The Many Faces of Advocacy

• Author: John Sopinka
• Pages: 7-16

The

Many

Faces

of

Advocacy

Justice

John

Sopinka'

[Editors' note: This article

was

presented

as an

address

to The

Advo-

cates'

Society

1989

Fall

Convention

in

Toronto

on 27

October

1989.]

When

I was

asked

to

speak

on

this occasion,

my

normal reaction

was to

ask a law

clerk

to

draft

my

speech.

In

practice

I was

known

as an

invet-

erate delegator.

In

fact,

this

trait

was the

subject

of

considerable sport

among

my

associates

in the

litigation department, both

at

Fasken's

and

Stikeman's.

It

backfired only once.

We

happened

to

have

a

particularly independent

law

student

who

considered himself above some

of the

more menial tasks imposed

on

students.

I had

agreed

to

speak

at a

professional seminar,

but

somehow

had

failed

to

delegate

the

preparation

of the

draft.

The

speech

was to be

on a

Tuesday

at

noon, with

the

Thanksgiving weekend intervening.

I

had

planned

a

weekend

at the

farm

and was

heading

out on

Fri-

day

afternoon when

my

secretary sweetly said, "Have

you got the

mate-

rials

for

your

speech

on

Tuesday?"

"What

speech?"

I

replied. Panic time.

I

called

in the

only student

still there

on

Friday

at

5:00 p.m.

— it was he.

"Geoffrey,"

I

said,

"I am

giving

a

speech

on

Tuesday. Here

is the

invitation.

I

want

you to

draft

the

speech

and

have

it for me on

Tuesday morning."

Mr.

Justice

John

Sopinka,

Supreme Court

of

Canada.

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