Sunday, January 23, 2011

3325...Ezra Levant Legal Dunce

From the files of James Bowie and Bowie's Blog with love to Russell Barth.


If anyone needed another reason to understand why even budding legal minds like mine held no regard for Ezra Levant, Barrister and Solicitor, then I'll give you another reason. The minor trouble he gets into and the "fireside chat" the law society gave him are small issues, but here is an example of a latest one, courtesy of his Twitter account.

Have a look at what he said:

"@ezralevant
Ezra Levant
Ignatieff signed a written contract to that effect RT @LibArtsAndMinds: Wow. @ezralevant suggesting Ignatieff would give Bloc power in gov't"


Now, for most Tweeters, this is just another idiotic statement by a hyper-partisan trying to scream at his political opponents. It is so normal, in fact, it is hardly worth noting. It just blends in with all the other moronic yelling common to the public school playground that is the political twitterverse.

Levent, however, is a lawyer, and he's used one of those fancy lawyer words. I say that ups the ante. When a lawyer talks about a "contract," that's kind of like a doctor talking about a "needle" or a baseball player talking about "left field." A reasonable person can assume they are talking about something specifically profession related.

For clarity, a "contract," in the sense that lawyers use the word, is an agreement that can be enforced by a court.

When Levant points out, therefore, that when Michael Ignatieff (as a backbench MP) followed in Stephen Harper's footsteps by signing a letter to the Governor General asking her to allow the opposition parties to form a coalition - he was actually entering into a legally enforceable agreement. I have two things to say about this:

1. No letter, signed by MP's, sent to the GG, is enforceable in contract law.

2. In other jurisdictions, sometimes, the Privy Council has held that a letter from the majority of MP's can express non-confidence; but not in Canada, and that is not contract law. See the case of Alhaji D.S. Adegbenro v. Chief S. L. Akintola & another.

You probably never wondered why your lawyer buddy scoffs whenever Ezra Levant's name comes up (which it probably never does), but now you know another reason why. It's not just that he's subject to rare "fireside chats," where a senior lawyer takes you out to the wood-shed for a talk. It's that he goes on Twitter, says dumb stuff about the law, and always mentions that he is himself a lawyer.


I wonder if Mr. Levant went to a proper law school? Or if he is a grad of a diploma mill like Moncton? Look it up for me, willya?

WFDS

1 comment:

  1. Yeah, I posted that, and I haven't been sued for defamation yet. We'll see...

    ReplyDelete