PAGE 6, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 198 1, WHITBY FREIS PRESS ~~Lawyer te lls service club.... Even the guilty must be defended in court Glen Pop People Pop CASE 0F 12-30 oz. BOTTES $4.96 a&dop. CASE 0F 24-10 oz. BOTTIES $4.49 & dep. A lawyer is ethically bound to defend his client even if he has con- fessed guilt to the crime which he is accused 0f, according to a local barrister, Glen Elliot told last week's meeting of the Kinsmen Club of Whitby that the purpose of Canadian criminal law is to punish the guilty and protect the rîghts of the innocen. Elliott, a Whitby resi- dent and a member of the Oshawa law firm of Elliot, Elliot and Ket- chen told his audience that the courts "are not structured to deal with the vic tim. " "They are designed to punish. " He defended the con- cept of due process which stated that a per- son is innocent until proven guilty and that it is not the lawyer's job to determine gulit but to ensure that the accused person is given a fair trial and that the evi- dence is presented in a legal manner. "It is not the job of the lawyer to determine if the person is innocent or guilty," Elliot said, "but it is the job of the judge."t Saying that both the Crown Attorney and the defense attorney have a role to play Elliot ad- mitted that some guilty parties do escape "the long arm of the law. " These people, he ad- ded, do evade justice but at the same time, the system that protects the innocent has ful- filled its function. Elliot is of the opinion that while an accused person may be guilty and has "gotten off" the charge he or she is in- nocent of the charge because only the court BROWN'S FOODMASTER BROOKLIN 655-4521 8:30 arn to 6:00 pm Except Thurs. & Fri. Nights til 9 pm and classes run from 9 to 10 a.m. at Iroquois Park Arena. Règistration will be accepted at the Iroquois Recreation Complex between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays. For ad- ditional information cal Tina SchoII at 668-7765. Owner Operated may determine guiît. "But it is a small price to pay for the pro- tection of ail our civil rights," Elliot said. The barrister acknow- ledged that police off j- cers become upset when an accused person is cleared of a charge but he reminded his audien- ce that they "'are more geareil for looking for gujît." "The police officer has already formed his opinion as to guilt," Elliot said adding that it is-his job to arrest and charge people who commit crimes. When an attorney knows his client to be guilty, Elliot said that his job then becomnes. to ensure that the system works the way it is designed to. The guilty person, he added, is still entitled to have the Crown prove its case against him because he is innocent until he is proven guilty. "It is up to the judge to decide. " Elliot told his audien- ce that the police should not break the Iaw to ob- tain evidence. "Surely, you don't want the police to break the law s0 they can cat- ch more criminals?" he said. If they do, then they are following crirninal practices to catch a criminal. "Police officers should follow the law," Elliot said. Just because a police officer believes a person to be guilty that does not mean he or she is guilty. "Guilty means guilty before the law flot because a police officer believes him guilty," Elliot explained. Even if a supposedly guilty person is freed the system t1hat protects ahl of us stili functions. Besides which, if a person is cleared of a charge he is not guilty of it. "The client has not broken the law because he is innocent," Elliot said. "that's the very essence of the system. " Iroquols, Park will 1,tacnh