n;Laura MacFarlane is the
newest member of the intellectual
property and technology group
at Field Law’s Calgary office.
Although her primary focus will be
on intellectual property (IP), Mac-
Farlane practices a broad range
of technology and IP law with an
emphasis on litigation concerning
copyright, trademarks, trade
secrets and design, contractual
and fiduciary issues.
n;Louis-Martin Dubé is joining
Lavery LLP’s Montreal office as
partner, and will be a member of
the firm’s real estate law team.
Dubé specializes in commercial
real estate and financing, and has
over 25 years of experience in the
area. He advises and represents
real estate owners, institutions,
developers, lenders and large-
space users on a variety of real
estate acquisition, development,
financing and leasing transactions.
For more than ten years he has
co-hosted the case law review
presented annually at the Can-
adian Bar Association (CBA).
n;Gabrielle Brochu has joined
Langlois Kronström Desjardins
insurance team in Montreal.
Brochu practices in the area of
civil litigation, mainly dealing with
insurance law, professional liability,
and disciplinary issues. Brochu has
represented insurers, businesses
and professionals before civil,
administrative, and disciplinary
courts and tribunals, and has also
been involved in many class
action suits. She will be handling
the professional liability insurance
files at the firm.
MICHAEL RAPPAPORT
Pundit and provocateur Ezra
Levant’s one-hour daily news and
talk show, The Source is barely a
few months old, but already he’s
succeeded in stirring up controversy with his comedic stunts and
colourful rants. Dressed as a
lumberjack he cut down a tree
with a chainsaw to celebrate
Earth Day. He gnawed on
chicken wings while interviewing
a PETA animal rights activist. In
his chest thumping rants, he’s
taken on everyone from civil servants to environmental activists
to Islamic radicals.
In an interview with The Lawyers Weekly, Levant admits one of
the goals of his show is to be a “bit
of a troublemaker.” But Levant is
a provocateur with a purpose: he
wants to fight for average people
whose rights have been trampled
by the state, educate the public
about their fundamental rights
and civil liberties and serve as a
counterweight to the liberal
mainstream media.
Born and bred in Calgary,
Levant, 39, was a champion
debater as a commerce undergrad at the University of Calgary.
He has never been shy about
courting controversy or craving a
good argument. As a law student
at the University of Alberta, he
challenged the school’s affirmative action policies, outraging
aboriginal law students, feminists and a number of professors.
After graduating from law
school in 1996, Levant articled at
a small litigation boutique. But he
postponed taking his Bar exams
for a few years to go to Ottawa to
work as an assistant to Preston
Manning, then-leader of the
Reform Party of Canada and an
MP for Calgary Southwest. In
1999, Levant joined the editorial
board of the National Post, where
he cut his teeth as a columnist and
editorial writer. In 2001, Levant
served as the communications
director for Stockwell Day, then-leader of the Canadian Alliance.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
n;Geoffrey John England passed
away recently at his home in
Nelson, B.C., at the age of 61. His
work was dedicated to furthering
the cause of fairness in the work-
place. He was a co-author of
Employment Law in Canada and
worked on Halsbury’s Laws of
Canada –Employment, both signifi-
cant works in legal literature. The
books are published by LexisNexis
Canada Inc., which also publishes
The Lawyers Weekly.
THE LAWYERS WEEKLY
VOL. 22, NO. 27 NE WS FOR THE LEGAL PROFESSION DECEMBER 6, 2002
LAWYER OF THE WEEK
Name:
Ezra Levant
Law school:
University of Alberta
Called to Bar:
2000
Career highlights:
2001 Served as
communications director
for Canadian Alliance leader
Stockwell Day
2004 Levant co-founded the
Western Standard, an Alberta-based magazine with an
emphasis on Western Canada,
political conservatism, and
libertarianism
2009 Penned the bestseller,
Shakedown: How our government
is undermining democracy in the
name of human rights
Ezra Levant
As the publisher of the Western Standard, a conservative
magazine which he co-founded
in 2004, Levant generated controversy by running the cartoons
depicting Muhammad, which
had sparked an uproar from the
Islamic community in Europe
when they were originally published in a Dutch newspaper. His
decision to publish, the cartoons,
drew the ire of a local Imam in
Calgary, who filed a human rights
complaint against the magazine.
The Source was launched as
part of the line-up of Canada’s
fledgling 24-hour news channel,
the privately-owned Sun News
Network, in April. Even before its
debut critics denounced the fledgling network as “Fox News North.”
Levant takes this criticism as a
compliment. “We didn’t politicize
Canadian news. We’re providing
balance,” Levant claims.
He points out that unlike the
publicly-funded CBC network,
which Canadians are forced to
pay for, whether they watch it or
not, to the tune of $1.1 billion in
taxpayer subsidies each year the
Sun News Network (like most
television networks) doesn’t
receive any public funding.
Furthermore, TV cable and satel-
lite providers don’t have to bun-
dle Sun News in their subscrip-
tion packages, unlike one of the
main competitors to the Sun Net-
work, the privately-owned CTV
Television Network, he says.
Got news?
Contributions to Names in
the News can be emailed
to names@lexisnexis.ca
Publisher
Julie Murtha
Managing Editor
Natalie Fraser, LL.B.
Focus Editor
Matthew Grace, LL.B.
Business Editor
Melissa Dunne
Ottawa Bureau Chief
Cristin Schmitz
Art Director
Tammy Leung
Production Coordinator
Pauline Braithwaite
Intern
Correspondents
Luigi Benetton, Toronto
Arnold Ceballos, LL.B., Toronto
Thomas Claridge, Toronto
Christopher Guly, Ottawa
Jeremy Hainsworth, Vancouver
Geoff Kirbyson, Winnipeg
Luis Millan, Montreal
donalee Moulton, Halifax
Gary Oakes, Victoria
Mike Sadava, Edmonton
® THE LAWYERS WEEKLY
VOL. 22, NO. 27 NEWS FOR THE LEGAL PROFESSION DECEMBER 6, 2002
THE LAWYERS WEEKLY
Vol. 22, No. 27 NEWS FOR THE LEGAL PROFESSION December 6, 2002
THE LAWYERS WEEKLY
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