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February 11, 2011
Full commitment to justice
Harry Walsh is recognized as the longest-serving Canadian lawyer.
REBECA KUROPATWA
Recognized for his dedication to criminal law for more than 70 years and for his advocacy work against capital punishment, 97-year-old Harry Walsh has been named to the Order of Canada.
Notably, Walsh served as co-chairman of the committee that traveled across Canada speaking on the necessity of abolishing capital punishment in this country, successfully getting a resolution passed to abolish capital punishment at the annual plenary session of the Canadian Bar Association held in Quebec City in August 1975, and which passed in the House of Commons in 1976.
Before this victory, public executions in Canada were not uncommon. “Students used to go to the third floor of the Law Courts Building [in Winnipeg] to watch hangings,” recalled Walsh. “Too often, someone charged with murder, convicted and hanged, would later be found not guilty of the offence. Shouldn’t we, as lawyers, act on behalf of others?”
Especially as Jews, Walsh said, we cannot participate or stand by when a life is taken. “Are we gods?” he asked. “You don’t look up to God and say ‘Dayeinu’ [enough]…. I’ve never turned anyone away on account of what they’ve committed.”
Looking to the United States’ capital punishment track record, Walsh said, “There, black people get the death penalty, but rarely are whites convicted of the same offence. This is happening in half the states of the Union, and we must speak out against it. The system discriminates according to a person’s color, community or religion. That’s absolutely wrong,” he reiterated.
Another highlight of Walsh’s career was helping to establish Legal Aid Manitoba in the 1970s and recruiting senior people to work there, with the hope that junior lawyers would follow their example.
He also encouraged lawyers to take on cases in northern Manitoba. Over the years, Walsh said, “I’ve represented communists, Jews, aboriginals and others who’ve been discriminated against for one reason or another. I represented one aboriginal who couldn’t afford his fees. He paid me with a work of art he painted, which I’ve hung behind my office desk. Aboriginals, like everyone else, must have their fair rights respected as Canadians.”
Walsh also represents Jehovah Witnesses all across Canada. “One moment that stands out was when I defending a group of Jehovah Witnesses when they were holding a meeting in a Saskatchewan farm area. The RCMP appeared at the meeting and arrested about 60-70 [of them]. They didn’t understand why they were arrested. I explained it was because they were against participating in wars.”
Only one time in his career did Walsh have to defend a Jew accused of murder, he said. “Jews don’t tend toward killing,” he commented. “This person ... killed a woman he was engaged to. He was found guilty, and rightly so. This happened when hanging was in vogue. I’m proud to have defended him and to have prevented him from being [hanged].
“The judge was Jack Adamson, who we called ‘Blackjack’ for the number of death penalties he pronounced. When the jury returned to the courtroom and said the verdict, they were all crying – crying because I explained that [the defendant] was a Jewish man who doesn’t believe in murder but lost his head when his fiancée rejected him.”
Although the practice of law may have changed over the years, Walsh has remained true to his beliefs – most of all that every person needs to step up and speak out for those in need. Still, said Walsh, “Sometimes there are situations we can’t do anything about, but we go on with our lives as ably and well as we can, until me’ah v’esrim [120 years of age].”
In the Jewish community, Walsh’s main involvement has been with the Winnipeg Associates of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev – the first chapter established in Canada, and one that he co-founded with his late wife, Irene. Walsh also has been a strong supporter of most of Israel’s other universities.
Walsh remains the longest-serving lawyer in Canada, still putting in a full week of work at the office (where his son, Paul, is a partner) and he continues to live in his own home. In 2000, Walsh was named one of Manitoba’s Top 10 lawyers of all time by the Law Society of Manitoba. Walsh graduated from the University of Manitoba law school in 1937.
Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.
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