I just about laughed myself to tears, he says. I mean, they cant pass nationalized daycare effectively in Canada. Will Henein attempt to have the charges against him thrown out before his trial? Im not a warm and fuzzy person, she acknowledges, but I have more than one gear.. For Henein, the timing was not exactly propitious. named one of the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada by the Womens Executive Network. At 50, she looks a decade younger, a vision in black chic perched on $1,500 leopard-patterned Louis Vuitton pumps. I have not. Glen Jennings, the soft-spoken son of a United Church minister, was instantly smitten. Instead, Henein decided to show her hand, behind closed doors, to special prosecutor Richard Peck, who had been brought in from Vancouver to avoid any conflict of interest. Today's Hub Dialogue is with Marie Henein who has been called "Canada's most famous defence lawyer" for her success in a number of high-profile cases over her distinguished career. Marie Henein (born 1966)[1] is a Canadian criminal defence lawyer. Todays Dialogue is part two of The Hubs conversation with Marie Henein, a prominent criminal defence lawyer and author of a new memoir, Nothing but the Truth. I mean, thats fine. Its not out of the question. Could the Bryant case serve as a template for Ghomeshis defence? She grabbed her (LL.M.) Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press. When Evelyns parents promptly immigrated to Toronto, she begged her husband to join them, but he balked at another move. Henein Hutchison LLP 34 The former Eddie Greenspan protge and current lawyer for Jian Ghomeshi runs the hottest criminal defence firm in Toronto. Pure theatre.. That is what bothers me. Well, it certainly played to my outsider, fighter instincts. TORONTO (November 3, 2022) Canadian charity The Shoe Project has launched its annual online auction and among the 50+ items up for grabs are Louboutin and Yves Saint Laurent shoes from prominent litigator, Marie Henein. If two men arent of the same mind on an issue, youre not viewed as a person who betrayed their gender, youre viewed as people who disagree., She does not think the system needs to be tweaked in response to sexual assault cases. First of all, it infantilizes everybody. Chris So/Toronto Star/Getty Images. The Supreme Court of Canada denied Regan's appeal, but he was ultimately acquitted of all charges. At first glance, the prospects for Daniel Weiz looked grim. In this new zeitgeist, there seems to be a distinct unease about the notion of a whip-smart woman defending a man charged with sexual violence. Was she challenging public perceptions before a trial in which bondage and domination are sure to emerge as a theme? Wherever they lived, from their first apartment in Thorncliffe Park to the stolid brown brick house they bought in the farthest reaches of North York, the Heneins were never more than a few doors, or a few blocks, from her maternal grandmother, the matriarch of the family, who became her chief companion and babysitter. Youre very dark, she says. [8][9], In 2009, Henein represented Bradley Harrison at the Supreme Court of Canada. Both were designed to protect female complainants against a long-time bias within the legal system: the assumption that a woman had somehow left herself open to sexual assault. Theyre disinviting me because they dont like my job. Marie Henein is the smartest, toughest, most sought-after defence lawyer in the city. Updated March 30, 2016. Henein was a polarizing figure in the coverage of this trial, Mansbridge said, before asking about her comfort level with that. I was in his face all the time, saying, I want to do more. , Henein split her time between Greenspan and Rosenberg, whose personalities and practices were a study in contrasts. [2] She is a partner of Henein Hutchison LLP, a law firm in Toronto. I dont know much, but I have woken up a little bit as time has gone on. There is a point to this. Armed with two prestigious degrees, Henein found herself unemployed. The Shoe Project MEDIA ADVISORY. These days, when she is scheduled to argue a case, fellow criminal lawyers often slip into the back rows to watchbut for those who expect fireworks, Henein advises them to try TV. She's seen in the lobby of the. Its all part of the bullshit Cinderella story. She dishes out the same tough-love brand of feminism in speeches and articles, blaming Martha Stewart and her ilk for their toxic message of perfectionism. Moving to her personal life, Marie Henein is a married woman whose husband name is Glen Jennings. For the lead role in this drama, no casting director could have made a better match. It would influence me not to take it at all, actually., The amount of scrutiny has been extraordinary and crushing for Ghomeshi, she said. [19], Canadian criminal defence lawyer (born 1966), Wente, Margaret. The truth is, I want to be Marie Henein. Sign up for FREE and receiveThe Hubsweekly email newsletter. On June 11, 2019 Marie Henein retired as the chair of the Pro Bono Inmate Appeals Program ("PIAP") after twenty years of service. Marie is also contributing as the co-editor of Martins Related Criminal Statutes, Martins Criminal Code and Martins Annual Criminal Practice. "[4] The National Post called her the "most high profile criminal defence lawyer in the country. So yes, I would love to see some strong leadership, some willingness to take the position, This might hurt me personally when I try to get re-elected, but I feel so strongly that it is the right thing for this country, Im going to advocate for it. Do you think now, in Canada, we would get the health care that we do have now? At times, Frost was frustrated that Henein refrained from going directly for the jugular, but she insisted on what he calls the slow burn. When he chafed at her obsession with what seemed like some minor detail, she retorted that no detail was too smallor, as it turned out, too lurid. Content published are under creative common license. From Rosenberg, Henein learned to craft the precise factums essential to every appealand to her current credibility before the courts. He hired Marie to represent him in the court and defend him against the charges he was accused of. Crown attorney Michael Callaghan announces he is dropping two of the seven sexual assault charges, which, he admits, had no reasonable prospect of conviction. She just tells you the hard facts, he says. And we dont do that. Magazine (Winter 2014) ". "The message is clearly that any right-thinking woman should understand her inherent, natural deficiencies and immediately set off on a lifelong journey of self-discovery and inevitable self-improvement, and probably forgo external things such as the world, life, and work." Marie Henein, Nothing But the Truth When she hasnt been in court for a while, she admits, she gets as agitated as a junkie: I need the fix, she says. In my view, running a country to get re-elected is a real significant problem. The whole point, says Heneins former associate Margaret Bojanowska, is to annihilate the witness, really.. For months, she and her first associate, Jennifer Gleitman, sifted through volumes of witness statements, charting the inconsistencies, often with Heneins son playing on the floor. If I dress this way, its because it amuses me, she shrugs. Within months, he was dead. They turn out to be just one pair from a collection so notorious that Ontarios former chief justice Warren Winkler once ribbed her, So are you going to buy a car or a new pair of shoes? Even with the benefit of those four-inch heels, Henein seems tinier than she did in the courtroom, her hourglass figure whittled away by twice-weekly weight training sessions, her boyish bob and kohl-rimmed eyes lending her the air of a gamine. While some lawyers shrug off their defeats, Henein has been known to chew on hers for years, stubbornly plotting appeals. We never did give in., Now a lawyer with Ontarios Ministry of the Environment, Nemchin recounts the incident as a feisty stand for freedom of expression, but Henein remembers it for another reason entirely. By Anne Kingston March 30, 2016. A post shared by George Pimentel (@georgepimentel1) on Nov 13, 2015 at 1:20am PST. From the first, friends characterize their relationship as a father-daughter dynamiccompelling, complicated and volatile. They had one son: Peder Hafureng (Hafra) Classon. [14] The trial lasted eight days. My view is that you should torture yourself if you lost, because the stakes are so high, she says. Ghomeshi trial: Everything wrong with sexual assault law With footage from every surveillance camera along Bloor Street West, Henein hired an expert video analyst to recreate his fateful drive. All rights reserved. It wasnt the public crying out for it. She didnt take the case for publicity and the scrutiny has been tough for her and for her client, The profile and nature of it didnt influence you at all? Mansbridge asked. Your email address will not be published. I would alienate men., It was one of the few times in her life when she was warned to tone down her behavioura message she has adamantly refused to heed. Marie understands that she is marketing a product just like Nike is, says a friend. Until she hired Matthew Gourlay, all her associates had been female, and, without exception, they praise her as a mentor and hard-driving mother hen. Sign up for our free weekly email digest. There really is no stone left unturned, says Gleitman, who is now an assistant Crown attorney. Marie Henein, Nothing But the Truth. She is a partner of Henein Hutchison LLP, a law firm in Toronto. Its not like theres a different quality of person in Washington. Male lawyers, she protests, never get queried about their clothes. Shes carefulshes not rude or impolitebut if you think youre going to push her around, theres going to be kickback.. So, youre disinviting me because you dont like the job that I do in the justice system? For a glimpse into her modus operandi, her 2008 defence of former minor league hockey coach Dave Frost is revealing. Toronto criminal defence attorney Marie Henein has broken her silence about the highest profile case of her 25-year career the trial of former CBC broadcaster Jian Ghomeshi. She dressed in an eccentric punky way that made it clear she was not like other students, he recalls. I dont respect their opinion or agree with it. Where once the legal system seemed stacked against women who dared to blow the whistle on sexual assaulttheir motives suspect, their past sex lives fair gamethere has been a sharp shift in the culture. Unearthing video footage of one flashing her genitals for the camera at a party, Henein convinced the judge to allow it as a subject for cross examination because it countered the prosecutions assertion that the woman had been a nave pawn manipulated by Frost. When she returned, there was no opening waiting at his firm. By using marriedcelebrity.com, you agree to our terms of use. Her tactics kept Michael Bryant out of jail. You can visit her firms website www.hhllp.ca and contact her through it. Equally impressed was Marc Rosenberg, the counsel for the co-accused in the case and, not incidentally, Eddie Greenspans law partner. When the witness looked nonplussed, Henein flourished medical records revealing that, after a hernia operation, Frost was left with a two-inch-by-two-inch plum-sized sac of blood that appears like a third testicle, as she told the cringing courtroom. None of it deals with the over-incarceration, in Canada of Indigenous communities and, in the United States, of Black Americans. When a male teacher she expected to defend them instead urged them to capitulate, she castigated him for failing to uphold the ideals he extolled in class. MARIE HENEIN: Well, thats a great question. Big., Some lawyers only take cases they know they can win, but Henein never turns down a client. Jian Ghomeshi makes his way through a mob of media with his lawyer Marie Henein at a Toronto court on November 26, 2014. For me, it was standing up for people.. MARIE HENEIN: Well, as a criminal lawyer, youre always an outsider. Her father, Joseph Henein, worked at a pharmacy. It was leadership. On one blog, Osgoode Hall professor Susan Drummond argues that criminal lawyers not only have a duty to their clients, they also have a larger duty to the justice system as a whole; by whacking the complainant in sexual assault cases, she says, they threaten to bring the entire system into disrepute. I cant focus on that. I know who I am, I know what my beliefs are. Her achievement can be judged by The National Post which mentioned her as the most high profile Canadian criminal defense lawyer. MARIE HENEIN: It says a lot about our post-secondary institutions that we think education means that you cannot have challenging thoughts, you cannot be presented with a view you disagree with, and you cannot be presented with information that is not the predominant view. Im not foaming at the mouth, she says. Very bold. But after reinvestigating her new witnesses, he came to trust her assessments. In a profession where an ad in the Yellow Pages was once considered showy, that website shot has provoked heated debate. [5] Henein was called to the bar in 1992. Its so outrageous and its so uninformed. 'Discomfort is a home of sorts to me': An excerpt from Marie Henein's new memoir, Nothing but the Truth Marie Henein Special to The Globe and Mail Published September 25, 2021 Updated. Out-slogging even her workaholic boss, she buried herself in the legal grunt work that would allow him to shine. Still, even some of her closest friends admit blanching at her penchant for serving up the unvarnished truth, whether about a flawed factum or an unfortunate haircut. Theyre defence lawyers; theyre not prosecutors. I actually long for leadership, not responses to tweets. Our human nature makes us sitting ducks. The Law Society takes that gender brain drain so seriously that in 2008 it established the Justicia Project to promote solutions such as parental leave and flex-time arrangements that might help keep women in its ranks. Then in the summer before she started law school, he arrived back home gravely ill. She was at his side when he was diagnosed with one of the citys first cases of full-blown AIDS. Stuffed, life-size animals peered out from a tropical forest that Henein had trucked in, and African bird calls squawked over the sound system. She was also mentioned by Canadian Lawyer magazine in the list of Top 25 Most Influential in 2011. Funds raised through the online auction help The Shoe Project in its mission to hold writing workshops and public speaking performances . That success is all the more remarkable in a branch of the bar where, historically, women have not been welcomed by either their colleagues or their clients. On Tuesday night, Priscilla Presley and her daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, sat side by side at their table at the Golden Globes and watched with emotion as Austin Butler won an award . He liked the toughness. And then not allowing students to engage with people. But at 35, Robitaille is now a partner, crediting Henein with giving her space to shine, complete with her own caseload and press clips. In the documents, Normans lawyer Marie Henein points to statements federal bureaucrats made to the RCMP. That is across the board. You'll get our weekly newsletter featuring The Hubs thought-provoking insights and analysis of Canadian policy issues and in-depth interviews with the worlds sharpest minds and thinkers. Shot has provoked heated debate, most sought-after defence lawyer this way, its because it amuses me she! Thrown out before his trial to join them, but Henein never turns down a client mouth... 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