was the Expropriation of Property a PAYOFF to Law Firns

DID THE FORMER P.C. APPOINTEE DESERVE BIG PAYOFF???? link-----http://www.pattersonlaw.ca/

Former premier's top officials received large buyouts
Last Updated: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 | 4:44 PM AT
CBC News
Five officials in Bernard Lord's Conservative government each received more than their annual salaries in paycheques and severance packages in the year they were bought out by the new Liberal government in New Brunswick.

The province's latest public accounts report, released Tuesday, revealed what each of them received in the last fiscal year.

The five Tory partisans had been serving in senior bureaucratic and Crown corporation jobs. Each of them worked about half of the fiscal year, then accepted buyouts after Shawn Graham's Liberals won the October 2006 election.


http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2007/12/19/severance-packages.html

I could have been one of them when I was arrested in Saint John.

How many poor people are in jail for years and years because they were arrested by the Saint John Police Force and were told they had no right to a lawyer???

This is what I want to know???

When is T.J. Burke going to act on this one???

Our Legal system is the worst in Canada!!!!

Vaughn Barnett is an anti-poverty activist in Fredericton with a law degree who has been using his skills — for free or next-to-nothing — to help the poor with legal and poltical battles. He will be in jail for the next 10 days, having been marched away from Fredericton’s provincial court in handcuffs and leg-shackles on the evening of Thurs Jan 18th, with unfortunately only 5 supporters there in solidarity with him during the moment of injustice. He is in jail for Contempt of Court for allegedly practicing law without a license for the last several years.

The context to this story is that for the past 10 years, Vaughn has been offering “assisted self-defense” and whatever other legal assistance he can provide as a non-lawyer advocate (he is not a licensed lawyer). That is in addition to the work he has done with the Advocacy Collective (in hibernation), which is/was a justice-for-the-poor collective based in Fredericton. Vaughn’s work with the Advocacy Collective has involved taking direct action to fight for the rights of poor people — mostly poor tenants (”ghetto”-dwellers) who have suffered evictions. But his work has been highly unappreciated by some. The Law Society of New Brunswick, the legislated body that claims to have the duty to make sure all who are “practising law” in NB are “competent, certified and insured” has taken issue with Vaughn for providing the services that he does. An action was initiated by the Law Society several years ago that resulted in a rather vague injunction (November 2000) against Vaughn that prevented him from providing “lawyer-like services”. Since then, the Law Society has hounded Vaughn almost every time he has tried to offer his help to poor people. The Law Society has conveniently over-interpreted the injunction against him (over-interpreting “lawyer-like services”) and have succeeded in depriving Vaughn from legal rights that any ordinary citizen possesses.

The Law Society’s motivation, which oozes out of them — albeit indirectly — every time they have decided to take issue with Vaughn, has been a desire to protect their elitist profession from Vaughn’s socialist views and generally radical activism. The rights of the poor are not on the agenda of the Law Society in any noticeable way whatsoever, and they do not appreciate Vaughn trying to have it added.

The consequences of the Law Society’s interference with Vaughn’s work over the years has been that many poor people have been left without defense in their legal battles. They approach Vaughn when they feel they have nowhere else to turn, a feeling that cannot be detached from the fact that NB has a terrible Legal Aid system (arguably the worst in the country); it lacks a Pro Bono system; and there is a general lack of considerate lawyers in Fredericton. As a result of the Law Society’s “successful” challenges against Vaughn on every opportunity they could get, many poor people have been pushed to the edge of a cliff, hanging on by whatever strength they can muster on their own. But they have often been forced to let go and give up their struggles.

Now Vaughn’s helping hand has been physically taken away, and he has more ridiculous conditions on him that further limit him from doing his work.

But supporters will not remain silent or still !!!

For more information about this, and how to help Vaughn, contact Asaf Rashid at handsofnothing@yahoo.ca

Solidarity with all political prisoners
“I take issue with being deprived of the rights of an ordinary citizen” –
Vaughn Barnett, Jan 16th 2007 (in court