22 Jul The arrest of Anne Calder – feedback

Contrarian reader David Smith has doubts about the Anne Calder arrest story:

Too much about this story is starting to look like a setup to me. First, there is the bit about the police not identifying the lawyer, but “sources” naming her.  Somebody wanted her identity leaked, and the front-page photo in the Chronicle the next day certainly made sure everyone knew who she was. Then there were the two “tidbits” about her legal career: that one client had a mistrial, and that another client had fired her.  How many other trial lawyers in Nova Scotia could have both of those things said about them?  I’m willing to bet a fairly high percentage.  Again, it looks to me as if this information is being reported in an effort to embarrass and humiliate her.  Just to make sure, the Chronicle-Herald repeated those “details” again the next day.

Just who did Anne piss off, anyway?

The legal community is a hotbed of gossip, so when a defense lawyer and former Crown attorney was arrested for allegedly smuggling narcotics to a jail inmate, the story was certain to rocket around courthouse circles. It’s not evidence someone wanted her name leaked. In the circumstances, her identity was newsworthy, and Herald reporter Patricia Brooks Arenburg showed enterprise in uncovering it.

The related nuggets about previous legal mishaps, especially a mistrial caused by Calder’s failure to review videotaped witness statements, are relevent because the lapse is  serious, not routine. It raises the possibility that she was experiencing personal difficulties. That, in turn, raises the question whether the Barrister’s Society or the Legal Aid Commission had offered any assistance. Contrarian‘s calls to Barrister’s Society spokesperson Marla Cranston went unanswered.