JUSTICE COLIN WESTMAN

Well this is one of those rare occasions where I disagree totally with Luisa D'Amato's Opinion column in the Waterloo Region Record. The title of her column in today's paper is "Bouquets and boos for 2017". Maybe the "disagree totally" is an overstatement. Essentially I'm a little bit shocked at her strong criticism of Justice Colin Westman. He apparently is retiring on January 28, 2018 and Luisa states that she is "counting the days". My shock and disappointment with Luisa is not due to Justice Westman's decision in a specific case which has upset her. In fact I too was quite taken aback by the provided facts and details in the case involving the treatment of three women by the owner of a restaurant in Ayr. I too felt that the Judge was too sympathetic with the perpetrator who did plead guilty to simple assault of three of his employees. While "flicking, pinching and poking" the women is indeed assault, thankfully it is at the extreme lower end of assaults. The owner did plead guilty however Justice Westman did no service to either women or employees in general with his sympathy and compassion expressed in court towards the accused and now convicted individual.

My disappointment is because of a lifetime of realistic and compassionate sympathy to accused who come before his court. I have read literally for decades Justice Westman's words, comments and sentences that he has given to either those charged or convicted for various "crimes". Some of those crimes literally were for stealing a loaf of bread to feed a hungry family. Some of them were as much society's crimes as they were the individual's. In other words while it's hard to understand his words and thoughts in the most recent case, overall Justice Westman in my opinion has been a beacon of light in a justice system that far too often treats minor offenders far too harshly. If Luisa really wants to criticize inept, incompetent and or biased judges I have a far more deserving candidate for her. In my opinion Justice Robert Reilly deserves far more censure and public outing than Justice Westman and possibly more than all the others. I am aware of three different examples of what I believe is his misconduct, bad judgement and or bias. If citizen victims in his court had more money they would appeal his asinine decisions and or formally complain about his words and conduct to the Ontario Judicial Council or whatever other body allegedly disciplines deserving judges.