A View From the Bench

My admittedly idealistic view of the role of a judge in the judicial system does, I confess, occasionally get buffeted about.  Reported lapses in judicial conduct, my own failings, and external attempts to politicize the bench, all sadden me, and to some extent chip away at the “image” I have of those who are chosen to occupy judicial office. I deal with those strafings of my Camelot-like fortress by concentrating my efforts at improving my own judicial performance.  I am certain that I am not much different from most of the men and women who serve on Canadian courts.

However, my coping mechanisms suffered system failure upon my learning of the Ohio judge who was shot as he was walking from his vehicle into the Steubenville court house. Such an attack is disturbing in the extreme, but how the event concluded is what caused me to wonder if I had been transported to another dimension.

The learned, though wounded, judge returned fire, as did a passing probation officer.  Between the two of them, the assailant was killed.    

So both the judge and the probation officer went to work that day carrying firearms. Perhaps the standard condition in a probation order (i.e., “keep the peace and be of good behaviour”) needs to be amended to read “be of good behaviour because I am carrying a piece”.

The subsequent press reports stated that in the United States the number of judges who carry firearms while working in their capacity as judges is increasing.  In a National Post article of August 27, 2017, the author noted that the State of “Tennessee in 2011 allowed judges to carry  weapons into their own courthouses after 16 hours of initial training and eight hours repeated annually. The training requirement was later repealed.”  The article further noted that the States of Ohio and Wyoming permit judges to carry guns into their courtrooms.    

In 1612, Sir Francis Bacon wrote his essay “Of Judicature”, in which he said that “an overspeaking judge is no well-tuned cymbal.” If a judge who frequently shoots from the lip is not a properly functioning instrument of justice, then a judge who actually shoots from the hip  would seem no better suited.    

The power of a judge to summarily find a person in contempt of court truly does take on a new, and exquisitely conclusively, non-appealable meaning if it is backed up by judicial artillery.

Sometimes, when the lawyers in front of them become a bit “difficult” in their courtroom conduct, presiding judges have been known to issue “warnings” to the lawyers about behaviour.  These warnings are often characterized around the judicial lunch room table as “firing a warning shot across the bow”.  I have always thought that phrase to be a metaphor; I see that in the future I may have to make further enquiries to ensure it is not a literal description.    

I have to say that gun-toting judges constitute yet another jurisprudential practice I prefer not to import north of the 49th parallel.  Without doubt, the very foundations of my understanding of the judicial role will be badly shaken if, when I enter the courtroom, I hear the Clerk call the Court to order, and then announce that “this is not a drill; I repeat, this is not a drill;  it is a live round proceeding!”


The Honourable Judge A.A. Fradsham is a Provincial Court Judge with the Criminal Court in Calgary.  His column “A View From the Bench” has been a highlight in the Canadian Bar Association newsletters for over 15 years.