THE LAWYERS WEEKLY

Vol. 30, No. 14 www.lawyersweekly.ca August 20, 2010

The judiciary
on TV?

PHOTO COURTESY OF ADVICESCENE

A new Web-TV
pilot hosted by
a judge will focus on
the interplay between
relationships and
family law PAGE 26
26 | August 20, 2010
JUDGE ON TV
Legal education
for the masses
from the Bench
Web-TV program hopes to get picked up by major network
CHRISTOPHER GULY
Already a trailblazer as Can-
ada’s first openly gay judge and
the country’s — if not the
world’s — first sitting judge to
write a book about the family jus-
tice system for the general public,
Ontario Justice Harvey Brown-
stone, of the North Toronto
Family Court, is hoping to catch
talk-show queen Oprah Winfrey’s
attention with his latest venture.
The 54-year-old, 15-year vet-
eran of the Ontario Court of
Justice and author of the 2009
Canadian best-seller Tug of War:
A Judge’s Verdict on Separation,
Custody Battles, and the Bitter
Realities of Family Court, is
the host of a new Web-TV pro-
gram called, Family Matters
(www.familymatterstv.com),
which will focus on the “inter-
play between relationships and
the justice system,” according to
the website.
“We’re going to tackle the real
issues that we’re seeing in court
every day that nobody otherwise
talks about,” says Brownstone,
who marks another first as the
only active judge — perhaps on the
planet — to host a talk show.
His new gig resulted from an
idea he first discussed in May
2009 with Nancy Kinney, the Vic-
toria-based president and founder
of AdviceScene Enterprises Inc.,
about creating a TV program on
the Web devoted to law-related
issues. Kinney, who holds a law
degree from the University of Vic-
toria but never practised law, had
already tapped Brownstone to
provide information on family law
on her popular website, AdviceS-
cene.com, which lists lawyers in
Canada and the United States and
has them sharing their legal
expertise for free.
Before approaching Brown-
stone, Kinney had floated her idea
about an online show past two
judges in British Columbia.
“They didn’t even answer
my voice or email messages,”
she recalls.
“It takes a certain type of per-
son who really gets how things are
really changing now.”
Enter Brownstone, who had
already amassed a public profile
as a result of widespread media
attention and speaking engage-
ments following the release of his
book. He’s also a firm believer that
judges — particularly those with
the Family Court who are involved
in an area of the law that impacts
more people, especially children,
than any other — have an educat-
ing role to play beyond the bench.
“The hunger out there for basic
information about all aspects of
the justice system is huge.”
‘‘
I want to be a positive
ambassador for the
court and want the
court to be proud of me
and see me as someone
who is enhancing
access to justice.
Besides, Brownstone always
wanted to host his own talk show.
“But I can’t be Harvey on the
show, I have to be Judge Brown-
stone,” says the budding online
star, who admits that “Harvey
would be a little more compelling”
in front of the cameras.
“I don’t think there’s a need for
a family-court version of Judge
Judy. When you’re a sitting judge,
you cannot compromise your neu-
trality and impartiality on any
topic that might come before you
in court, whether it involves a pol-
itical issue or an individual case,”
explains Brownstone.
So unlike Judge Judy, who
arbitrates disputes between par-
ties paid to appear on the TV
THE LAWYERS WEEKLY
NEWS
show, Brownstone will neither
render decisions nor offer per-
sonal opinions about anything.
He will only ask questions and
bring guests on the show “to
enlighten and educate the public
about a variety of issues
regarding parenting and families
and relationships.”
As he explains: “I’m modeling
myself after people like David
Frost and Dick Cavett in doing in-
depth interviews to educate rather
than someone like Dr. Phil, who
offers therapy on his show.”
“I am acutely aware that every-
thing I do is a reflection of the
judiciary. I want to be a positive
ambassador for the court and
want the court to be proud of me
and see me as someone who is
enhancing access to justice.”
FamilyMattersTV.com already
has a few episodes posted (that
were taped at a rented studio in
Toronto), including one on calcu-
lating child support (also avail-
able as a $15 DVD for law firms
to give clients) and another fea-
turing two lawyers (Katina
Kavassalis and Dan Goldberg)
from Ontario’s Office of the Chil-
dren’s Lawyer — a government
law office unique in the world.
In the future, the show will
look at such issues as Internet
dating and how people “who are
worlds apart physically…are
hooking up,” sometimes resulting
in a child, says Brownstone.
Often, the unions fizzle out as
quickly as they began and the
adults return to the Net to begin
another cyber-courtship.
“The reason it matters to us
in Family Court is that we’re see-
ing an explosion of mobility
cases involving a person who
came to Canada from another
country and wants to go back
with the child — and those are
the most difficult cases we’re see-
ing,” explains Brownstone, who
adds that he and his fellow
Family Court judges are also wit-
nessing a rise in people alleging
immigration fraud.
PHOTO COURTESY OF JUSTICE HARVEY BROWNSTONE
Ontario Justice Harvey Brownstone on the set of “Family Matters” TV.
“Someone claims to have fallen
in love over the Internet with
somebody who just wanted to get
to Canada, and as soon as they get
residency, they’re gone.”
“This stuff is making a huge
impact in Family Court.”
He also plans to address the
problem of online addictions
where people are spending count-
less hours surfing the Web for
porn or gambling, and sacrificing,
if not losing, their families,
finances and even jobs as a result.
It won’t be all about Internet-
related subjects, though. Episodes
are planned to look at adoption,
parenting after separation and
divorce, grandparent’s rights,
multicultural relationships, young
criminal justice and mental health
issues, substance abuse, and what
happens to pets following a
breakup (Brownstone’s veterinar-
ian-husband will appear on the
show) — to name a few topics.
Kinney has even bigger plans
for the series, and hopes to attract
celebrities as guests, such as actor
Alec Baldwin, who wrote a book
on parental alienation, former TV
talk-show host Rosie O’Donnell,
on her same-sex marriage and
adoptions, comedy-legend Carol
Burnett, on losing her daughter to
cancer, Canadian songstress Anne
Murray, about her daughter’s
anorexia nervosa, and former U.S.
vice-president Al Gore on late-life
divorce in light of the end of his
40-year marriage to wife Tipper.
Ultimately, Brownstone
www.lawyersweekly.ca
believes the show will be “a nat-
ural fit for Oprah.”
Certainly, he wouldn’t pass up
the opportunity to appear as a
guest on her talk show. But he
thinks that Family Matters would
be “right up the alley” for the
Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN),
which is big on programming
focused on relationships.
“If Oprah was interested in
him, he would have to think ser-
iously about leaving the bench
because the show would change
drastically and a network would
pay him enough that he wouldn’t
need his day job,” says Kinney,
who serves as co-producer of
Family Matters.
She plans to approach the
major TV networks in Canada and
the U.S., including OWN, with the
hope that one will agree to broad-
cast the series which, as Brown-
stone points out, deals with issues
that are generic enough to have
relevance for either Canadian or
American television viewers.
If the show is professionally
presented, it’s “not impossible” for
Family Matters to end up on the
small screen, according to the for-
mer president of the Barreau du
Québec, who last year helped
launch the province’s first legal-
information TV series, “Le Droit
de Savoir” (The Right to Know),
on both the French-language pub-
lic educational network, Télé-Qué-
bec, and the French-language
cable station, Canal Savoir.
“We have to inform people
www.lawyersweekly.ca
Behind the scenes with Justice
Brownstone.
about the law, and if you give
information to people in a TV pro-
gram, they will watch it,” says
Michel Doyon, who practises busi-
ness law with the Quebec City
firm, Gagné Letarte SENCRL and
whose dream is for Le Droit de
Savoir to also become a daily
Internet show.
Before Brownstone hits the big
time, his status as a sitting judge
limits what he can do on the show,
says Kinney.
“He can’t get into certain topics
[political issues] or interview cer-
tain people [litigants with active
cases], and can’t have certain
sponsors [no law firms that liti-
gate at the North Toronto Family
Court or litigants with pending
cases in any court] on the show.”
While Brownstone has com-
plete control over the show — from
signing off on the set to the con-
tent — he’s not involved in the mar-
keting or advertising. Kinney han-
dles the latter, and has acquired
such corporate sponsors as Vic-
toria law firm, Dinnin Hunter
Lambert & Jackson, who paid
$5,000 to have its name and a link
posted on FamilyMattersTV.com.
The online venture is also
offering businesses or law firms
10 major sponsorship spots,
each available for $60,000 a
year, which includes a
30-second commercial on every
episode for one year.
Brownstone also doesn’t get
paid to do the show.
As he did with his book, in giv-
ing all of the royalties to The Chil-
dren’s Wish Foundation of Can-
ada, the Toronto judge has
directed that 25 per cent of the
revenue from Family Matters go
to the same charity.
“He’s not receiving anything
from the show — and actually, nei-
ther am I,” laughs Kinney, who co-
owns a hotel with her husband,
Bill, along with real estate proper-
ties on the West Coast.
For now, Family Matters is a
labour of love, with costs kept at
a minimum for a show Kinney
estimates runs well below
Toronto articling student Omar Ha-Redeye (right), acted as a production
assistant on Justice Brownstone’s show.
$10,000 per episode. In fact, her
husband even volunteered to
build the set at Island Industrial
Fx, a digital-film production
facility in Victoria, whose owner,
Simon Game, is the show’s direc-
tor and other co-producer.
“This is a very, very high-
quality production,” bubbles
Brownstone.
“When they told me this was
going to be an Internet show, I
thought it would be on a webcam
or some hand-held digital thing.
But oh no, this is a three-camera
studio production with proper
lighting and sound, makeup, and
a 25-person crew — the whole bit!”
In mid-July, Brownstone spent
two days taping six one-hour
pilot episodes covering such
topics as collaborative law, medi-
ation, “how to make the best use
of your lawyer,” elder abuse, child
neglect and abuse, and prenuptial
agreements. The plan is to post
between two and three new epi-
sodes per month.
Expenses were further reduced
since Brownstone and the non-
Victoria-based guests (two Sas-
katchewan family lawyers, Greg
Walen, and Gwen Goebel) were in
the British Columbia capital
attending the Federation of Law
Societies of Canada’s 2010
national family law conference,
where Brownstone delivered the
closing keynote address and
unveiled the trailer for Family
Matters, which drew a two-minute
standing ovation.
The show also had a studio
audience — 50 people per epi-
sode — during its recent round of
tapings. While audience mem-
bers couldn’t ask questions dur-
ing the show, they could do so
during breaks — and anyone surf-
ing the Web was also free to send
theirs in by e-mail or Skype in
advance. But Brownstone got to
choose which questions he would
use on the show.
“I don’t want to take a chance
that something gets
said — including by me — that
was inappropriate. That’s why the
THE LAWYERS WEEKLY August 20, 2010 | 27
NEWS
PHOTOS COURTESY OF OMAR HA-REDEYE
show is not live,” he explains,
adding that he also has the final
say over the edited program.
“If I happen to say something
inappropriate, we can cut it out.
That’s the only way I will ever get
other judges to come on the show
if they have that guarantee to
approve the final cut.”
And other judges will appear as
guests on Family Matters, includ-
ing his Ontario Court of Justice
colleagues Stanley Sherr, who will
discuss spousal support, and Rob-
ert Spence, who will talk about
case management and what to
expect in family court.
“I don’t expect the show is
going to be like Oprah’s or Ellen’s,
but I really do think it will be
immensely helpful to people and I
will try to make it interesting and
compelling,” says Brownstone.
Toronto articling student Omar
Ha-Redeye, who acted as a pro-
duction assistant on the show, has
been plugging Family Matters on
several websites, including his
own (www.omarharedeye.com),
and believes Brownstone will do
well as a talk-show host.
“He has the personality — he
is quite charismatic and inter-
esting. Anyone who knows Jus-
tice Harvey Brownstone in a
social situation knows how
entertaining he is generally,”
says 31-year-old Ha-Redeye,
who worked in public relations
prior to studying law at the Uni-
versity of Western Ontario.
“More importantly, getting
information on family law issues
from a judge doesn’t get any
more credible than that.”
It also helps when your col-
leagues support you.
At its annual Canadian Legal
Conference, to be held in Niagara
Falls, Ont. next month, the Can-
adian Bar Association will honour
Brownstone with the “Colleague
in the Spotlight” award.
It appears that Judge Harvey
is ready for his close-up.
Episodes of Family Matters
can be seen at www.familymatter-
stv.com and at www.blip.tv.w 