The holiday fades but not the clang !

I have re-adjusted to the daily routine. Holiday mode, now a distant memory! Two weeks ago I was making my packing list. Today, I barely remember being away.

As an appetizer of what lies ahead for the remaining summer months and fall, I ended the weekend with a visit to the provincial jail, Headingly Correctional Centre (HCC).

The eerie sound of the prison door clanging is a sound I first heard many years ago when I started practicing law. Since my call to the Bar there have been many changes in law and in my practice but the "clang" has not changed. It is a sound you never forget!

The appetizer - a visit to an in-custody accused awaiting trial. A taste of the force of law. Most are unlikely to get a taste of criminal law. Most never hear the clang.

My hearing of the "clang”, being locked in and walking away freely after an hour is a privilege; a reminder of the opportunities afforded to me as a member of the legal profession and the responsibilities that come along with those opportunities and privileges.

HCC might not house the rich and famous like Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK) who spent a number of days at Riker's Island in New York after being hauled off an Air France flight following a complaint of sexual assault on a hotel maid. Nevertheless, the DSK matter is a good reminder that we should never pre-judge or judge any case based on argumentum ad hominem or by reason that an individual is in pre-trial detention before the evidence is complete.

There may never be a day in Winnipeg where a DSK-like individual is arrested and detained at HCC, but like DSK, those at HCC are presumed innocent until convicted, and my job is no different than if I were defending DSK.