Toronto lawyer escapes discipline over Twitter slur aimed at criminal defence bar colleague
Reid Rusonik subsequently apologized for labelling former mayoral candidate Ari Goldkind a ‘kapo’
A prominent Toronto lawyer will not face formal disciplinary proceedings after a Law Society of Ontario committee ruled his “highly discriminatory and offensive” comments about a fellow member of the criminal defence bar were adequately dealt with at a regulatory meeting.
Reid Rusonik, the managing partner at Rusonik, O'Connor, Robbins, Ross, Gorham & Angelielini LLP took to Twitter back in September 2018 to call out Ari Goldkind – a Toronto-based criminal defence lawyer and one-time mayoral candidate – after Goldkind published an op-ed piece in the Toronto Star defending Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s threat to invoke the notwithstanding clause to force through a law shrinking the size of Toronto City Council.
Under a post linking to the opinion piece, Rusonik Tweeted that as a defence lawyer, Goldkind “is, and always has been, a kapo (it’s a quick google). There is nothing he won’t betray to get his name in the press or kiss-up to power.”
Kapo was the name given by the SS to prisoners it appointed to supervise their fellow captives in Nazi concentration camps in exchange for special treatment.
According to information provided by the LSO, Goldkind was deeply offended by the comparison and complained to the regulator. He declined to comment further when approached by Court Report Canada.
Rusonik, who did not respond to a request for comment, subsequently deleted the Tweet and wrote a letter of apology to Goldkind.
And after a regulatory meeting between Rusonik and a number of benchers, the LSO’s proceedings authorization committee decided no further action was necessary. The meetings are used by the law society when it decides a licensee’s conduct needs to be addressed, even though formal discipline proceedings are not warranted.
“The members of the Proceedings Authorization Committee noted that the Lawyer engaged in conduct unbecoming a lawyer when he posted personal comments on his twitter account that were discriminatory and offensive. He knew or ought to have known that his comments were offensive and would have been unwelcome by the Complainant and other members of the public,” reads a public notice of the meeting dated July 26. “The members of the Proceedings Authorization Committee agreed that the discussion was useful, and that the Lawyer recognized that in future he should be mindful not to engage in similar conduct. The Committee concluded that having addressed the regulatory issues, there will be no further action regarding this matter.”
In his op-ed, Goldkind countered commentary suggesting that Ford’s potential use of the notwithstanding clause would be “unprecedented” or “unconstitutional” after the premier’s attempt to slash the number of city councillors in Toronto was blocked for Charter violations by Ontario Superior Court Justice Edward Belobaba.
“While Premier Ford is displaying his characteristic ham-fistedness by ‘piquefully’ interfering in a municipal election mid-course, there is no doubt that he has the power, as have others before him, to invoke this action through legislation. And he’s right to do it,” Goldkind wrote.
Despite opposing Ford’s underlying election alterations, Goldkind questioned the judge’s ruling and wrote that he agreed with the premier’s challenge to the electorate to vote him out if they didn’t like his intended use of the notwithstanding clause.
“If ever there was a time, with so little at stake for rights or the interest of citizens, for an elected leader to fight back against the person he sees as the real bogeyman in this scenario, a single government-appointed judge, with the constitutional tool at his disposal, this is that time,” the opinion piece concluded.
According to the LSO, Rusonik’s response on Twitter was not in keeping with Rule 6.3.1-1 of its Rules of Professional Conduct, which spells out a lawyer’s “special responsibility to respect the requirements of human rights laws in force in Ontario.”
“While the Law Society recognizes individual rights of expression by licensees, especially in their personal or private capacity, there are limits to what is acceptable behaviour in a public social media forum. The use of the specific language by Mr. Rusonik was not consistent with the special relationship afforded to the legal profession, to protect the dignity of individuals and to respect human rights laws in force in Ontario” reads an LSO summary of the meeting. “Mr. Rusonik’s use of the word ‘kapo’ appears to have been deliberate as he clearly understood the meaning and more importantly, the significance of the word. It appears to have been an effort to demean the Complainant with the general population but more specifically within the eyes of the Jewish community, or those familiar with the particular significance of the term in that community.”
Goldkind had a previous run-in with Ford during the 2014 race for Toronto’s mayoralty, when both ultimately lost out to John Tory, criticizing Doug’s brother Rob Ford for allegedly anti-Semitic comments made during his own term as mayor:
“I am a Jewish person,” he said at a candidates’ debate.
“I am not religious, but the fact he insulted my religion, whether under the influence or not—we cannot have a mayor like that, because that’s where it starts,” Goldkind added, before Doug Ford drew boos from the crowd for listing his own connections to the Jewish community: “My Jewish doctor, my Jewish dentist, my Jewish lawyer, my Jewish accountant..."
As premier, Ford never had to follow through on his threat to use the notwithstanding clause, because Justice Belobaba’s decision was stayed – allowing the reduced-size election to proceed – before the province’s Court of Appeal overturned the original ruling anyway.
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