Sidney Bryan Linden is a former Chief Judge of the Ontario Court of Justice and a judicial reformer and administrator in the province of Ontario, Canada.
Early career
Linden graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from University College in 1961 and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in 1964. He was called to the bar in 1966. Linden became well known as a lawyer specializing in criminal defence and civil liberties, a number of his cases receiving public notice."Legal Eagles: It's Like Having God in Your Corner", Maclean's Magazine, June 1975, pp. 6-7. Brief biographies of 14 top lawyers in Canada. At 36 Linden was the second-youngest. Cases of note included R. v. Mikolasch, involving questionable police confiscation of obscene materials (Globe and Mail, December 16, 1967; Toronto Star, December 9, 1967), R. v. Kallhartt & Brooks, involving heavy fines for masseurs in an alleged bawdy house (Toronto Star, February 8, 1973; Globe and Mail, February 8, 1973), R. v. Nunes, involving deportation of a Portuguese immigrant with a falsely validated passport (Globe and Mail, October 27, 1967; Toronto Star, October 27, 1967), R. v. Buckler, where Linden asked the court to strike down the Criminal Code's indefinite preventative detention of habitual criminals provisions as contrary to the British North America Act and the Canadian Bill of Rights (Toronto Star, January 7, 1970), similarly R. v. Roestad which involved indefinite detention of a convicted pedophile (Toronto Star, February 3, 1971, February 12, 1971, February 15, 1971, February 26, 1971, and March 2, 1971), and similarly again R. v. Shand, where Linden argued (successfully, though reversed on appeal) that mandatory minimum sentences for drug possession were contrary to the Bill of Rights (Globe and Mail, January 17, 1976; Toronto Star, January 17, 1976; Maclean's Magazine, February 23, 1976). Linden's murder trials included R. vs. Tennant & Naccaratto, and R. vs. French & Urbanick.
Linden was executive director and the first full-time general counsel (1966–67) for the fledgling Canadian Civil Liberties Association. The association had been formed in 1965 from the pre-existing Association for Civil Liberties. Under his direction, the association applied for a grant from The Ford Foundation to improve its financial position."Joint Submission of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Canadian Civil Liberties Education Trust to The Ford Foundation for Grant-in-Aid of an Ongoing Programme in the Field of Civil Liberties and for Special Assistance for "Due Process in Canadian Criminal Law: A Programme for Reform" (1967 unpublished).
He was an early member of the Criminal Lawyers' Association, serving as vice-president from 1975 to 1979. Linden worked on bail reform as co-director of the Amicus Foundation Toronto Bail Project (1967–68), which used interviews and a scoring system to assess the suitability of prisoners for personal bail or release on recognizance, thereby countering the tendency of then bail system to favour individuals with financial means.See "Amicus: Friends To The Friendless", The Ottawa Journal, April 6, 1968. Also Frank N. Willams, "The Toronto Bail Project", Osgoode Hall Law Journal, Vol. 6, No. 2 (December 1968), pp. 316-324. The project was inspired by a similar initiative of the Vera Foundation in New York, and by the work of Professor Martin Friedland of the University of Toronto. He was also a contributing editor (justice) for Maclean's Magazine and a member of the founding editorial board of Canadian Lawyer, first published in October 1977.For Maclean's see for example March 22, 1976, "Because of Morgentaler, one law will change - and maybe two", p. 55.
Linden was a supporter and active participant in the Legal Aid Plan of the Law Society of Upper Canada and worked for the plan's reform. He was co-chair of the Sub-Committee to Study the Delivery of Legal Aid Services, formed April 1978, whose recommendations let to improvements in the plan's capacity and infrastructure.The Law Society of Upper Canada Legal Aid Plan, 1979 Annual Report, pp. 11-16. For the report, see Linden, S., and J. Douglas Ewart, "Background Paper for the Legal Aid Committee of the Law Society and the Attorney General: Implications of the Salaried Defender Concept for the Delivery of Criminal Legal Services in Ontario", October 5, 1978. During the plan's infancy, Linden was ejected from court by a judge for attempting to represent an accused as duty counsel.The presiding judge was not familiar with, or amenable to, this recent innovation. "Judge orders legal aid lawyer removed from his courtroom", Toronto Star, July 17, 1969; "A bad day in court" (editorial), Toronto Star, July 18, 1969; "Wishart wants report on ouster", The Telegram, July 17, 1969; "Judge rapped on legal aid man's ouster", The Telegram, July 18, 1969; for Judge Bolsby in his own defence see "Duty Counsel in Magistrate's Court", The Criminal Law Quarterly, Vol. 11 (1968-69), pp. 354-371; for response of Legal Aid Program Committee of Law Society of Upper Canada see "The Functions of a Duty Counsel", The Criminal Law Quarterly, Vol. 12 (1969-70), pp. 124-131.
Career
Police Complaints Commissioner
A number of studies had been conducted on the subject of how to deal with public complaints about police conduct.McMurtry, R., Memoirs and Reflections, Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, 2013, p. 209; First Annual Report of the Office of the Public Complaints Commissioner and the Police Complaints Board, 1982, p. 1 & Appendix A. At the request of then Attorney-General Roy McMurtry, Linden conducted research on police complaints processes, including practices in other jurisdictions, and proposed a model that was adopted by the province.McMurtry, R., Memoirs and Reflections, Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, 2013, p. 210. He was subsequently appointed first Public Complaints Commissioner for Metropolitan Toronto and Chair of the Police Complaints Board (1981–85).McMurtry, R., Memoirs and Reflections, Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, 2013, p. 211. This was a pilot project, combining elements of both police and civilian oversight, and by 1990 the Board's mandate was expanded to all of Ontario.McMurtry, R., Memoirs and Reflections, Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, 2013, p. 211-12. Linden was thrown in "at the deep end", but "his intelligence and commitment produced excellent early reports." The statute, The Metropolitan Police Force Complaints Project Act, 1981, was delayed in a minority legislature and finally passed when the government of Bill Davis re-gained majority status. The model developed by McMurtry and Linden had been controversial in many quarters (see for example "Kid-gloves commissioner", Canadian Lawyer, September 1984). See also Hansard Official Report of Debates – Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Fourth Session, 32nd Parliament, Friday, June 22, 1984, statement by Hon. Mr. McMurtry, 2768 – 2770. "In my view", said McMurtry in part, "it is clear that this important project has been an outstanding success…Mr. Linden's office has demonstrated a remarkable achievement in this exceptionally difficult area." According to McMurtry, the model had been mentioned as an example by Lord Scarman in the British House of Lords after riots in Brixton, and was also being studied in the United States, Europe, Hong Kong, Bermuda, Jamaica, the Netherlands, Nigeria and Australia.
Executive Director of Canadian Auto Workers Legal Services Plan
From 1985 to 1988, Linden was Executive Director of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW – now UNIFOR) Legal Services Plan, which continues to operate. This was the first plan of its kind in Canada, the result of negotiations over two years between CAW and the major auto manufacturers, and based on similar pre-paid legal service plans in the United States. Linden set up a head office and six branches, with 26 staff and 500 cooperating lawyers. Implementation problems included a dispute with the Law Society of Upper Canada (eventually resolved) over the cooperating lawyer model.Drysdale, C., "The law according to Linden", Benefits Canada, July/August 1986, pp. 39-42. On the dispute with the Law Society, see "Law society, auto union reach pact", The Globe and Mail, December 3, 1985, "Making justice affordable", The Globe and Mail, December 6, 1985, and "A sensible solution to expensive justice", The Sunday Star, August 3, 1986. On the success of the plan see "Success of prepaid legal services could set a trend", The Globe and Mail, February 3, 1986, and "Auto workers hail revolutionary legal aid plan", Toronto Star, August 2, 1986.
Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario
In 1988, Linden was appointed the first Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. As an Officer of the Legislature, Linden's appointment was recommended by an all-party committee. Ontario's model unified the access-to-information and privacy-protection roles in a single commissioner, unlike the federal model with dual commissioners, and gave the commissioner order-making authority. Linden established and ran the IPC until 1990, designing the inquiry process and pioneering the use of paper as opposed to in-person hearings."Freedom of information underpins democracy", Linden, S., Law Times, August 19, 2002, p. 7. Linden adopted a cautious approach in his decision-making, aware of precedents that would be set and of the need to withstand judicial scrutiny."Information is freed, but carefully", The Toronto Star, June 29, 1988. "As first indicators, the cases show Linden will judge by the law, and will not order information just for information's sake." See also Linden, S., "Access laws are vital to hold governments to account", Globe and Mail, July 22, 2002 (comment), for some of Linden's reflections on the office and its success. His more than 120 formative decisions continue to be cited in IPC jurisprudence.See IPC website, Decisions and Resolutions. Aside from hearing appeals, Linden issued recommendations on broader privacy and access issues, including employer disclosure of information about employees with AIDS, and the risk of document loss or improper disclosure from then-ubiquitous fax machines."Don't collect AIDS data, watchdog advises firms", Globe and Mail, December 7, 1989; "Ontario urged to solve "junk fax" problem", Globe and Mail, June 1, 1989.
Chief Judge of the Ontario Court of Justice