| An Unlikely Victory Which is more important: universal access to affordable health care, or affordable access to a fair and equitable justice system? Canada has one and not the other. The United States may shortly have both if the Obama administration is successful in providing universal affordable health care for all Americans. It took Joanna Gualtieri twelve years to get a promised day in a Canadian courtroom where the Department of Foreign would have to answer to a real judge as opposed to a government appointed adjudicator, as in my case, for harassing her out of her job more than a decade earlier. The difference for this whistleblower was she had the means to sustain an expensive legal battle against Foreign Affairs. In Canada, lawyers can not accept cases on a contingency basis (they also can not widely advertise their services which complicates getting the right lawyer, even if you have the money). It’s money up front, and lots of it if you are going to take the Federal Government to court. The exhausting powers of the government i.e. unlimited time and money that it will use to wear a litigant down is enough to scare off all but the most determined and capable challengers. Lawyers for the Department of Justice representing Foreign Affairs were accused of doing just that, which is why it took Joanna twelve years to get some payback for what government officials did to her. The prospect of having to justify their actions in open count seems to have convinced Foreign Affairs and Department of Justice lawyers to settle the matter in a less public forum, behind closed doors. Joanna Gualtieri's courageous and expensive battle with government officials that know no shame appears to be over. Bernard Payeur April 11, 2010
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