Cape Breton's Magazine

reputable firm, and taking an assortment of cases. I had one sort of environmental case with that firm, where we won, actually--which was the Friends of the Public Gardens case. Trying to protect the Gardens from a big con? dominium high-rise. In the end, even though we won the case, the city of Halifax repeated their procedures, which the court had found had been unfair, which was our argument. And then they went ahead and built the condo anyway. But I really felt that the bulk of my legal practice was normal law, regular law-- litigation. People with cracks in their base? ments suing the contractor. I was doing a lot of construction litigation. And a lot of work? ers' compensation. Which could come close to things I was interested in--dealing with peo? ple who were in pain, and had been hurt on the job, or people in some cases had been exposed to chemicals or whatever. But, as good as it was, as far as a way to make a living, it wasn't what I wanted to do. BRAS D'OR WIN-DOR CO. LTD. WINDOWS & DOOR SYSTEMS • PATIO DOORS (Robert 2000) • VINYL SIDING • STORM DOORS • CUSTOM SIZES "QUALITY & PRICE OUR EDGE • CUSTOMER SERVICE OUR PLEDGE' - INSTALLATION AVAILABLE - • CASEMENTS (HVY. DUTY) • SLIDERS (DELUXE) • SINGLE HUNG (TILT) • ENTRANCE SYSTEMS 159 Queen St. North Sydney, N. S. 544-1010 Main St., Reserve Mines 849-8480 So a job opportunity came up in the fall of '85, working at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, which has offices in Ottawa and Toron? to. And they were looking for someone to prac? tice law at the federal level--things like C.R.T.C. hearings on Bell Canada rates. So it was a consumer-law approach. Also working on things for the handicapped. Basically, people who could not otherwise afford a lawyer but were doing public-interest law. I should say that, after the herbicide case, one of the things I did was help found a group called the Canadian Environmental Defence Fund, to try to redress the imbalance that we had during the herbicide case, where we didn't have any way to raise money and give people tax receipts. The Environmental Defence Fund can do that now. And a lot of cases, like the Sprayers of Dioxin case in New Brunswick, are being helped by the Environmental Defence Fund. (The Fund) doesn't have a lot of money itself, doesn't have any. But it has a board of people from across the country who are ex? perts in environmental law, and people can say, "This is a case we think is precedent- setting, and we need help." And if it's ap? proved as being an important case, then con? tributions to that case can go through the En? vironmental Defence Fund. Contributors can get a tax receipt, and so on. It helps them a lot. Plus the national profile of the Environmental Defence Fund helps with press releases at the national level, and gives people advice on how to make their case known more publicly. So I was working at the Public Interest Advo? cacy Centre, mostly to do consumer law. I took that job in October of '85, moved up to Otta-wa. And at the same time I took on being co- chairman of the Fate of the Earth Conference. So, as a voltmteer, I was doing a lot of work on pulling together people from around the world, and in Canada pulling together the peace groups, development groups, and environ? ment groups, to address the problems of the planet, as they interrelate. Not just environ? ment issues all by themselves, but how they relate to development issues and so on. So that was really good, because that broad? ened my perspective on these issues as well. And I was taking cases to the federal court of Canada. And I also had a pesticide case at the Best Western gjll Clapmore ifnn " and Conference Centre ANTIGONISH, N. S. (902)863-1050 Indoor Pool / Sauna / Hot Tub / Licensed Dining Room & Lounge Keppoch Mtn. 15 Min. * Weekend Ski Packages Available 40 YEARS OF SERVICE TO CAPE BRETON - ' SifE (!ll|ilircn*0 Mh 'ocfetg af CHape lB?t0n 0| INTAKE HOME STUDIES PROTECTION FOSTER HOMES ADOPTION problem identification; referral support sen/ices; crisis inten/ention all ages, in permanent homes CHILDREN IN CARE I Suite 7, Provincial Building, 360 Prince Street, Sydney, Nova Scotia B1P 5L1 (562-5506) I SINGLE MOTHERS counselling; support |the community's responsibility is to protect our children! counselling; support O "A UNITED WAY SERVICE AGENCY"