Sad news -- Justice Paul Bentley has died

I remember appearing in front of him on many of occasions. He was a model of a judge and will be missed. He was fair, generous and wise.

He was interviewed on CBC's The Current in February and talked about the drug treatment court. His compassion for those who come before him was readily apparent.

http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2011/02/17/drug-addiction-jails/

Mr. Justice Paul Bentley

Paul Bentley has been a justice of the Ontario Court of Justice since June of 1992 and the presiding judge of the Toronto Drug Treatment Court since its inception on December 1st, 1998. In 1999, the United Nations invited him to take part in a “Expert Working Group” to design court based treatment programmes in both common and civil law jurisdictions. Justice Bentley has travelled twice to Jamaica as a guest of that government and at the request of the United Nations to assist government authorities in the establishment, of drug courts. In June of 2002, he was asked by the Chief Justice of the Cayman Island to travel to the island and prepare a three day educational session for judicial and non-judicial staff on the mechanics of establishing a drug court. In addition, on two occasions he has travelled to Scotland to assist officials there in the development of a drug court model for that jurisdiction. He was also a featured speaker at a conference in Strasbourg France, sponsored by the Council of Europe, on the subject of drug treatment courts. More recently, he has been invited to lead delegations to Barbados, Trinidad and Brazil to assist justice officials in those countries with the development of drug treatment courts and was a speaker at the Commission on Narcotic Drugs meeting held in March 2005 at the United Nations in Vienna. Justice Bentley is a founding member, and Chair of the International Association of Drug Treatment Courts which is an umbrella organization for jurisdictions which have or are planning such courts.

Articles that he has written concerning the Toronto Drug Treatment Court have been published in Criminal Reports, and Canadian Family Physician. He has also edited a paper entitled, “Problem Solving Courts as Agents of Change” which was published in the Commonwealth Judges andMagistrates Journal. In addition, he is a contributing editor to a Handbook on how judges can apply a problem-solving approach in their courtrooms, which has been published in Canada by the National Judicial Institute.

His non-judicial activities have included sitting on the boards of various charities including the Daily Bread Food Bank and Amnesty International. He was also a founding member of the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly and a board member of the Canadian Centre for the Victims of Torture. Among his awards include an award in 2004 by the Ontario Court of Justice “For an Outstanding Contribution to the Administration of Justice."