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 courtroom 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 courtroom 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’s requests for paperwork associated to investigations of his actions.
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He faces much more severe accusations 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 courtroom paperwork and “hostile, inflammatory, inaccurate and discriminatory written statements in courtroom paperwork and in associated correspondence, and on his agency’s web site.”
In the meantime, Hamza’s current protection of a girl who was discovered by a courtroom to have used a pretend title to attempt to sue the CBC can be inflicting controversy in authorized circles.
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Hamza couldn’t attain Wednesday’s remark. Calls to his workplace telephone 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” coming into 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 undertaking about their experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic.
In line with courtroom rulings, Hamza revised on LinkedIn with messages about ladies’s contributions to academia, together with that “ladies did not write their histories as a result of they did not care to take action” and “ladies simply did not care about historical past or philosophy” as a result of “ladies do not typically contemplate being a thinker or historian ‘horny.’ ”
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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 faux to assist in opposition to ‘villains’ like” him , in keeping with courtroom paperwork.
Rocheleau filed a grievance with the Regulation Society of Ontario that Hamza’s feedback have been racist and sexist.
One other Hamza put up led to a different grievance to the regulation society. The put up confirmed a photograph of regulation pupil Ismail Aderonmu, his spouse and youngsters, with speech and thought bubbles making derogatory feedback about every, in keeping with a courtroom resolution.
Aderonmu’s grievance alleged posting of such content material is “conduct unbecoming of a lawyer.”
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The regulation society launched an investigation, however Hamza refused to co-operate, as a substitute going to courtroom looking for no less than $215,000 in damages.
Hamza additionally sought a number of orders, together with that:
- He’s not required to consult with any choose sooner or later as Your Honor or Justice.
- He “ought to 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.”
- Your Aderon 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 the complete case was with out benefit.
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,” wrote Heeney.
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Hamza’s calls for about taxes and judges ”might be pretty described as nonsense,” Heeney added. “They’re untenable at regulation and don’t have any likelihood 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 courtroom” in a choice printed Jan. 17, 2022.
Hamza additionally took his case to the Ontario Courtroom of Attraction. It upheld Heeney’s resolution, dismissed the attraction, 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 glad that the attraction was frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of the proceedings of the courtroom.”
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The regulation society started investigating Hamza sooner or later, and a tribunal listening to discover in March alleging Hamza has contravened the Regulation Society Act professionally conducting guidelines since Dec. 1, 2021, by failing to co-operate in a probe of his actions by refusing to totally reply to regulation society emails and letters.
After a listening to Tuesday, the tribunal dominated Hamza’s license could 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 courtroom 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 impede 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 duties to his shoppers, courts, the general public and different members of the career , by making hostile, inflammatory, inaccurate and discriminatory written statements in courtroom 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 identification .
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 below Sec. 140 of Ontario’s Courts of Justice Act, can’t begin a authorized motion with no courtroom’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 courtroom resolution, Superior Courtroom Justice Heather Williams requested Hamza if his shopper was on the display screen. Hamza didn’t reply, saying the choose ought to ask the opposite events in courtroom as a result of they’re claimed to know who his shopper was. The choose then asks a girl on the display screen if she is the plaintiff. Hamza was interrupted and once more instructed the choose to ask the opposite occasion, though the lady then indicated she was Kamala Tiwari.
Williams dismissed the go well with in a choice printed in Could, saying it was doubtless Reyes began the authorized motion below the title Tiwari.
“Lastly, I have to add that Mr. Hamza’s participation on this matter was of concern to me, given his standing as an officer of the courtroom,” Williams added.