When a journalist comes calling

• Author: Kirk Makin
• Pages: 341-345

341

g Summer 2011

When a jurnalist cmes calling

KIRK MAKIN

My least pleasant encounter with a lawyer occurred in the

early 1980s, back in the days when exotic Charter of Rights

challenges were all the rage. After one such challenge had

crashed and burned on appeal, I quoted the unsuccessful litigant moan-

ing about the more than $100,000 she had blown on legal fees in her

failed cause.

Later that day, the high-prole Toronto litigator who had represented

her called to accuse me, in so many words, of printing a gure so out-

landish that I had to have known it was false.

I was incredulous. “Are you actually suggesting I’m lying?” “If the

shoe ts, wear it,” he snarled.

Early in their careers, journalists become used to dealing with

aggrieved parties and hurt feelings. However, it’s one thing to dispute

and object, quite another to malign and level accusations of dishonesty.

Five thousand articles later, I have yet to call or quote that lawyer again–

a record I intend to maintain.

Happily, the incident was an aberration rather than a harbinger of

horrors to come. In the intervening years, I have interviewed, lunched

and chatted with thousands of lawyers without ever encountering

another as insuerable or mean-spirited. The truth is, most lawyers– in

common with most journalists– are dedicated, opinionated individuals

who tend to maintain a cheerfully jaundiced outlook on the world.