Help - Ask Newspapers To Report On Lawrence Hughes's Hearing This Week

Can someone help me finding a link to his story....I have a newspaper friend who will look into this!!

shelley

For those unfamiliar with Lawrence Hughes, he’s a 55-year-old Canadian (Calgary, Alberta) architectural technician whose 16-year-old daughter Bethany was diagnosed in February 2002 with acute myeloid leukemia. The conventional treatment is chemotherapy with blood transfusions, treatment resisted by the Hughes family because they were Jehovah’s Witnesses. It was late afternoon, Feb. 13, 2002, when Lawrence Hughes and his wife were told by the local Hospital Liaison Committee (HLC) of Jehovah's Witnesses that the Watch Tower Society (Jehovah’s Witnesses Corporate head) had already dispatched lawyers who were on their way to Calgary to represent the family.

In the hospital, Witnesses were standing guard in shifts in Bethany’s hospital room, to make sure no one forced Bethany to take blood, choking the corridor and pressing religious tracts on everybody. Hughes says WatchTower representatives promised Bethany her resistance would be celebrated in the church publication Awake! That magazine, in the mid-1990s, fed a thirst for martyrdom with a cover showing the smiling photos of 26 "Youths Who Put God first," by dying after refusing treatment.

After obtaining medical opinions, the Director of Child Welfare appealed to the Provincial Court to gain control of Bethany’s medical treatment.  Control was granted on February 18, 2002 and medical treatment commenced over the objections of Bethany. By this time Lawrence Hughes was supportive of the blood transfusion treatment, but his wife was opposed.

The order was appealed but dismissed because the Court concluded that the treatment was in Bethany’s best interests. The Court determined Bethany to be a mature minor and entitled to be consulted, but decided that she was not in a position to make independent decisions about her treatment.

ShaneBrady and DavidGnam are WatchTower attorneys and also Jehovah’s Witnesses. They represented Bethany and her mother in the appeal. Hughes endeavored to have them removed as counsel for Bethany on allegations of conflict of interest but was defeated. Brady and Gnam appealed to the Court of Appeal to stop the transfusions, but their appeal was dismissed. Also, leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada was refused.

By July 2, 2002, Bethany received some 80 transfusions, but the doctors decided no more for Bethany. By her insistence, she was discharged from Alberta Children’s Hospital on July 13, 2002 and immediately sought an alternate form of treatment, namely, arsenic trioxide and Vitamin C, at Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton under the care of Drs.Turner and Belch. Bethany died September 5, 2002.

When Lawrence Hughes rejected Jehovah’s Witnesses teachings on blood transfusions and agreed to allow Bethany to undergo transfusions during her chemotherapy treatments, this, in effect, destroyed his marriage and he was shunned by Jehovah’s Witnesses. He and his wife divorced, October 2003.

After the court approved Hughes as an administrator of his daughter’s estate, he began litigation in 2004 on behalf of his daughter’s estate and in his own right against: Shane Brady, David Gnam, Merrill Morrell, Thomm Bokor, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Canada, Dr. A. Robert Turner, Dr. Andrew Belch, Cross Cancer Institute, and Alberta Cancer Board in a $1-million wrongful death suit. He alleged, amongst other things, inappropriate treatment of his daughter by the doctors at Cross Cancer institute; a conspiracy to prevent her from getting the proper treatment, and undue influence of his daughter causing her to withhold her consent to appropriate medical treatment.

In February 2006, the Watch Tower Society and its lawyers brought an action to strike out the statement of claim. Subsequently, the court struck out all of Hughes claims. He appealed the decision. On September 1, 2007, the Appeal Court agreed with the lower court except on two major claims—that Hughes has the right to sue the WatchTower and its attorneys for deceit and misrepresentation; (Hughes contends that it was the attorneys who convinced Bethany, a minor, to go with the arsenic treatment. They misrepresented the benefits of withholding blood transfusions by pointing out to her that chemotherapy/blood transfusion protocol for her leukemia was experimental, which the high court stated was not.) Previously, in the lower court, Hughes had been removed as administrator of Bethany’s estate, but the Appeal Court ruled that Hughes should be restored as administrator. The decisions meant that Hughes could proceed with his legal action on behalf of his daughter’s estate over allegations the church’s influence hastened her death. Part of his argument will be that his daughter’s death certificate states her death was due to arsenic poisoning.

A while back, producers at the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) Television Network planned to do a documentary on Lawrence Hughes’s case, but changed their minds when his lawsuit was thrown out. However, when he appealed the lower court decision, and the Court of Appeal overturned the previous decision in Hughes favor, re-instating him as the Administer Ad Litem of his daughter's estate (being Administrator Ad Litem now gives him certain powers that places him in a good position legally), CBC producers once again contacted him to say they were interested in doing the  one hour documentary.

As his daughter’s representative in behalf of her estate, Hughes asked Bethany’s lawyers to give him a list of the documents they possess in her file which relate to the “wrongful death” lawsuit that he has filed against them and the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Inc. of Canada, who they also represent. However, the attorneys are claiming Client/Counsel Privilege and refuse to provide an Affidavit of Records or give him pertinent documents. The hearing was April 16th and now he’s waiting for the decision. However, the court did rule Defendants can't introduce videos taken of Bethany into the next court hearing, May 29th, where their application for Summary Judgment is to be argued.

If Lawrence Hughes loses Summary Judgment, the lawsuit will be dead. This means that CBC may decide not to do a documentary. Lawrence was in court as many as five times in the past few months. The attorney who was assisting him is running for political office and no longer has time for Hughes lawsuit so he will represent himself. 

Lawrence Hughes has pointed out that Bethany’s attorneys were employed by the Toronto law firm, W.GlenHow and Associates. In reality, though, this law firm is a front for the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the corporate entity used by Jehovah’s Witnesses, and headquartered in Georgetown, Ontario. The facts are that Watchtower’s Legal Department is made up of these same attorneys who work with W.GlenHow and Associates, and, Attorney, W.GlenHow, is an important Jehovah’s Witness in Canada.

For decades, W.GlenHow and Associates have been deceiving courts and the public by deliberately misrepresenting themselves as an independent law firm which, they say, occasionally represents Jehovah’s Witnesses. This “independent law firm” assertion is found in their Notice of Motion and, as such, the attorneys with W.GlenHow and Associates contend they did not have a conflict of interest when representing Hughes’s daughter and her mother. Although the attorneys are Jehovah’s Witnesses and work with a law firm that was and continues to be a front for the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, they claim they gave Lawrence Hughes’s 16-year old Witness daughter and her Witness mother, proper, unbiased legal advice. Hughes discounts this assertion and believes it is important that people write the media in Calgary, Alberta, the Law Society of Alberta and the Law Society of Upper Canada to expose this deception of W.GlenHow and Associates.

The following is a list of lawyers that have been involved in this case on behalf of Bethany, her mother, and the Watchtower Society over the past six years. Lawrence expects he will be up against most or all of these lawyers at the May 29th and 30th court hearing:

DavidGnam,  Watchtower Society (a.k.a.:W.GlenHow and Assoc.), Georgetown, Ont.

ShaneBrady, Watchtower Society (a.k.a.:W.GlenHow and Assoc.), Georgetown, Ont.     

JohnBurns,   Watchtower Society (a.k.a.:W.GlenHow and Assoc.), Georgetown, Ont.

DanielPole,   Watchtower Society (a.k.a.:W.GlenHow and Assoc.), Georgetown, Ont.

DavidDay,             LewisDay, St. John’s, Newfoundland

TerryDavis,           Parlee  McLaws, Calgary, Alberta

Jeremy Hockin,      Parlee  McLaws, Edmonton, Alberta

EugeneMeehen,   LangMichener, Ottawa, Ontario

PhilipHuband,       Calgary, Alberta

AllanLudkiewicz,   Ludkiewicz, Bortoluzzi, Winnipeg, Manitoba

Also, two of the largest law firms will be representing the doctors and hospital:

DavidSteele,         Bennet Jones, Calgary, Alberta

BrentWindwick,     Field, Calgary, Alberta.

On May 29th and 30th, as usual, Lawrence Hughes expects he will be standing alone on one side of the court room representing himself. On the other side of the court room will be a crowd of lawyers, mostly senior partners in these large firms; the Jehovah’s Witness Lawyers; HLC members, and members of Jehovah Witnesses. As you can see, he is vastly out-numbered. He asks that you pray that he succeeds in this endeavor.

IifHughes wins this lawsuit, it could be instrumental in other people suing the Watchtower for causing loved ones to refuse a life-saving blood transfusion and then die. Thus, this could be another way this religious organization will be forced to change its “blood ban” or go bankrupt from litigation.

God.  How many more people will the Watchtower kill for no real reason other than to make themselves look "right"?

Farkel

Emailing your local news orgs is very easy.  And vitally important to your communities.  Please take the time to do this. 

sKally

Anderson's Info:

Thanks for keeping us apprised of developments.  I can not imagine the fortitude required of Lawrence Hughes to represent himself and face off against all these lawyers representing the various entities; the mental picture I get is David against Goliath...will anyone be videoing the proceedings?  This would surely make for an unbelievable story; in fact the CBC could do a good documentary just from these proceedings, methinks.

Is there no lawyer in the whole country of Canada who could assist Lawrence in this in some small way?  Then again, maybe his willingness to act in his own behalf will carry some weight.  There are so many issues to be explored and some legal guidance would surely be welcome.  Since I am not in the know, perhaps he already has someone assisting behind the scenes. 

Again, thanks for keeping us informed!

Thanks for the headsup, I sent off my email to the newspapers and I found that you can help donate to his defense costs as well through paypal, which I did - I want to help in any way I can.

Sarah

BTTT