The lawyer who represented “C.D.”, a B.C. father who tried to block his transgender child born female from getting cross-sex hormones, is fighting to keep proceedings against him open to the public..The hearings scheduled for May 16-18 will consider the B.C. Law Society’s two citations of professional misconduct against Carey Linde, a family lawyer of five decades. The citations allege that on or about May 15, 2021, Linde shared details in his client’s case with U.S. media contrary to a publication ban and did not advise his interviewer of the publication ban..In an interview with Western Standard Linde recalled being approached by a California blogger, who already knew C.D.’s real name, to do an interview..“I said 'Sure, on two conditions. One is, you don't mention his name at all. And secondly, you provide me with the whole interview.’".Linde said she agreed to his terms, but defied them later, leading to the citations against him..The society has asked the Tribunal to keep the hearings on Linde shielded from the public to protect the same information sealed in the publication ban. In a pre-hearing meeting on May 12, Linde protested that request..“I said, ‘No one's going to know who they are, their names never come up. It's all anonymized letters,’” Linde recalled..“The open court principle, even before the Charter, has been keystone to British law, common law, Canadian law. It's only in extraordinary circumstances that you bar the public from knowing what's going on. But that doesn’t exist here.”.The meeting on Thursday to discuss whether next week’s proceedings should be made public was itself closed off to the public by the Tribunal. Linde cried foul..“I said to the bencher that you've already prejudged it…Of course you have. By definition, you've prejudged it; you're shutting down this argument.”.Vancouver area lawyer Paul Jaffe represented Linde in the proceedings. In an interview with Western Standard, he said the sweeping publication bans that went as far as protecting doctors involved were only the beginning of a bizarre series of events. .“Oh my God, you start with those, the scope of the gag orders themselves, then the fact that it was the Chief Justice who went into files that were sealed by order of other judges on a case that he previously had nothing to do with, three days before Carey appeared before the Chief Justice on the same case. And the Chief Justice sits on the bench and says, 'By the way, I just reported to the Law Society on this case.' I mean, it was bizarre, truly bizarre,” Jaffe said..Jaffe said the prosecutor against Linde is Morgan Camley, a former director of Qmunity. According to its website, the Vancouver non-profit “works to improve queer, trans, and Two-Spirit lives” and provide a safer space for LGBTQ2SAI+ people and their allies to fully self-express while feeling welcome and included.”.According to Jaffe, Camley also applied as an intervener in the case of C.D. against Linde on behalf of Qmunity..“That does not pass a nostril test. I mean, that doesn't get past the kneecaps with anybody who has any concerns at all about the appearance of justice, because the whole role of a prosecutor in any quasi- judicial tribunal is that they're supposed to dispense with any notion of winning and losing and fairly put the evidence before the court,” Jaffe said..“All of it paints a very unsettling picture of what's happening. And I suggested to the Law Society that what's at stake here is the integrity of the Law Society. If you guys do this behind closed doors, going after Carey in these circumstances, you’re just making a huge mistake, aside from violating Carey’s fundamental right to a fair and impartial tribunal and the principles of fundamental justice, which include the open court system, all of which have just been tossed out the window.”.Jaffe also told the Tribunal what he thought were their real motivations. .“We understand what's going on. It's an ideological battle, and you're very upset with some of the things Carey has been saying. And you're going to try and do this behind closed doors just to cover your own butts. It has nothing to do with the transgender kid.”
