Forgot to disclose drunk-driving conviction, resigning N.L. judge says

This is an odd story -- in almost all jurisdictions in Canada (I thought all till I saw this piece), judicial applicants go through a criminal record check. The checks are not perfect -- sometimes names are entered incorrectly etc -- but they pick up things like this. As for "forgetting" a conviction for impaired driving ... .

Module body

A newly appointed judge resigned Sunday from Newfoundland and Labrador's bench while claiming he had forgotten to note a drunk-driving conviction in his application.

Don Singleton, who was appointed as a provincial court judge in Grand Falls-Windsor before Christmas, declined an interview with CBC News, but in a statement described Sunday as "the worst day of my life."

Justice Minister Tom Marshall learned of Singleton's drunk-driving conviction after another judge informed him he was looking into it, after CBC News reported last week that Singleton had pleaded guilty in 2005 to two charges involving the illegal sale of duty-free alcohol and tobacco at the Canadian Forces Base Goose Bay in Labrador.

Singleton denied trying to cover over part of his past, including a conviction in the 1980s for drunk driving.

"I did not wilfully hold that information back. I have always been a 'warts and all' kind of guy. What you see is what you get," Singleton said in a statement.

"But that was a whole other lifetime ago before I met my wife and I had genuinely forgotten about it."

Marshall said a background check on Singleton was not done, as the judicial review committee relies on the honesty of applicants to disclose any past troubles with the law.