Exclusion by due process: Martin v. Law Society of British Columbia. A Cold War eclipse of civil liberties.

Abstract

The thesis analyzes W. J. Gordon Martin's exclusion from the practice of law by the Benchers of the Law Society of British Columbia in 1948, and the protest raised in response to this action. A conservative legal elite, closely aligned with the provincial state, rejected Martin as unfit due to his Marxian-socialist beliefs and his association with the Communist Labor-Progressive Party. Cold War fears and hostility and a larger conservative campaign against socialism and labour radicalism fuelled the Benchers' actions. Left-wing political and labour groups, students, journalists and civil libertarians protested the Benchers' decision, their conservative elitism, and the legislated discretionary powers which allowed a technically qualified candidate to be rejected for political/ideological reasons. This case occurred during the formative period of the Canadian civil liberties movement, and the protest reflected increased public concern for the fundamental freedoms of the individual. The protest composition, organization, focus, and ultimately its demise, demonstrated the juvenile status of the civil liberties movement. The legal establishment granted Martin "due process," his day in a court where he had no chance of a victory. Civil libertarians chose to grant the procedure and its outcome as conclusive in a period when few safeguards for freedoms existed outside of public vigilance and protest. In the Martin case, the process undermined the principles of civil liberties.