Nigeria Abroad
A Canadian judge is facing judicial review for saying a Nigerian doctor who served as court witness in a case was “compromised” by garbled speech and bad grammar.
In 2019, Justice Terry Clackson had presided over a case of parental neglect brought against a couple—David and Collet Stephan—accused of failing to provide prompt medical care to their late son.
He dismissed the charges against the couple saying that Bamidele Adeagbo, a Nigerian-born medical examiner who gave testimony exhibited “movements, body language and physical antics that were not the behaviours usually associated with a rational, impartial professional imparting opinion evidence.”
The judge further wrote that Dr. Adeagbo’s ability to communicate was “severely compromised by garbled enunciation; failure to use appropriate endings for plurals and past tenses; his failure to use definite and indefinite articles properly, and repeated emphasis of the wrong syllables: dropping his Hs, mispronouncing his vowels, and the speed of his responses.”
The ruling was appealed, and a racial bias complaint also brought against the judge in 2019, but the latter was shelved by the Canadian Judicial Council.
However, earlier this week the Alberta Court of Appeal ordered a new trial in a decision that concluded Justice Clackson’s comments about Dr. Adeagbo were inappropriate and showed bias.
Johanna Laporte, director of communications for the Canadian Judicial Council, which investigates complaints against judges, said the complaint against the judge was postponed during the appeal.
It has now been assigned to a member of the council’s judicial conduct committee, which is made up of judges, who will review it and decide what happens next.
“I can assure you that it is in both the public interest and in the interest of the judge to deal with this matter expeditiously,” she wrote to a Canadian news outlet.
The Stephans were accused of waiting too long to seek medical attention after their son became ill in 2012. A jury convicted the couple in 2016, but the Supreme Court of Canada overturned that verdict. Justice Clackson oversaw the second trial.
One of the issues at trial was cause of death. Dr. Adeagbo concluded the boy died of bacterial meningitis and the Crown agued the couple should have known that but did not seek medical attention.
The Stephans testified that they initially thought their son had croup and they treated him with natural remedies, including a smoothie with garlic, onion and horseradish. They called an ambulance when he stopped breathing.
Justice Clackson concluded the boy had viral meningitis and accepted the testimony of a defence expert witness who said he died of a lack of oxygen while in the ambulance.
In rejecting Dr. Adeagbo’s findings, Justice Clackson wrote in detail about the medical examiner’s manner of speech, body language and attitude.
A group that included more than three dozen lawyers, doctors and researchers filed the complaint shortly after the decision. The complaint said Justice Clackson’s attacks on Dr. Adeagbo could be perceived as racism: “It is hard to imagine that if Dr. Adeagbo, who is of African origin, had spoken in a typically American, Australian, British or other more familiar accent, Justice Clackson would have been so scathing.”
Juliet Guichon, who teaches about health, law and ethics at the University of Calgary’s medical school and signed the complaint, said she was surprised to read the judge’s comments about the medical examiner.
Adeagbo called the judge’s assessment “surprising” and declined further comments as petitioners await the judge’s sanction.
This story first appeared in Nigeria Abroad
