Harry Kopyto
Encyclopedia
Hirsch Kopyto (born 1946) is a Canadian paralegal
, broadcaster and political activist.
s' camp in Ulm, West Germany
immediately following World War II
. His entire family except for his parents and a brother were killed in the Holocaust. His family moved to Israel
in 1948 before immigrating to Canada
in 1952.
, Kopyto was a high-school radical, protesting against mandatory military cadet training as well as hikes in the price of milk. “I was always a trouble-maker. I’m hopeless," Kopyto told an interviewer when looking back upon his youth.
At university, Kopyto was an anti-war activist and joined the Young Socialists
and later the League for Socialist Action and then the Socialist League
. He was also active in the New Democratic Party
and its left-wing faction, The Waffle
. He has been a member of the NDP and its predecessor, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
since 1959.
In the early 1990s, Kopyto was active in the Ontario NDP's Left Caucus in dissenting against the government of Bob Rae
for being too moderate. He authored an open letter co-signed by other party dissidents, including three NDP MPPs, opposing Rae's abandonment of left-wing policies such as public auto insurance
. Rae responded by saying "Have you ever met Harry Kopyto? I don't think I've done anything in the last 15 years that Harry Kopyto has ever agreed with. Me and about 12 million other people.
It's not news that Mr. Kopyto and his friends are critical. It's natural. What's surprising is that it's taken him 2½ years to complain about our government."
Kopyto was a member of the Alliance of Non-Zionist Jews in the 1970s and also represented the Canadian Arab Federation
in a libel action against the Globe and Mail.
and was called to the Ontario bar. He represented clients in a number of civil rights
cases including the case of John Damien, a jockey
who had been fired by the Ontario Racing Commission in 1975 for being gay. He also fought cases that affect women’s rights, prisoners’ rights, the rights of the aged and the handicapped and unions’ rights.
He represented the Gay Alliance Toward Equality before the Supreme Court of Canada
in its 1978 lawsuit against the Vancouver Sun for refusing to publish the group's advertisement.
He also initiated a series of actions that sought to establish the principle that a person is entitled to see the information on which a search warrant that affects him is based.
Following a split in the League for Socialist Action, Kopyto left with former LSA leader Ross Dowson
and other supporters to form the Socialist League
. He represented Dowson in a series of high-profile, but unsuccessful, lawsuits against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
in which the police force was accused of disrupting the LSA and defaming Dowson. Kopyto also represented several former members of the League at the McDonald Commission inquiry into the RCMP at which they alleged long-term harassment of the League by the security force.
In 1986, Kopyto was charged with a contempt of court
citation by Attorney-General
Ian Scott for "scandalizing the court" by telling the press, following a judge's decision to dismiss Dowson's case, "This decision is a mockery of justice. It stinks to high hell. It says it is okay to break the law and you are immune so long as someone above you said to do it. Mr. Dowson and I have lost faith in the judicial system to render justice. We're wondering what is the point of appealing and continuing this charade of the courts in this country which are warped in favour of protecting the police. The courts and the RCMP are sticking so close together you'd think they were put together with Krazy Glue." Kopyto faced a fine and up to six months in jail if convicted.
The case became a cause célèbre
with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association
urging Scott to drop the charge and the Law Union of Ontario
setting up a legal defence fund for Kopyto. 25 lawyers signed on as co-counsels to defend Kopyto in court against the charge.
Kopyto was convicted of the charge and was ordered to apologize or be barred from practising law in any court in the province until he does so. The Criminal Lawyers' Association intervened on Kopyto's behalf during his appeal. On November 27, 1987, the Ontario Court of Appeal
acquitted Kopyto and found that the charge against him was unconstitutional.
In 1987, Kopyto sought the NDP nomination in St. George—St. David
which would have allowed him to run against Attorney-General Ian Scott in the 1987 provincial election but he lost the nomination to John Campey.
In 1989, Kopyto was charged with professional misconduct by the Law Society of Upper Canada
for overbilling the province's legal aid
plan by $150,000 over a three-year period.
Kopyto told the press that "I admitted to guessing at the exact amount of time spent on some accounts. On some accounts, I overbilled. On some accounts, I underbilled. In the end, I've averaged out to being underpaid. If I wanted to rip people off to make money, I wouldn't have taken a Legal Aid certificate. To say you can rip off Legal Aid is ridiculous."
He told the disciplinary committee "Any inaccuracies in the bills I submitted were not intentional and were minimal in nature, I was attempting to reconstruct events which I hadn't recorded properly." The three person disciplinary committee recommended disbarring Kopyto. The Law Society's bencher
s voted to disbar the lawyer on November 7, 1989. Mr. Kopyto was disbarred.
Among the findings of the tribunal hearing the case were that it was physically impossible for Mr. Kopyto to have billed the sums he did as the times billed exceeded the hours in the day.
While dissenting votes occur, for the first time in a LSUC disbarment vote, one of 40 elected lawyers sitting as Benchers issued a written dissenting opinion. Bencher Thomas J. P. Carey said he was so "fundamentally in disagreement with the majority in Convocation, as well as the Discipline Committee" that he felt compelled to issue the dissent in which he asserted that there was no basis for the Society's initial claims of fraud and that it is notable that the Legal Aid Plan never asked Kopyto to return any of the funds paid to him on the basis of his "inaccurate accounts." Mr. Kopyto remains a disbarred lawyer and is not permitted to practise law in Ontario. Writer David Primack added to Carey's argument by pointing out that unrelated funds owing to Kopyto, which were frozen during the disbarment case were eventually paid to him in full.
. In 2002, he represented Velma Demerson in her successful attempt to obtain compensation from the Ontario government for having jailed her for 12 months in 1939 for being "incorrigible" because she was unmarried, pregnant and living with a Chinese man.
When the paralegal profession was unregulated, judges and justices of the peace were under no requirement to allow them into their courtrooms and Kopyto has been excluded from individual courtrooms on over 50 occasions.
In 2006, a justice of the peace threw Kopyto out of his courtroom because he was dressed in an open neck sports shirt with a clashing jacket. The incident made the front page of the Toronto Sun. Kopyto responded with a disciplinary complaint against the JP and a lawsuit against the police officer who removed him.
Kopyto faced a more serious problem after May 2007 when a system of regulating paralegals came into effect in Ontario which places the profession under the jurisdiction of the Law Society of Upper Canada and requires individual paralegals to be approved by the law society and found by it to be of "good character" in order to continue their practice. One of the targets of the new regime is lawyers who have been disbarred. Kopyto told an interviewer "When they disbarred me, they clipped my wings, but I could still fly but now, they are trying to shoot the bird. This is worrying me endlessly. How can you have good character as a paralegal if you didn't have good character as a lawyer? I didn't expect a professional guillotine to fall on my neck, but I will not go gently into the night.”
The law society's hearing on Kopyto's application for a paralegal licence began in 2010 and has continued, intermittedly, into 2011.
' The Michael Coren Show
.
Paralegal
Paralegal is used in most jurisdictions to describe a paraprofessional who assists qualified lawyers in their legal work. This is true in the United States and many other countries. However, in Ontario, Canada, paralegals are licensed by the Law Society of Upper Canada, giving paralegals an...
, broadcaster and political activist.
Early life
Kopyto was born to a Polish Jewish family in a Displaced PersonDisplaced person
A displaced person is a person who has been forced to leave his or her native place, a phenomenon known as forced migration.- Origin of term :...
s' camp in Ulm, West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
immediately following World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. His entire family except for his parents and a brother were killed in the Holocaust. His family moved to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
in 1948 before immigrating to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
in 1952.
Political activity
Growing up in TorontoToronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Kopyto was a high-school radical, protesting against mandatory military cadet training as well as hikes in the price of milk. “I was always a trouble-maker. I’m hopeless," Kopyto told an interviewer when looking back upon his youth.
At university, Kopyto was an anti-war activist and joined the Young Socialists
Young Socialists
Young Socialists has been the name of more than one group:* Young Socialists * Young Socialists * Young Socialists * Young Socialists * Young Socialists * Young Socialists...
and later the League for Socialist Action and then the Socialist League
Socialist League (Canada)
The Socialist League was a Canadian Trotskyist group formed in 1974 by Ross Dowson and approximately twenty other former members of the League for Socialist Action after their faction was defeated at the 1973 LSA national convention. Dowson had previously been the leader of the LSA...
. He was also active in the New Democratic Party
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...
and its left-wing faction, The Waffle
The Waffle
The Waffle was a radical wing of Canada's New Democratic Party in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It later transformed into an independent political party, with little electoral success before it permanently disbanded in the mid-1970s...
. He has been a member of the NDP and its predecessor, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation was a Canadian political party founded in 1932 in Calgary, Alberta, by a number of socialist, farm, co-operative and labour groups, and the League for Social Reconstruction...
since 1959.
In the early 1990s, Kopyto was active in the Ontario NDP's Left Caucus in dissenting against the government of Bob Rae
Bob Rae
Robert Keith "Bob" Rae, PC, OC, OOnt, QC, MP is a Canadian politician. He is the Member of Parliament for Toronto Centre and interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....
for being too moderate. He authored an open letter co-signed by other party dissidents, including three NDP MPPs, opposing Rae's abandonment of left-wing policies such as public auto insurance
Public auto insurance
Public auto insurance is a government owned and operated system of automobile insurance operated in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec. According to studies by the Consumers' Association of Canada, rates charged for auto insurance in these four provinces...
. Rae responded by saying "Have you ever met Harry Kopyto? I don't think I've done anything in the last 15 years that Harry Kopyto has ever agreed with. Me and about 12 million other people.
It's not news that Mr. Kopyto and his friends are critical. It's natural. What's surprising is that it's taken him 2½ years to complain about our government."
Kopyto was a member of the Alliance of Non-Zionist Jews in the 1970s and also represented the Canadian Arab Federation
Canadian Arab Federation
The Canadian Arab Federation was formed in 1967 to represent the interests of Arab Canadians with respect to the formulation of public policy in Canada. It presently consists of over 40 member organizations....
in a libel action against the Globe and Mail.
Legal career
Kopyto studied law at Osgoode Hall Law SchoolOsgoode Hall Law School
Osgoode Hall Law School is a Canadian law school, located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and affiliated with York University. Named after the first Chief Justice of Ontario, William Osgoode, the law school was established by The Law Society of Upper Canada in 1889 and was the only accredited law...
and was called to the Ontario bar. He represented clients in a number of civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
cases including the case of John Damien, a jockey
Jockey
A jockey is an athlete who rides horses in horse racing or steeplechase racing, primarily as a profession. The word also applies to camel riders in camel racing.-Etymology:...
who had been fired by the Ontario Racing Commission in 1975 for being gay. He also fought cases that affect women’s rights, prisoners’ rights, the rights of the aged and the handicapped and unions’ rights.
He represented the Gay Alliance Toward Equality before the Supreme Court of Canada
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...
in its 1978 lawsuit against the Vancouver Sun for refusing to publish the group's advertisement.
He also initiated a series of actions that sought to establish the principle that a person is entitled to see the information on which a search warrant that affects him is based.
Following a split in the League for Socialist Action, Kopyto left with former LSA leader Ross Dowson
Ross Dowson
Ross Jewitt Dowson was a Canadian Trotskyist political figure.-Early life:Dowson joined the Trotskyist movement as a teenager during the Great Depression. The Canadian Trotskyist movement collapsed at the beginning of World War II as leaders such as Jack MacDonald, Maurice Spector and Earle Birney...
and other supporters to form the Socialist League
Socialist League (Canada)
The Socialist League was a Canadian Trotskyist group formed in 1974 by Ross Dowson and approximately twenty other former members of the League for Socialist Action after their faction was defeated at the 1973 LSA national convention. Dowson had previously been the leader of the LSA...
. He represented Dowson in a series of high-profile, but unsuccessful, lawsuits against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...
in which the police force was accused of disrupting the LSA and defaming Dowson. Kopyto also represented several former members of the League at the McDonald Commission inquiry into the RCMP at which they alleged long-term harassment of the League by the security force.
In 1986, Kopyto was charged with a contempt of court
Contempt of court
Contempt of court is a court order which, in the context of a court trial or hearing, declares a person or organization to have disobeyed or been disrespectful of the court's authority...
citation by Attorney-General
Attorney General of Ontario
The Attorney General of Ontario is a senior member of the Executive Council of Ontario and governs the Ministry of the Attorney General of Ontario - the department responsible for the oversight of the justice system within the province. The Attorney General is an elected Member of Provincial...
Ian Scott for "scandalizing the court" by telling the press, following a judge's decision to dismiss Dowson's case, "This decision is a mockery of justice. It stinks to high hell. It says it is okay to break the law and you are immune so long as someone above you said to do it. Mr. Dowson and I have lost faith in the judicial system to render justice. We're wondering what is the point of appealing and continuing this charade of the courts in this country which are warped in favour of protecting the police. The courts and the RCMP are sticking so close together you'd think they were put together with Krazy Glue." Kopyto faced a fine and up to six months in jail if convicted.
The case became a cause célèbre
Cause célèbre
A is an issue or incident arousing widespread controversy, outside campaigning and heated public debate. The term is particularly used in connection with celebrated legal cases. It is a French phrase in common English use...
with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association
Canadian Civil Liberties Association
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association or CCLA, is Canada's leading national organization devoted to the defence of civil liberties and constitutional rights, both inside and outside the courts. The organization's work focuses on constitutional litigation, law reform, advocating on civil...
urging Scott to drop the charge and the Law Union of Ontario
Law Union of Ontario
The Law Union of Ontario, founded in 1974, is a coalition of over 200 progressive lawyers, law students and legal workers. The Law Union provides for an alternative bar in Ontario which seeks to counter the traditional protections afforded by the legal system to social, political and economic...
setting up a legal defence fund for Kopyto. 25 lawyers signed on as co-counsels to defend Kopyto in court against the charge.
Kopyto was convicted of the charge and was ordered to apologize or be barred from practising law in any court in the province until he does so. The Criminal Lawyers' Association intervened on Kopyto's behalf during his appeal. On November 27, 1987, the Ontario Court of Appeal
Ontario Court of Appeal
The Court of Appeal for Ontario is headquartered in downtown Toronto, in historic Osgoode Hall....
acquitted Kopyto and found that the charge against him was unconstitutional.
In 1987, Kopyto sought the NDP nomination in St. George—St. David
St. George—St. David
St. George—St. David was a provincial electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that returned Members of Provincial Parliament to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario at Queen's Park....
which would have allowed him to run against Attorney-General Ian Scott in the 1987 provincial election but he lost the nomination to John Campey.
In 1989, Kopyto was charged with professional misconduct by the Law Society of Upper Canada
Law Society of Upper Canada
The Law Society of Upper Canada is responsible for the self-regulation of lawyers and paralegals in the Canadian province of Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1797, it is known in French as "Le Barreau du Haut-Canada"...
for overbilling the province's legal aid
Legal aid
Legal aid is the provision of assistance to people otherwise unable to afford legal representation and access to the court system. Legal aid is regarded as central in providing access to justice by ensuring equality before the law, the right to counsel and the right to a fair trial.A number of...
plan by $150,000 over a three-year period.
Kopyto told the press that "I admitted to guessing at the exact amount of time spent on some accounts. On some accounts, I overbilled. On some accounts, I underbilled. In the end, I've averaged out to being underpaid. If I wanted to rip people off to make money, I wouldn't have taken a Legal Aid certificate. To say you can rip off Legal Aid is ridiculous."
He told the disciplinary committee "Any inaccuracies in the bills I submitted were not intentional and were minimal in nature, I was attempting to reconstruct events which I hadn't recorded properly." The three person disciplinary committee recommended disbarring Kopyto. The Law Society's bencher
Bencher
A bencher or Master of the Bench is a senior member of an Inn of Court in England and Wales. Benchers hold office for life once elected. A bencher can be elected while still a barrister , in recognition of the contribution that the barrister has made to the life of the Inn or to the law...
s voted to disbar the lawyer on November 7, 1989. Mr. Kopyto was disbarred.
Among the findings of the tribunal hearing the case were that it was physically impossible for Mr. Kopyto to have billed the sums he did as the times billed exceeded the hours in the day.
While dissenting votes occur, for the first time in a LSUC disbarment vote, one of 40 elected lawyers sitting as Benchers issued a written dissenting opinion. Bencher Thomas J. P. Carey said he was so "fundamentally in disagreement with the majority in Convocation, as well as the Discipline Committee" that he felt compelled to issue the dissent in which he asserted that there was no basis for the Society's initial claims of fraud and that it is notable that the Legal Aid Plan never asked Kopyto to return any of the funds paid to him on the basis of his "inaccurate accounts." Mr. Kopyto remains a disbarred lawyer and is not permitted to practise law in Ontario. Writer David Primack added to Carey's argument by pointing out that unrelated funds owing to Kopyto, which were frozen during the disbarment case were eventually paid to him in full.
Paralegal career
Kopyto lost his appeal of the Law Society's action in 1993 but continued his career by becoming a paralegalParalegal
Paralegal is used in most jurisdictions to describe a paraprofessional who assists qualified lawyers in their legal work. This is true in the United States and many other countries. However, in Ontario, Canada, paralegals are licensed by the Law Society of Upper Canada, giving paralegals an...
. In 2002, he represented Velma Demerson in her successful attempt to obtain compensation from the Ontario government for having jailed her for 12 months in 1939 for being "incorrigible" because she was unmarried, pregnant and living with a Chinese man.
When the paralegal profession was unregulated, judges and justices of the peace were under no requirement to allow them into their courtrooms and Kopyto has been excluded from individual courtrooms on over 50 occasions.
In 2006, a justice of the peace threw Kopyto out of his courtroom because he was dressed in an open neck sports shirt with a clashing jacket. The incident made the front page of the Toronto Sun. Kopyto responded with a disciplinary complaint against the JP and a lawsuit against the police officer who removed him.
Kopyto faced a more serious problem after May 2007 when a system of regulating paralegals came into effect in Ontario which places the profession under the jurisdiction of the Law Society of Upper Canada and requires individual paralegals to be approved by the law society and found by it to be of "good character" in order to continue their practice. One of the targets of the new regime is lawyers who have been disbarred. Kopyto told an interviewer "When they disbarred me, they clipped my wings, but I could still fly but now, they are trying to shoot the bird. This is worrying me endlessly. How can you have good character as a paralegal if you didn't have good character as a lawyer? I didn't expect a professional guillotine to fall on my neck, but I will not go gently into the night.”
The law society's hearing on Kopyto's application for a paralegal licence began in 2010 and has continued, intermittedly, into 2011.
Broadcasting career
Kopyto appears regularly as a commentator on AM640's The John Oakley Show and CTSCrossroads Television System
Crossroads Television System, or CTS, is a privately held Canadian television system.CTS airs predominantly Christian-based religious programming, most notably 100 Huntley Street, The Michael Coren Show and LIFE Today with James & Betty Robison, as well as other religious and faith based...
' The Michael Coren Show
The Michael Coren Show
The Michael Coren Show is an hour-long Ontario-based panel show hosted by Michael Coren which deals with current events and social issues. It aired weeknights on the Crossroads Television System, a multi-faith television network with affiliates in Ontario and Alberta...
.
External links
- Harry Kopyto website
- Activist challenges Law Society's new control over paralegals, article on Kopyto's challenge to the Law Society's role in regulating paralegals.