The Youth Criminal Defence Office: A Model Approach to the Right to Counsel
| Author | Cathy Lane Goodfellow |
| Pages | 163-182 |
163
e Youth Criminal Defence Oce: A Model
Approach to the Right to Counsel
,
It is appropriate to st art by saying a word about Nick Bala. Act ually, I would
like to say many words about Nick. I rst learned his name in , when I en-
tered the practice of law. I had aended the rst seminar oered by the Le gal
Education Society of Alberta on the topic of representing young people under
the newly procla imed Young Oenders Ac t (YOA) and began a career in th is
area by accept ing cer ticates from the Legal Aid Society to conduct duty
counsel serv ices in youth court. Today I am the Assoc iate Senior Counsel of
the Youth Cri minal Defence Oce in Calgary, A lberta, and have practised
exclusively i n youth crimina l justice since .
One cannot read any thing about youth justice any case, c ase com-
mentary, or tex tbook that wa s not either w rien or inuence d by Nick
Bala. His work has been quoted and applied by the Supreme Court of Canada
innumerable t imes. However, it is not even the prolic natu re of his wr iting
that is the mos t striking it’s that he think s so holistical ly about it. He sees
the entire pict ure; he sees it with principled and good-natured objectiv ity
and he does th is at the speed of lig ht. He has been the man with the answer,
the wise man siing on the top of the mounta in, for a very long time. We’ve
wanted h im to be wrong. Althoug h Nick is a lways child and youth foc used
in his a nalysis of the law, as an oce we didn’t lik e what he had to say to the
RSC , c . Y- as amended [YOA].
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Nunn Com mission about changing t he criteria for the detention of youth.
So, we have sometimes wa nted to push him o that mounta in top. Knowing
him only a li le I thi nk he enjoys being pushed revels in t he intellectua l
challenge and would happily concede defeat a nd pass the torch if it w as
the logic ally right thing to do. at ma kes him a true and honest teacher. I
have been taug ht by Nick from a far for my enti re career, largely w ithout his
knowing . ank you, Nick.
Part of bei ng a career advoc ate for youth is that you become philosoph-
ical about why you do the work . I have been asked that ques tion countless
times, oen by lay people at socia l funct ions. ere is no answer. However,
I have come to understand th at, as individuals, we are profoundly a ected
by both the blessings and the ha rdships of life. at impact inform s how we
thin k, live, love, form relationsh ips and move through space. Fatal ists might
say that our response to experience “i s what it is,” but for me, that rationale
fails uerl y. Why? Because some rise above profound ly negative experiences
to become beer, more ethical, ki nder, gentler human beings. Others become
disdai nful of and in l ife. Belief in t he rightness of goodness helps u s, as indi-
viduals, dec ide which camp to join. Vik tor E. Frankl wrote, “We who lived in
concentration c amps can remember the men w ho walked through the huts
comforti ng others, giving away thei r last piece of bread. ey may have been
few in number, but they oer s ucient proof t hat every thing ca n be ta ken
from a man but one thing: t he last of the human freedoms to choose one’s
aitude in a ny given set of circumsta nces, to choose one’s own way.”
is may seem an unusual way to st art an ar ticle about youth justice
but it reec ts the philosophy of my advocacy practice. It is a profound priv-
ilege to hear the stories of youthf ul clients but that privilege comes at a ve ry
Nova Scotia, Nun n Commiss ion of Inquir y, Spiralling Ou t of Control: Le ssons Lear ned
om a Boy in Trouble Report of t he Nunn Commis sion of Inquir y (Halifa x: Nunn
Commis sion of Inqui ry, ) (Chair: Mer lin Nunn) [Nunn Inq uiry]. is l andmark
public inq uiry into C anada’s youth cr imina l justice sy stem was cha ired by Merli n Nunn,
a retired j ustice of the Su preme Court of Nov a Scotia. e Co mmission e xamined t he
events of O ctober , i n which eres a McEvoy, of Halifax, Nova Scot ia, a y-
two-yea r-old teacher ’s aide and mother of t hree boys, wa s killed w hen the car in w hich
she was tr avelling w as broadsided b y another veh icle. e car wa s stolen and was b eing
driven a t high speed by a s erial youn g oender who had be en mistak enly release d from
jail ju st two days pre viously. See page of the Repor t and onward, whe re it is reported
Professo r Bala sugges ted changes to t he Youth Crimin al Justice Ac t, SC , c. [YCJA]
that woul d lower the thre shold for custo dy.
Viktor E. Fr ankl, Ma n’s Search for Meani ng (New York: Pocket Book s, ) at .
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