Canadian Lawyer

10 A p r I L 2 0 1 5 w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m \ At L A N t I C \ C E N t r A L \ p r A I r I E s \ W E s t rEgIoNAL WrAp-up would think she was describing her own life. "It's fiction you know. Nobody asks Stephen King if his novels are about himself," she adds. That being said, she knows the sacrifice one has to make and is well aware of the traps she has to avoid and that Emma hasn't. The author underlines that Emma is working for a big factory-type firm, while in the real world Catherine is one of 18 lawyers at IMK, a firm of more human proportions. Still, there is at least one similarity between Emma and Catherine, both are high-achievers. While working full time as a lawyer, McKenzie manages to write her novels in the evening or on weekends. Forgotten is her fourth book, after Spin, Arranged, and Hidden, all published since 2010. A fifth one is on the way, to be published Oct. 20 in the United States (no Canadian release date yet). Half a million copies of her books have sold worldwide. Oh, and from 2006 to 2010, she was a lecturer in trial advocacy at McGill, her alma mater in both history and law. She will resume teaching next year. McKenzie joined IMK as a law student in 1997, when it was founded and stayed ever since. She was called to the Quebec bar in 2000. She has argued cases at all levels of courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada, covering a wide range of legal areas, representing all types of clients, sometimes in high-profile cases such as one in which she tested the constitu- tionality of the Tobacco Act regarding its restriction on the tobacco companies' right to advertise, or another where she represented the winning side in the Court of Appeal decision that legalized gay marriage in Quebec. Always a writer, she wrote mainly poetry when she was young, gradually evolving towards what she calls "com- mercial fiction" in her 20s. When she had three "sellable" manuscripts in her drawer, she started looking for an agent. It took her about six months to find one, going the traditional way of sending que- ries and cover letters by e-mail to about a hundred agents. It took another year and half for that agent to sell her first two books to HarperCollins Canada. So far, Hidden is her best-selling novel with approximately 300,000 copies sold in the U.S. It was on Amazon's best-seller list for several weeks. She has no plan to leave law practice to write full time. "Writing is a very lonely occupation and I'm a very social person," she says. She would probably miss arguing, too. — PasCal elie pascalelie636@gmail.com Law with a side of fi ction Continued from page 9 t he Ontario Superior Court of Justice's facilities for civil trials at 393 University Ave. in Toronto are a "disgust- ing hole," says a veteran civil litigator. "The eighth is the main floor and it's an absolute shit hole," says Robert Harrison, a partner at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP's Toronto office. "The rooms are airless deathtraps, there's no security for judges who have to get up to work on a public elevator, and the public have to find their way around the squa- lor that amounts to court facilities, and all this in one of the world's major centres." That isn't likely to change any time soon. "The [former] attor- ney general looked at me like I was stoned when I asked about it," says Harrison. Larry Lowenstein, of Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, says inad- equate court facilities shouldn't really come as a shock to anyone. "It's true that our judges are not as secure as we might like," he says. "But does it really surprise that the physical facilities need a refresh when the overall court system is so starved of resources, lacks effi- cient technology, and doesn't have enough support staff?" But Ministry of the Attorney General spokesman Brendan Crawley said in an e-mail to Law Times, the province has invest- ed more than $3.6 million at 393 University Ave., "including projects to improve accessibility, security, and program and pub- lic counter space." Harrison says the figures amount to blowing smoke. "Spending $500,000 annually on 393 has done nothing, for example, to improve the extraordinarily poor air quality in the courtrooms," he says. "Judges, lawyers and, I have no doubt, clients and witnesses, detest the place." The July 2014 provincial budget did provide for a new court- house in downtown Toronto, but that project would consolidate many of the city's Ontario Court of Justice criminal facilities. "Meanwhile, the civil courts and a lot of very devoted judges will have to continue putting up indefinitely with these absolutely disgraceful accommodations," says Harrison. Harrison's complaints deal with the civil litigation mainstream. Commercial list cases proceed at the old Federal Court building at 330 University Ave. The main Superior Court facilities at 361 University Ave. used to accommodate many more civil trials, but the Supreme Court of Canada timelines mandated for criminal cases have given them priority. "That happens for the same reason that a disproportionate number of Superior Court judges must be assigned to criminal as opposed to civil matters," says Harrison. "Combine that with the fact that we are many judges short of a suitable allotment overall and you get overworked judges, a terrible civil backlog, and all that with the added sweetener of working at 393 University." Crawley said the government has invested more than $1.6 billion in capital projects "to strengthen the justice system," including "significantly" renovating or expanding 27 courthous- es across the province. "No one in government gives a fig about a lawYer slaMs toronto CiVil trial faCilities

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