Does Your Lawyer have a Criminal Record? That’s possible in Ontario, Canada.

by Donald Best, former Sergeant, Detective, Toronto Police

by Donald Best, former Sergeant, Detective, Toronto Police

Welcome to the Province of Ontario – where convicted pedophiles and proven thieves meet the ‘Good Character’ standard for licensing by the Law Society of Upper Canada.

Yet another convicted and jailed pedophile has been approved to continue as a licensed Ontario lawyer practicing in the area of ‘Family Law’.

Senior lawyer Martin Schulz will be allowed to continue to practice family law – despite being sentenced to 45 days in jail after pleading guilty to possessing child pornography. The Crown prosecutor dropped more serious charges as part of a plea bargain.

Schulz had hundreds of child sex photos and movies on his computer. Think of the ruined lives, the devastation, the pain of these little children – but the Law Society Tribunal decided about Schulz:

“We find no reasonable grounds for believing that a significant risk of harm to members of the public exists.”

September 14, 2016 Decision of Law Tribunal members Sabita Maraj, Susan T. McGrath (chair), Frederika ‘Freddy’ M. Rotter.

The tribunal found that Schulz could continue to practice family law with a restriction that he could not represent children and would not be alone with any person under the age of 18 years old.

As a spokesperson for the Law Society stated, a past criminal record – even for child sexual assault – doesn’t preclude someone from receiving a licence to practice law.

If that is the law society standard, then that is the standard. After all… lawyers alone regulate and set the standards for the legal profession.

The lesson for the Ontario public is this:

Your lawyer might have a criminal record. The Law Society won’t tell you… and you probably won’t know.

And, as was shown in the recent Toronto Star ‘Broken Trust’ investigation of the law society, your lawyer might be one of the hundreds of lawyers who in the past few years committed serious criminal offenses against their clients, but were never charged because the law society covered it up.

Law Society Tribunal members who approved licensing of pedophile Martin Schultz: (L-R) Sabita Maraj, Susan T. McGrath (chair), Frederika 'Freddy' M. Rotter.

Law Society Tribunal members who approved licensing of pedophile Martin Schultz: (L-R) Sabita Maraj, Susan T. McGrath (chair), Frederika ‘Freddy’ M. Rotter.

What are the Law Society’s senior benchers and Tribunal thinking to allow convicted pedophiles and other persons with criminal records to practice as lawyers? Have they lost touch with reality? They have certainly lost touch with Canadians.

By continuing to license persons with criminal records, and by covering up hundreds of crimes and other acts of wrongdoing by lawyers – the Law Society of Upper Canada is seriously undermining the reputation of Ontario’s legal profession.

For more, watch the above video and read these past articles at DonaldBest.CA:

Time for Independent Oversight of Canada’s legal profession

Ontario’s Law Society of Upper Canada approved & licensed known pedophile to be children’s lawyer – with predictable results.

Here is the Martin Schulz decision of the Law Society Tribunal (download pdf)

7 comments

  • I guess no one from Law Pro came on to defend themselves. Silence helps all readers to figure out on their own who is in the wrong. Who are the criminals. Very interesting story Mr. Simetic. You can be on house arrest but they cant stop you from using the internet. I hear that traffic on this website has gone up 500% and governments and lawyers alike are reading this. So now the government and those whose job it is to clean up the mess cant look the other way.

  • I heard Lawpro is owned by the LSUC. They also denied me damages with ample proof of fraud and said the dishonesty of the lawyers and the fraud is out of there jurisdiction. So why are we forced to seek help from them if they have no intention of helping? Mrs Abrecht is the 17 year investigator and claimed to be no fool after wasting 2 yrs of our life then telling me it is out of their jurisdiction. She should have her personnel accounts checked as she is obviously getting kick backs from the tens of millions the lawyers are scamming from the Ontario public. Did the Toronto star drop the broken trust series from pressure of the LSUC? I seen a letter by Norman Groot defending the LSUC from these allegations. The same lawyer I have busted on fraud! What a joke they have made out of their profession and is why new independent oversight is needed! Power has to go back to the people and create a oversight group made from victims of these lawyers. That is the only way to get trust respect and accountability back!! Same goes for RCMP and local police, put victims of these people on the board and I promise 99% will get investigated properly!

  • Norman Groot a Bay St. lawyer claims to be an expert in finding missing money from estates. Was fired from the police force did time in jail and denied reinstatement. Cost taxes payers hundreds of thousands in paid leave and labeled the ” notorious” Norman Groot. Google “Norman Groot police brutality”. Our family went to him after reading his web site because we knew several local lawyers in Windsor Ontario were hiding large sums of assets from our life savings, $300,000-$400,000 thousand. He stood me up in court and cost our family everything then I found a few hundred thousand with still more missing. This man is a joke and a repeated criminal. When I tried to press charges on him and 3 other lawyers through justice of the peace the local fraud investigator from Windsor police force (Mike AKpata) called me down to the police station to talk then through me in jail. This was 3 days before my court date to provide ample proof of fraud, since then I have been under house arrest for the last 15 months with no prior convictions and obstructed from the court house, police station and my personal charges against the 4 lawyers which got dropped as I could not make court date obstructed. Only in Windsor Ontario does the fraud victims get thrown in jail from the fraud investigators. I am still under house arrest and our family is destroyed. Ten lawyers involved all laughing and I am still obstructed from families accounts as an executor! How is this possible has our justice system become nothing but a mirage? We are good people of the community and never had trouble with the law and actually have fraud investigators busted on fraud so they throw us in jail!!!

  • A note for my readers: I see that Tribunal Chair Susan T. McGrath is also Chair of the Board of Directors for LawPRO – the insurance company that insures Ontario’s lawyers.

    I’m not a lawyer. I’m only a simple Canadian, so perhaps some far more intelligent and informed person can explain to me how it is not a Conflict of Interest for the head of the insurance company that would payout any victims’ lawsuits against lawyer Martin Schultz, to also act as a judge in his licensing and diciplinary hearing?

    Keep it simple, please, because ordinary Canadians view this as an indefensible conflict of interest and further proof that Ontario’s legal profession doesn’t even care about appearances anymore – let alone preventing actual conflicts of interest.

    I’ll be waiting for the answer, along with my readers. Perhaps someone from the Law Society of Upper Canada or the Tribunal can leave their explanation in a comment.

    Thanks!

    Donald Best

    • Have you had any response to your conflict of interest note above ?
      Keep up the good work.

    • Truth and Integrity

      Criminal conflict of Interest….it’s illegal but they get away with it as no one has the guts to stop it..all your posters on here have courage and integrity and should be judges lawyers and cops. ..not many that we see are actually deserving of being judges lawyers cops. They all need removal from their professions.

      After nearly a couple of years no one from the legal profession answered it.

    • Thank you Donald Best for outing this indefensible conflict of interest. No wonder David Simetic has received no justice and they had to shut him up for losing his cool with six charges and over two years house arrest.

      SNC Lavelin has engaged in untold bribery including with a country linked to terrorism. $48 million dollars, nearly 30 millions dollars and there are others. Cover ups upon cover ups.

      David Simetic loses his cool and we see what the courts levy against him. Do they think they will insult our intelligence. Sometimes you need to take justice into your own hands so use your brains at all the legal ways you can get justice. You would be surprised what you can do.