The Legal Eye - Faculty.law.ubc.ca - University of British Columbia

How Jack changed my life
by Samuel Hu, Law II
Jack has ocean front property near Lions
Bay. Although this makes the commute
to Vancouver painful at times, nothing
surpasses the joy of waking up to the
sights, smells and sounds of the Pacific
Ocean. Jack enjoys the solitude of his humble
abode and relishes the fact that he
doesn’t know where his closest neighbor
lives. For the past five winters Jack has
lived this surreal life on Crown Land. You
see, Jack is what people generally refer to
as a squatter. A few large boulders and a
thin sheet of tin keeps Jack dry and warm
in the most beautiful city in Canada.
Two weeks into what I have dubbed as
the most exciting time of my life and I am
ready to end it. “Law school will be an
amazing but rewarding challenge.” “You’ll
meet lots of people with similar goals and
aspirations.” “This is something that
you’ve always wanted to do so here’s your
chance.”
Bullshit – fed to me by friends, family
and myself. A fortnight into my foray at
achieving a law school education and I had
experienced about as much hostility, unfriendliness
and unhealthy competition that
I ever wanted. Sure it may be my depression
talking. I have suffered from clinical
depression since grade eleven and there are
times where everything seems to fall apart.
But this was different. (For an accurate
and painful view into living life with
depression, I recommend Elizabeth
Wurtzel’s Prozac Nation.) I didn’t have the
desire to find out if venous blood turned
from blue to dark red as it was exposed to
oxygen after I slit my wrist. Nor did trying
to take two weeks worth of Celexa seem
appealing to me. But things just weren’t
‘right.’ Besides school not being what I
expected it to be – an intellectual but nurturing
debate on what we need to do to
change the world – I was experiencing a
sense of failure on various fronts.
Motivating people at work (as a project
manager of an engineering company) was
from CONFERENCE page 1
A controversial panel discussion involved
the Christian Brothers litigation, in
which victims of sexual abuse at Newfoundland’s
Mount Cashel Orphanage were
successful in bringing various tort claims
against the Christian Brothers of Canada.
The Ontario Court of Appeal agreed with
the claimants that two Vancouver Schools
– St. Thomas More Collegiate and Vancouver
College – should be sold in order to
satisfy the judgment, instigating criticism
that the Court broke with traditional principles
regarding the exigibility of assets
held on trust for charitable purposes.
BC Attorney General Geoff Plant participated
in the panel in dramatic fashion,
revealing the Legislature’s response to
Christian Brothers in the recently passed
Charitable Purposes Preservation Act. Not
surprisingly, critiquing the new legislation
became a favourite new hobby at the many
health breaks throughout the conference.
Another topical panel addressed BC’s
Tobacco Legislation, which establishes a
cause of action for the government to recoup
proving to be difficult and fruitless. It also
became painfully clear that a woman I recently
met and not so secretly admired did
not reciprocate those feelings. It even
seemed like my cat had about as much of
me as she was willing to tolerate.
Saturday September 20th. After spending
the day in the office with glimmers of
hope but ultimately, with major failure, I
decided that a trip to anywhere but here
was in order. After some miraculous sense
of reason entered my withered brain and
convinced me that flying to Thailand was
not a good option, I googled “Hostels in
Squamish.”
“The Squamish International Hostel –
Where you can check out but never
leave”
“Hi, I was wondering if I could get a
room for tonight?”
“How many people will come coming.”
“Not sure right now, hopefully there
will be two or three of us”
“Sounds good, I have a few private
rooms available. There are three beds
in each with a private bathroom. Also
included at no charge is an amazing
view of the Chief.” (laugh)
“Perfect.”
“All I need is a credit card to hold the
reservation.”
“No problem, Visa 4500 …”
Now that step one was complete, I
needed to find the other people that would
occupy beds two and three.
“Hey have a got a deal for you – a night
in Squamish where rest and relaxation
will be plentiful.”
“Sorry – can’t make it tonight – maybe
another time?”
“How’s it going? Would you consider
coming up to Squamish with me for the
evening and day tomorrow?”
“Tempting but don’t think it’ll work
out.”
“Come one come all for an all expenses
paid vacation to Squamish, British Co-
health care costs caused by smoking. UBC
Professors Liz Edinger and Robin Elliot, who
were consulted by the BC government in the
case brought by cigarette manufacturers challenging
the validity of the legislation, discussed
the constitutional and conflicts problems
that arose. Also present was Daniel
Webster, QC, who acted as counsel for the
province at trial and in its successful appeal
at the BC Court of Appeal.
The 2004 Supreme Court of Canada
decision in Transport North American Express
v. New Solutions Financial was discussed
in an academic heavyweight panel
with Professor Stephen Waddams of the
University of Toronto along with Professor
Ziegel, joined by UBC’s Professor Ljiljana
Biukovic and chaired by former UBC Dean,
Madam Justice Lynn Smith. The case involved
a loan with onerous terms that
breached the criminal rate of interest set
out in s. 347 of the Criminal Code. In this
case, the deal struck between sophisticated
business parties did not warrant finding the
entire contract void ab initio. While agreeing
with the decision, Professor Ziegel continues
to call for the repeal of the trouble-
lumbia” (posted to a Internet dating
site.) No response.
Well, I guess I shouldn’t have been
surprised. Finding friends has never come
easy. People that spend significant time
with me and still grant me honor of calling
me ‘friend’ are far and few in between.
Nevertheless, I threw my books in the car,
a toothbrush, contact’s solution, a clean pair
of underwear and was on my way.
“Where’re you headed?”
“Just by Lion’s Bay.”
“No problem – I’m on my way up to
Squamish.”
And that’s how I met Jack. Picking up
hitchhikers is not something I recommend
for everyone but in my limited experiences,
I’ve come to appreciate each hitchhiker’s
story. From “Hallelujah – Jesus saves!” to
“Damn I need to make it to the city to sell
myself for some drug money.”
“So you just get off the ferry?” – I
picked up Jack around Horseshoe Bay.
“No, I worked today in the city – painting.
How ‘bout you?”
“No, I’m just going up for the night –
need to get away if you know what I
mean.”
“So this is a vacation for you?”
“Well, it’s just for the night.”
“Anytime you can get out of a city, you
should call it a vacation.”
Jack seems quite nice. A little rough
looking – not really the Lion’s Bay type
but friendly.
“So you live up in Lion’s Bay?”
“Sure do. I’ve got ocean front property.”
(laugh) If you’re not sure why
Jack laughed, you obviously didn’t read
the opening paragraph.
“So what do you do for work?”
“I guess you could say a general labourer.
Landscaping, painting, laying
carpet – it pays the few bills that I have
(laugh). It’s great when I get work up
in Lion’s Bay. Let’s me get into a part
of people’s lives.”
some criminal interest rate provision.
Corporate governance was a topic
coined by panel chair Fred Pletcher of
Borden Ladner Gervais as a concept which
“has joined both apple pie and motherhood
as something entirely good.” Professor
Sarra discussed the governance standards
revealed in her qualitative study of 23 Canadian
natural resource firms, noting the
shift towards board independence, financial
and environmental sustainability measures;
a continued lack of diversity in terms
of gender and race; and the increased power
and importance of institutional investors
in governance of corporations in global
capital markets.
Robert Yalden of the Montreal Osler,
Hoskin & Harcourt office discussed
changes in Canadian disclosure requirements
and in particular, critiqued the regulatory
process by which decisions are being
made. Professor Raymonde Crête of
Université Laval addressed the issue of
executive compensation. Professor Chris
Nicholls of Dalhousie Law responded to
these papers, noting first that he only spent
as much time reviewing them as the out-
“So are you excited about the Olympics?”
“I’m not sure what’s going to happen.
I try to talk and listen to people around
here. People up here are money people.
Primarily interested in the Dow
and US economy. They don’t have
much time for rhetoric and empty promises
that our local politicians make.”
Quite an interesting response I though
to myself. “So what’s a kid like you
doing taking a vacation?”
“I work – kind of stressful right. Also
just recently went back to school.”
“Oh yeah, to study what?”
“Law – or at least that what they tell
me I’m studying.”
“You don’t sound to keen – let me tell
you about Adam – the lawyer that
changed my life. When I was younger I
use to drink a lot. Before I knew it, I
could control my drinking. Oh shit!
That’s my stop – well, to make a long
story short, Adam kept my ass out of
jail a few times. I eventually realized
that I can’t drink and although I’ll
never to be able to repay, let alone find
Adam, I owe him a lot.”
“Interesting, I guess lawyers can do
some good.” (internal laugh)
“Yeah – are you planning on doing any
work pro bono? By the way, my name
is Jack.”
“Sam, pleasure to meet you. Have a
good night.”
Epilogue
Monday morning 9:30 am - Room 102.
“As we examine Harvela v. Royal Trust,
we see the distinction between fixed bid and
auction sales. Furthermore, we can use the
Contract A/B analysis as outlined in Ron
Engineering to determine if a contract did
indeed exist.”
Pro bono publico – for the public good
Over the next few years that we spend
together, I hope that everyone in this class
will get the chance to meet Jack.
side directors at Disney did on Michael
Ovitz’s severance package.
On another aspect of governance, Professor
Ron Davis examined the difficult
issue of successor status on bankruptcy of
the firm, with Mr. Justice Tysoe of the BC
Supreme Court chairing the panel. Another
panel debated whether or not Canada
should have a national regulatory system,
and the Law Faculty was honoured to have
the Chair of the BC Securities Commission
Doug Hyndman and senior counsel
Charlotte Morganti weigh in on this important
debate.
Before addressing her main points on
Ford v. OMERS, a case involving the valuation
of shares in a going-private transaction,
new UBC Law Professor Kim Brooks
thanked the student volunteers who appeared
to be working busily leading up to
the conference, noting that she wasn’t sure
what the volunteers got out of it, but instructed
those attending from law firms to
“please, give them jobs.” Indeed, the efforts
of the student volunteers at this event
were remarkable, and noted by almost every
speaker throughout the weekend.
Page 8 The Legal Eye November 2004