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MICHAEL BENEDICT

A legal battle over a $51,000
life insurance policy awarded to
a man who killed his wife is
returning to the Ontario
Superior Court, in an unusual
case involving the rights of
people found not criminally
responsible for their acts.

The Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General is seeking a forfeiture order in Superior Court of the life insurance payout to Ved Dhinghra under the Civil Remedies Act because it says the money represents proceeds of unlawful activity.

The province made the
announcement a day after the
Ontario Court of Appeal ruled
that Dhinghra was entitled to the
money from a policy on his late
wife, because he was found not
criminally responsible when, at
the age of 66, he stabbed his

56-year-old wife to death in 2006.

The public policy rule that one cannot benefit from one’s crime did not apply in these circumstances, the Court of Appeal concluded in Dhingra v. Dhingra Estate, 2012 ONCA 261.

“If a person found not crimin-
ally responsible on account of
mental disorder is not ‘morally
responsible’ for his or her act,
there is no rationale for applying
the rule of public policy,” Justice
Marc Rosenberg wrote on behalf
of the three-judge panel, in the
decision issued April 24.

Justice Rosenberg added that Superior Court Justice Andra Pollak was wrong to say that Dhingra had “committed second degree murder” and, as a result, deny him the insurance payout on public policy grounds. However, the court stayed its order for 30 days to allow the Attorney

Civil Remedies Act used
in claim for murdered
woman’s policy payout CROSS-BORDER

Business travellers
wise to choose
words carefully

See CRA Page 3

THE LAWYERS WEEKLY

Vol. 22, No. 27 NEWS FOR THE LEGAL PROFESSION December 6, 2002

PAGE 10

PAGE 14

JOBS

Sundhu climbs back from ignominy

Former judge returns
to private practice

See Diversity Page 8

THE LAWYERS WEEKLY

in human rights arena

BRENDA CRAIG KAMLOOPS, B.C.

On the morning of Feb. 18, 2006, Bill Sundhu, then a provincial court judge in Kamloops, called his wife with an urgent plea: He had just been released from the Vancouver drunk tank and he needed her help. “You have every right to be angry,” he recalls telling her. “Right now, I need you to be on my side. Pick me up at the airport, and don’t bring the kids. The media might be there.”

VOL. 22, NO. 27 NEWS FOR THE LEGAL PROFESSION DECEMBER 6, 2002 VOL. 22, NO. 27 NEWS FOR THE LEGAL PROFESSION DECEMBER 6, 2002

His spotless career as a provincial court judge was about to become indelibly stained because of a drunken evening at the Four Seasons hotel in Vancouver.

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“I woke up in a police cell. I had a cut on my lip and blood on my shirt,” Sundhu recalls. “They handed me my watch and my belt. Then I was nudged out the door and there was the sunshine—and there were the TV cameras.” Global News had found out that Vancouver police had a judge in jail.

THE LAWYERS WEEKLY

Bill Sundhu, in the courthouse law library in Kamloops B.C., where he practises criminal law and human rights cases.

BRENDA CRAIG FOR THE LAWYERS WEEKLY

He has “no recollection” of
that night. But a summary of an
investigation by the Office of the
Chief Judge (of the Provincial
Court), made public in 2007, said
that Sundhu was verbally abusive
to a female employee and patron
at the hotel and that he later tried
to intimidate police by threaten-
ing their jobs.
“When I read the police report,
I couldn’t believe I could behave
like such an ass.”
In 2007, Sundhu stepped down
amid a protracted investigation
into his fitness to serve as a judge.
Thus ended what was described at
the time as an unblemished,
10-year stint on the bench, pre-
ceded by an impressive law career
and an advocate for social equal-
ity. His resignation was called
“tragic” by then-attorney general
Wally Oppal. “I question whether
a resignation was in order,” Oppal
said publicly at the time.

For Sundhu, his departure from the bench was more than a stunning personal blow — the circumstances surrounding it also rocked his faith in the legal system and reinforced his view

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PAGE 20

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