The Lawyers Weekly - July 1, 2011

Anthony Weiner announces his resignation from Congress on June 16, amid controversy over sexually explicit online messages he sent to women.

RICHARD DREW / THE CANADIAN PRESS

Premature adjudication in ‘Weenergate’?

OFF THE RECORD

JEFFREY
MILLER

“It’s FronkenSTEEN!” Dr. Frankenstein insisted, in Mel Brooks’ cinematic retelling of the Mary Shelley story. Yet that celebrated conductor of the New York Philharmonic demanded loyalty to his Germanic roots: “It’s Bern-STINE!” he thundered, to rhyme with “vine.” And now we know why. If only Anthony Weiner had insisted on the true Germanic pronunciation of his name, there would have been no “ Weenergate.” His ancestors would have pronounced his surname as “Viner.” If Anthony had respected his patrinomial roots, would he have been pushed to resign? Does a rose by another name affect its trial and sentencing?

We’ve long called hot dogs by
their German sobriquet, albeit
with an Americanized w, and if you
asked for a “whiner” at the Canada
Day barbeque, they’d probably tell
you, “She’s the one with the mus-
tard all over her face, at the chil-
dren’s table.” We pronounce the
wiener in schnitzel dead on—
“veener,” acknowledging that it is
spelled with ie. And we understand
that the stein which holds beer and
is spelled with ei is pronounced
“stine.” So it’s hard to know how
Reisman becomes “Reesman” and
Bernstein becomes “Bernsteen.”
Mind you, maybe Anthony
Weiner deliberately shrank from
Lenny’s more or less accurate
lead, because that would have
made him a “whiner.” As the Puri-
tans of the American press wasted
no time in blowing Weiner’s sad
and puerile sextings out of all pro-
portion, dubbing them “Weener-
gate,” John Boehner suggested
why he insists on the proper Ger-
manic pronunciation of his name
as “Baynur”: some call him Beaner,
he explained, some Bonner, and
yes, some pronounce his name
Boner. “Thank God it’s not
‘Weener,’” he said, which led to
headlines such as this, from TMZ:
“Boehner Tells Weiner to Evacu-
ate Prematurely.” Still, as between
Weener and Boner v. Whiner, I’m
plumping for the defendant.

Re: “The right to economic liberty: a freedom worth protecting” The Lawyers Weekly, May 27

I read with interest the May 27 opinion piece by Karen Selick. There’s certainly no denying the importance of economic liberty to the British, American and Canadian democratic and legal traditions. Indeed, economic liberty can find at least indirect protection in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, through the guaranteed rights to free expression, free association and mobility, etc. However, it does not follow that Justice Lamer (as he then was) was wrong to suggest that economic liberty was not protected by s. 7 of the Charter, as he did in Irwin Toy (1989) and the Prostitution Reference (1990). The legislative history of s. 7 (set out by Justice Lamer in the B.C. Motor Vehicle Reference) makes it abundantly clear that Parliament deliberately—and in intentional contrast with the U.S. Bill of Rights — excluded “property” rights from the ambit of the

provision’s essentially procedural guarantee of “fundamental justice.” While the Constitution is a “living tree,” this should not be seen as a licence to fundamentally re-interpret a text whose scope (on this point) was the subject of a clear legislative debate and decision just over 25 years ago.

David Goetz
Senior counsel with
a federal government agency
Ottawa

Re: “Pulling a Charlie Sheen: What to do if the star of your law firm goes AWOL,” The Lawyers Weekly, June 3.

One critical subject was not
July 1, 2011 | 5

even broached in this article; why wouldn’t a law firm encourage counseling or help for such a lawyer? It is common practice in the U.S. to warn, then offer help. Instead, the article focused on saving the firm’s image.

Even large corporations have been known to offer employees free help in lieu of being fired.

It is great to keep the firm intact, but it takes humanity to help a drugged out, freaked out, mentally unstable employee who has once been a valued employee. I never see this issue come up in Canada. Why?

Cathie Chansamone Costanzo
Legal researcher
Granite School District
Salt Lake City, Utah

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