Spurred by the pandemic, the legal profession is moving to address the mental health of judges and lawyers, as luminaries such as former Supreme Court justice Clément Gascon and Ontario Chief Justice George Strathy speak in deeply personal terms about the issue.
“In 2022 – not last year, not two years ago, this year – I have been asked so far to give talks about this issue by the chief justices of the country, by members of the judiciary, by judges of administrative tribunals, by members of law societies in [Ontario] and two others, by private law firms, by a public service group of attorneys, and by a couple of law faculties,” he said.
“Yes, she walks in a funny way. Sometimes she falls – badly. Nobody tells her, ‘Can you not walk straight? Why is it that you’re falling,’ ” Mr. Gascon said. Law “is a profession where you find a lot of high achievers, high performers, persons who tend to be a bit like I am: perfectionist. And perfectionists tend to push the envelope for fear of not being good enough, for fear of disappointing, or the fear of failure sometimes.”
In trying to achieve the unattainable, he told The Globe and Mail in an interview, lawyers “submit themselves to stresses that become unbearable.” The Chief Justice, who retires at the end of August at the age of 74, added: “And frankly, the people they work for – as opposed to work with – subject them to ridiculous stresses. And it’s got even worse in the pandemic.”
Bay Street has been changing, says Emily Atkinson, the director of legal learning and professional resources at Torys LLP. Several large firms have shared ideas about how to respond to mental-health issues, a process begun after last year’s mental health summit, she said. Most firms are monitoring workload. Torys uses technology that delays the sending of e-mails to reduce late-night communications. More people are discussing personal challenges and mental-health issues openly.
The call for independent lawyers to be free of the retail necessity of constantly seeking new 'customers' is part of the ridiculous collectivist effort to mandate therapeutic coddling: The sole practitioner will be defined out of existence as being a model too toxic to maintain.
This may explain Beverley McLachlin.
Lawyers are overpaid art students prone to overformalistic thinking with a monopoly on law that they have ruthlessly exploited for profit to the detriment of justice. Judges come from this broken cohort. There is no rule of law or justice in this pay-to-win theater.