Skilled troubles are mounting for a London lawyer who tried to sue a choose after dropping a case marked by “incomprehensible authorized gibberish” and after being discovered by a court docket to have made racist and misogynist feedback to opponents and others.
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Skilled troubles are mounting for a London lawyer who tried to sue a choose after dropping a case marked by “incomprehensible authorized gibberish” and after being discovered by a court docket to have made racist and misogynist feedback to opponents and others.
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The Regulation Society of Ontario’s tribunal suspended Oussama Hamza indefinitely Wednesday for allegedly refusing to adjust to society requests for paperwork associated to investigations of his actions.
He much more severe allegations about these actions, in keeping with a discover filed final month on the tribunal, together with making racist and sexist remarks on social media and court docket paperwork and “hostile, inflammatory faces, inaccurate and discriminatory written statements in court docket paperwork and in associated correspondence, and on his agency’s web site.”
In the meantime, Hamza’s latest protection of a girl who was discovered by a court docket to have used a pretend title to attempt to sue the CBC is also inflicting consternation in authorized circles.
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Hamza couldn’t be reached for feedback Wednesday. Calls to his workplace cellphone prompted a voice message directing folks to his web site, earlier than saying goodbye and hanging up.
The web site was not working Wednesday. On the house web page was a discover asking folks to signal a “petition in opposition to” to enter the web site. The discover didn’t say what the petition was opposing and the hyperlink to the remainder of the web site didn’t work.
Hamza started incomes public notoriety in fall 2020, when lawyer Vincent Rocheleau posted LinkedIn messages encouraging ladies to participate in a College of Ottawa challenge about their experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic.
In accordance with court docket rulings, Hamza replied on LinkedIn with messages about ladies’s contributions to academia, together with that “ladies did not write their historical past as a result of they did not care to take action” and “ladies simply do not care about historical past or philosophy” as a result of “ladies do not usually think about being a thinker or historian ‘attractive.’ ”
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Hamza defended himself with feedback about his critics, together with that Rocheleau and one other individual “had been colonizing and genociding the nation,” and that white ladies had been “elevating murderers of Indians and blacks they now fake to assist in opposition to ‘villains’ like” him , in keeping with court docket paperwork.
Rocheleau filed a grievance with the Regulation Society of Ontario that Hamza’s feedback have been racist and sexist.
One other Hamza publish led to a different grievance to the regulation society. The publish confirmed a photograph of regulation scholar Ismail Aderonmu, his spouse and youngsters, with speech and thought bubbles making derogatory feedback about every, in keeping with a court docket determination.
Aderonmu’s grievance alleged posting such content material is “conduct unbecoming of a lawyer.”
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The regulation society launched an investigation, however Hamza allegedly refused to co-operate, as an alternative going to court docket looking for at the least $215,000 in damages.
Hamza additionally sought a number of orders, together with that:
- He not be required to check with any choose sooner or later as Your Honor or Justice.
- He “shall now not pay taxes to a European colonizer, however to a ‘purple Indian’ consultant in authorities.”
- He now not pays charges to the regulation society, “which shall be declared racist.”
- Aderonmu not be admitted to the bar.
In April 2021, Superior Courtroom Justice Thomas Heeney threw out the matter on a technicality, however made it clear all the case was with out advantage.
The authorized discover and factum filed by Hamza “quantity to over 1,000 pages of rambling, pseudo-intellectual assaults on the (regulation society) and the opposite respondents, expressions of his opinion on their character and integrity, racist and misogynist assaults on the respondents and the judiciary, arguments that quantity to little greater than incomprehensible authorized gibberish,” Heeney wrote.
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Hamza’s calls for about taxes and judges “can pretty be described as nonsense,” Heeney added. “They’re untenable at regulation and haven’t any probability of success.”
Heeney later ordered Hamza to pay prices of $33,000 to the regulation society and $12,742.86 to Aderonmu.
Hamza then sued, in French, the identical folks plus Heeney. Superior Courtroom Justice Robin Tremblay threw out that motion as “frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of the court docket” in a call revealed Jan. 17, 2022.
Hamza additionally took his case to the Ontario Courtroom of Attraction. It upheld Heeney’s determination, dismissed the enchantment, and located Hamza’s authorized arguments “proceed to make racist and misogynistic statements and embody private assaults on the respondents, . . . the movement choose and the respondents’ authorized counsel. We’re happy that the enchantment is frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of the method of the court docket.”
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The regulation society started investigating Hamza sooner or later, and a tribunal listening to discover in March alleged Hamza has contravened Regulation Society Act skilled conduct guidelines since Dec. 1, 2021, by failing to co-operate in a probe of his actions by refusing to completely reply to regulation society emails and letters.
After a listening to Tuesday, the tribunal dominated Hamza’s license can be suspended the following day till he responded to the correspondence. After that, he would stay suspended for an additional month.
No listening to date has been set for the investigation of his actions. However the discover for the listening to outlines seven allegations about ongoing actions that started in 2020.
The allegations embody that Hamza:
- Made “discriminatory, racist, sexist or offensive feedback on social media, on his agency’s web site, in court docket paperwork and in associated correspondence, which have been directed at members of the general public, the regulation society, complainants to the regulation society, members of the judiciary , different licensees and the Canadian justice system.”
- Tried to hinder a regulation society investigation by threatening to take authorized motion and “breached his responsibility to behave with integrity, specifically his responsibility to follow regulation and discharge all of his tasks to his shoppers, courts, the general public and different members of the occupation , by making hostile, inflammatory, inaccurate and discriminatory written statements in court docket paperwork and in associated correspondence, and on his agency’s web site.”
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Regardless of the sooner troubles, Hamza continued to follow regulation till this week, and that introduced him to a weird case involving the CBC over a March 2021 investigative piece by reporter Jennifer Chevalier into suspicions a psychological well being charity was run by a girl with a secret id .
An individual named Kamala Tiwari sued CBC for $20 million in damages. The broadcaster introduced a movement to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming Tiwari is a pretend title and the precise plaintiff was Althea Reyes.
Reyes, who has been declared a vexatious litigant underneath Sec. 140 of Ontario’s Courts of Justice Act, can not begin a authorized motion and not using a court docket’s permission. A vexatious litigant is somebody deemed to have introduced ahead a number of, frivolous claims to the courts.
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At a March 17 Zoom listening to, in keeping with the court docket determination, Superior Courtroom Justice Heather Williams requested Hamza if his consumer was on the display. Hamza didn’t reply, saying the choose ought to ask the opposite events in court docket as a result of they claimed to know who his consumer was. The choose then requested a girl on the display if she was the plaintiff. Hamza interrupted and once more informed the choose to ask the opposite events, though the girl then indicated she was Kamala Tiwari.
Williams dismissed the swimsuit in a call revealed in Could, saying it was doubtless Reyes began the authorized motion underneath the title Tiwari.
“Lastly, I need to add that Mr. Hamza’s participation on this matter was of concern to me, given his standing as an officer of the court docket,” Williams added.