15 Jul The arrest of Anne Calder

The Halifax Chronicle-Herald details the arrest of Anne Calder, a defense lawyer and former Crown prosecutor, on suspicion of smuggling prescription narcotics to a client in the Burnside Jail.

As it happens, contrarian knows Calder slightly. She has always struck us as an idealistic, compassionate, conservative woman. She was also an outspoken admirer of Peter MacKay, with whom she served when they were both Crown prosecutors in Pictou County.

An Amherst native, Calder followed an unconventional career path.  She graduated from Dalhousie and Carleton Universities, then worked as an airline flight attendant before earning her law degree at the University of British Columbia. At various times she worked as as a Crown prosecutor, either staff or casual, in Halifax,  Truro, Pictou, and New Glasgow. Along the way she spent a few years in New Zealand, and graduated from the one-year, masters in journalism program at King’s in 2006.

In 2001, she led negotiations for the Nova Scotia Crown Attorneys Association when they hammered out a settlement of their longstanding salary dispute with the province.

As the Herald’s Patricia Brooks Arenburg describes in a fine piece of reporting, she then returned to work as a defense attorney. This year, her career appeared to hit a rocky patch. Whatever else this is, it’s a very sad story.