Judicial sex scandal Bar association slams CBC ‘attack’

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This article was published 04/09/2010 (5875 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The body that represents Manitoba lawyers has slammed CBC for its "unwarranted attack" on a respected member of the judiciary and wants the public broadcaster to publicly apologize for its "savage" reporting.

The Manitoba Bar Association sent a letter to CBC’s president and its Ombudsman on Thursday, saying its coverage of a sex scandal involving Queen’s Bench Associate Chief Justice Lori Douglas was unnecessary, unfair, and "tabloid journalism at its worst." The letter said CBC’s emphasis on the graphic and salacious details went too far, and that the only restraint the CBC demonstrated was "not showing the pornographic photographs in question."

"The headline ‘Naked photographs of a senior Manitoba judge engaged in bondage’ suggests the interest in the story is more about the potentially prurient aspects of this story than anything else," the letter states. "The emphasis of the story and the inappropriately graphic details of the allegations simply go too far, especially given the potentially damaging effect these allegations will undoubtedly have on the people involved."

Earlier this week, CBC broke the news that the Canadian Judicial Council is reviewing Douglas’ status after Winnipeg computer programmer Alex Chapman came forward and alleged his former lawyer and Douglas’ husband, Jack King, pressured him to have a sexual relationship with Douglas back in 2003.

The offer was never accepted, but Chapman said King showed him about 30 nude photos of Douglas to entice him to have sex with her. King had apparently posted the explicit pictures on an Internet website devoted to sex between white women and black men.

CBC Manitoba’s managing editor Cecil Rosner said the news organization spent several weeks deciding whether or not they should report the story and how to present it, and consulted a number of outside legal and ethical experts for their opinion.

"The overwhelming response we got back was that there is an issue here," he said. "The issue is significant matters in the judicial process by judicial applicants need to be disclosed to the vetting committee. Everybody told us this."

Rosner said the CBC decided the story was important to tell, and that every other major news outlet across Canada must have agreed, since they followed the story as well. He said the Bar Association’s criticism is "off-base," since if the broadcaster was only interested in the prurient they could have run the explicit photos, emails and voice messages.

"I’ve got to assume that every other news organization also considered it worthy of reporting," Rosner said.

Manitoba Bar Association president Ken Mandzuik called the defence embarrassing, and said the public broadcaster owes Douglas and her family a "grovelling" apology.

Mandzuik said he will wait for a response from the CBC before the association decides whether further action is necessary.

jen.skerritt@freepress.mb.ca