Clerical error???

This is a very weird story from the Law Times indeed. The announcement was obviously correctly done -- they had the chap's resume. So what happened? Was there a consideration at Cabinet and the appointees listed wrongly? Was there a political change of mind? Newton is a senior and well respected lawyer -- he would be a fine judge.


So, it was an ‘unfortunate clerical error?’


By Robert Todd Publication Date: Monday, 29 June 2009

The federal Department of Justice was left red-faced — and a press secretary short on words — after releasing an announcement wrongly naming a Thunder Bay lawyer a new judge of the Superior Court of Justice.

Carrel & Partners LLP lawyer Danial Newton was wrongly included on the lengthy list of new appointments from across the country that was released June 19 at 4:39 p.m.

The announcement stated that Newton would be replacing Thunder Bay Justice T.A. Platana “who elected to become a supernumerary judge.”

Three hours later, at 7:30 p.m., the department issued a corrected list of new appointments with the following notice: “An earlier version of this press release erroneously referred to the appointment of W. Danial Newton to the Superior Court of Ontario in Thunder Bay.


...

It was an unfortunate clerical error and we issued an apology to Mr. Newton as soon as we found out about it,” says Eke.

How was the “clerical error” made?

“Again, it was an unfortunate clerical error,” replies Eke.

How was the mistake discovered?“Again, as soon as we found out about it we issued an apology,” says Eke. “Again, I’m not going to get into any details.”What’s the status of the judicial vacancy in Thunder Bay that Newton was wrongly slated to fill?“Again, I’m not going to comment any further. What occurred on Friday was an unfortunate clerical error,” he says. ...

The announcement regarding Newton went on to outline his credentials, including a BA from the University of Toronto in 1979 and a LLB from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1982. The civil litigation specialist was called to the bar in 1984 and “was a partner at Carrel & Partners LLP from 1984 to 2009,” stated the announcement.

Newton did not respond to Law Times’ requests for comment.