look at him differently? Will an appeal be inevitable simply becaue he's the judge? Can the genie ever be put back in the bottle?

We hold judges to a higher standard. That's an obligation they accept when they join the ranks of the honoured. When your decisions affect lives, there are no small mistakes. The bar truly is higher.

There will never be a Law & Order Criminal Motions and Bails. You don't make a legal reputation sorting through paperwork. But if Robert Dewar is lucky, they'll let him continue doing that and that alone until he can quietly retire. If he's not lucky, he'll be shown the door.

You must remember that, in this judge's view of justice, a fair sentence must consider whether the victim seemed to be asking for it. Robert Dewar is no victim. But if he's handed a harsh professional sentence, will he realize that he, too, was asking for it.

lindor.reynolds@freepress.mb.ca