Tag: Andrew Roman Lawyer
Another massive brute-force login attack against DonaldBest.CA website
August 31, 2016 Donald Best Leave a comment
August 29, 2016 attack included over 2,500 attempts in a few hours.
Somebody is paying professional hackers to destroy DonaldBest.CA.
Every day there are always a few attempts to guess the administrator password to log into DonaldBest.CA and take over the website. But about once a month the same professional hacker(s) launches an all-out brute-force attack using hundreds of compromised 'zombie' computers.
It is obvious that the 'blackhat' hacker(s) are professionals because each attack consists of thousands of pre-programmed attempts made over the course of a few hours using hundreds of different IP numbers and computers from every part of the globe. This shows the attacker(s) maintains an asset base of compromised machines worldwide to effect strategic vulnerability scans and brute-force login attempts.
Further, the attacks are not random because the selection of user names includes words specifically related to me, that I might personally choose if I wanted something easy to remember. This shows that the attacker probably has access to investigative reports about me, including my Identity Information and similar information upon which to create a list of likely words, rather than basing the attack on a standard common passwords dictionary.
Cassels, Brock & Blackwell LLP involved?
There is sworn evidence* before the Ontario courts indicating that during a previous brute-force attack on March 28, 2015, a website visitor from Barbados and a website visitor from the Toronto law office of Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP (IP Number 72.0.220.68) knew of the attack beforehand, and checked on the results during the attack.
Before you start to say that it would be impossible that anyone from a large and respected law firm like Cassels would be involved in initiating an illegal attack to take this website down, you might want to consider sworn evidence indicating that lawyers from large Canadian law firms are proven to have:
Sent anonymous threats to witnesses via the internet.
Illegally distributed privileged legal documents containing Identity Information to the public via an anonymous website.
Fabricated evidence and lied to the court.
Knowingly represented a phoney business entity, lied to the Supreme Court of Canada.
That's not even mentioning the Toronto Star newspaper's Broken Trust series that documented how the Law Society of Upper Canada covered up hundreds of incidents where lawyers committed criminal offences against their clients.
For over two years I've been publishing solid evidence on this website that certain Ontario lawyers committed criminal and other offences, and that the Law Society of Upper Canada and some courts knew of this and covered-up to protect privileged senior members of the Bay Street Boys Club.
No one has sued me, or taken advantage of my offers to publish responses or refutations of the evidence.
As a police detective investigating crimes, I always asked myself "To whom the benefit?"
And so my readers should ask themselves about the continuing professional attacks on DonaldBest.CA… To whom the benefit if the attacks succeed?
* See paragraphs 198-207 of my 20150331 Injunction Motion with Exhibits (PDF 17mb – large file!)
Ontario lawyer despairs that the legal profession places Privilege over Public Interest
April 28, 2016 Donald Best One comment
Julie Macfarlane, National Self-Represented Litigants Project
As usual, Julie Macfarlane doesn't hesitate to speak the truths that many in the legal profession find so difficult to acknowledge in public, or even admit to themselves.
Her latest piece is superb and well worth your time, especially if you are a lawyer or a judge. The article should be required reading in every law school in the country.
For me, the one issue in Julie's article that stands out above everything is how the legal profession, including the Law Society of Upper Canada, usually places privilege over public interest. Lawyers and former lawyers (called 'judges') most often choose to protect their own even at the expense of the public interest and the public trust.
Notwithstanding that the vast majority of lawyers and judges are hard-working, ethical, and decent people, the current culture of the legal profession punishes members who dare to report or even acknowledge specific professional misconduct by other lawyers. The standard in the profession is that it is permissible to talk about ethics and misconduct generally, but woe unto the lawyer or judge who points a finger. In many ways this is very similar to the protectionist culture found in policing organizations.
Those in the legal profession who won't circle the wagons and stand with 'the Club' soon find themselves standing alone, with no referrals and few lunch invitations at best. At worst, they are squeezed out of their firms, find their careers diminished and themselves under attack.
As Julie Macfarlane says,
"It's not the people in the legal profession who are the problem.
It's what the profession has become."
Julie Macfarlane: Why I Sometimes feel Despair about the Profession I Love
Canadians are well aware of what the legal profession has become, just as they are well aware of the legal profession's pretensions of public interest. Ordinary Canadians get it – they just lack the power and capability to do anything about a profession that is entirely self-regulating and accountable only unto itself. Read more
Big Law firms' anonymous internet postings about clients, cases and legal opposition. Part 1 in a new series.
January 18, 2016 Donald Best.CA 3 comments
"Let's start with Miller Thomson LLP's anonymous Internet postings about the National Hockey League Players Association and work up from there."
Is it ethical for lawyers to anonymously post on the Internet about their cases, clients and legal opponents?
Since at least 2004, personnel from Miller Thomson LLP's Toronto law office made dozens of anonymous Internet postings on Wikipedia.org and other websites; about clients, opponents and others involved in ongoing legal matters. I've also discovered that some other Big Law firms similarly made anonymous postings over the years.
But before the public calls upon the Law Society of Upper Canada to investigate, we had better ask "Who will watch the watchmen?"
As an example, my investigations show that in 2009 personnel from the law society themselves posted anonymously on Wikipedia.org about then Osgoode law student Wendy Babcock, a former Toronto sex-worker and political organizer. Babcock later committed suicide in 2011.
This extraordinary information is easily confirmed online by anyone with Internet access.
You'll be able to confirm everything for yourself after reading this and other articles in the series. (So will investigators from the Law Society of Upper Canada; not that LSUC takes any action against BIG LAW firms like Miller Thomson LLP, but that is a separate issue.)
National Hockey League Players Association
Personnel from Miller Thomson's Toronto law office anonymously posted on the Internet about the National Hockey League Players Association, former NHLPA Executive Director Bob Goodenow and then NHLPA associate counsel Ian Pulver.
These anonymous Internet postings appear to have been made at a time when Miller Thomson LLP either represented some of the subjects of the articles, or represented other clients in existing and/or potential legal proceedings or negotiations involving the subjects.
Over the years, Miller Thomson law office personnel also made many other anonymous Internet postings about persons and entities involved in legal actions, negotiations and labour disputes. Although their motives are not always apparent, one thing that is clear is that Miller Thomson personnel chose to make these Internet postings anonymously instead of using their real names or attributing the postings to Miller Thomson.
Are MIller Thomson's actions ethical? Do their actions contravene any rules of the Law Society of Upper Canada?
Lawyers and other law firm personnel deal with privileged, confidential and intimately private information daily. That these same lawyers and staff would anonymously post information online about their clients, cases and legal opponents should be of grave concern to the legal profession and governing bodies because it tends to undermine public confidence in lawyers and thus in the justice system itself.
Forensic investigations revealed the truth about this little-known activity by law firm personnel. Other Big Law firms have been up to the same thing: a coming article in the series will consider anonymous Internet postings by Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP and some other BIG LAW firms.
Are lawyers and law office personnel allowed to make anonymous Internet postings about their legal cases, clients and opponents?
To the ordinary Canadian, the Rules of Professional Conduct as posted on the website of the Law Society of Upper Canada appear to be so general and vague as to be almost useless as a guide in some of the incidents documented in this series. Other incidents I present in this new series are, however, obviously in violation of the LSUC Rules and of various Federal and Provincial laws as well.
Perhaps some lawyers out there might be able to comment after reading this article and others in the series.
I have identified a number of different types of anonymous internet activities that Miller Thomson and some other Canadian lawyers, law firms and legal personnel appear to be engaged in. In order of increasingly serious conduct:
Anonymously changing the online public record about clients, cases and legal opponents.
Anonymously spreading online rumours, misinformation & discord.
Serious misconduct, including anonymous online threats against opposing witnesses, harassment, posting of confidential information including Identity Information as defined in the Criminal Code.
Once again, all of these activities happen in situations where the subjects of the anonymous conduct are either legal clients or opposing entities. And, in at least three examples I've found, personnel from law firms made anonymous internet postings about competing law firms and lawyers.
Example #1: Miller Thomson personnel anonymously changed the public internet record about Robert W. "Bob" Goodenow, Executive Director of the National Hockey League Players Association Read more
Canada's Top Legal Ethics Stories of 2015
January 4, 2016 Donald Best Leave a comment
Alice Woolley of the University of Calgary Faculty of Law lists her Top 10 Canadian legal ethics stories of 2015:
1. Judges behaving badly
2. Trinity Western University before the courts
3. National competency standard
4. The Supreme Court on money laundering
5. Lawyer advising
6. Truth and Reconciliation Commission
7. Resignation of Quebec's bâtonnière
8. Regulatory innovation
9. Campaigning in the LSUC election
10. Joe Groia and civility regulation
To Alice's list I'll add two more. (You know I couldn't help myself.)
11. Anonymous online threats against 82-year-old widow originated from Miller Thomson Law Office
12. Ontario Superior Court Justice J. Bryan Shaughnessy secretly increased prisoner's jail sentence; in a backroom meeting, off the court record, without informing the prisoner.
Bestselling author Kenneth Eade tweets the Donald Best story of lawyer and police misconduct
December 28, 2015 Donald Best Leave a comment
A pleasant surprise this morning to wake and find that bestselling legal thriller author Kenneth Eade tweeted about my case. @KennethEade1
His latest book Absolute Intolerance holds the lead on Amazon's top seller list for thrillers.
Tonight I'll dig into Eade's Killer.Com that comes highly recommended by an old friend.
Thanks for the mention, Mr. Eade.
When lawyers and police break the law together, what justice can exist for ordinary citizens?
Fasken Martineau lawyer Gerald Ranking (left) illegally hired OPP Sergeant Jim Van Allen to perform an illegal investigation to benefit Ranking's clients. Section 120 (1)(a)(i) & (ii) of the Criminal Code calls that 'Bribery of a Peace Officer'
Alabama: Yet another case of corrupt police and corrupt lawyers working together.
Leaked documents reveal that for over ten years a group of corrupt Dothan, Alabama police officers (including the current Chief of Police) planted drugs and weapons on hundreds of innocent young black men.
Instead of stopping the practice and freeing the innocent prisoners, the local District Attorney covered up and colluded with the corrupt police.
Collusion between corrupt police and corrupt lawyers is a worrisome issue in the justice system simply because we are beginning to see increasing reports of this type. The news from Dothan, Alabama is only the latest story.
As I reported last March, Louisiana plaintiff Douglas Dendinger was arrested and charged with battery, obstruction of justice and intimidating a witness after five police officers and two prosecuting attorneys jointly provided false evidence that they saw Dendinger physically assault and intimidate a police officer as he served the officer with legal documents. Luckily for Mr. Dendinger that (as in my case) he had a hidden recording proving that the police and attorneys perjured themselves and lied to the court.
In my own case, lawyers and police committed various wrongdoing; including fabricating false and deceptive evidence, lying to the court, committing a fraud upon the court by representing a phoney non-existent business entity, anonymously threatening witnesses and illegally hiring a corrupt Ontario Provincial Police officer 'on the side' to perform illegal acts and other misconduct.
Canadians rely upon the legal profession to monitor the police, make rogue officers accountable and to act as a deterent. When corrupt lawyers work hand in hand with corrupt police officers, and the Law Society of Upper Canada covers up and whitewashes, how can ordinary citizens hope for justice?
Lawyer and police misconduct in Donald Best case "reads like a John Grisham novel"
December 16, 2015 Donald Best 4 comments
Perjury. Violence. Abduction. Threats to rape and murder witnesses. Anonymous internet threats from a Bay Street law firm. A Canadian judge's secret backroom order.
Best vs. Ranking is just another civil lawsuit in Ontario Superior Court…
by Donald Best
A judge once remarked on the record that my case reads like the plot from a John Grisham novel.
I can't disagree. I wonder what Mr. Grisham himself might think. (Grisham photo above courtesy of the Toronto Star)
Like most Grisham novels the stakes in my case are high enough at US$120 million dollars to cause some lawyers, accountants, police officers and other professionals to step over the line.
Way over the line.
"My case is complex, but my April 23, 2015 sworn affidavit provides a basic summary and is, frankly, a pretty good page-turner at bedtime."
Download Donald Best's April 23, 2015 affidavit. (PDF 882kb without exhibits)
My case has seen some people on the other side (including certain lawyers and police officers) proveably commit various crimes including: fabricating evidence, lying to the court [1], fraudulently using a phoney non-existent 'company' as a lawyer's client to petition the courts and transfer a million dollars [2], illegally hiring a corrupt OPP police sergeant 'on the side' to work against me in a civil lawsuit [3] and putting an innocent man in jail using proveably false, fabricated evidence. [4]
Welcome to civil litigation involving the Caribbean island nation of Barbados.
Also like a John Grisham novel, my witnesses, lawyers, myself and our family members have been the targets of a long-running campaign of violence, harassment and threats designed to deter us from seeking justice before the courts.
In the Greater Toronto Area, I was assaulted in the street. Also in the GTA, a man with a Caribbean accent approached and threatened one of my children over this case. My family's auto was shot up. While my former lawyer was out of Canada litigating my case, his wife and family received an intimidating anonymous phone call from a person with a Barbados accent. My lawyer's wife gathered up her children and fled their Orillia, Ontario home in terror; exactly as was intended by the caller.
One of my witnesses was abducted and beaten at gunpoint by a person connected with the other side in Barbados. One of my witnesses was threatened with job loss if he testified, and was fired from the University of the West Indies after he testified anyway.
Illegally and behind my back, an Ontario judge secretly substituted a changed court order in a backroom meeting; off the court record and without notifying me even though I was a self-represented litigant. This kind of judicial 'Star Chamber' activity regularly happens in Iran or Russia, but surely not in Canada; except when it does. [5] Read more
Police and media response to Lynelle Cantwell and 'Ugliest Girls' online poll shows double standard
December 9, 2015 Donald Best Leave a comment
Lynelle Cantwell (photo courtesy Toronto Star)
ST. JOHN'S, N.L.—A school board in Newfoundland and police are now investigating a case of cyberbullying involving an anonymous poll ranking girls at a high school based on their looks.
Lynelle Cantwell, a student at Holy Trinity High School in Torbay, is getting national attention for her response to the creators of the online poll, called "Ugliest Girls in Grade 12."
Toronto Star: 'Ugliest Girls' online poll under police investigation in Newfoundland
Opposing internet bullying is a popular cause these days. Investigating online bullying is also a popular police activity that nets law enforcement easily-gained positive recognition in the community; but only as long as the perpetrators are low hanging fruit like high school students and not members of a protected class like lawyers from big Bay Street law firms.
The contrast is stark.
On one hand, a story about high school student Lynelle Cantwell and anonymous online poll for the 'ugliest girls' receives national news media attention about online bullying.
On the other hand, when sworn forensic evidence filed in Ontario Superior Court shows that personnel from the Toronto office of Miller Thomson LLP, one of Canada's largest law firms, sent anonymous threatening internet messages to several witnesses in the Best v. Ranking civil lawsuit, the news media coverage is… Zero.
"The anonymous online messages and emails even include threats to murder and rape female witnesses."
The anonymous threats and harassment originating from the Miller Thomson LLP law firm and elsewhere are part of a campaign of anonymous threats, harassment and criminal acts that has been ongoing for years, even to the present day.
Here are some samples taken from the court record: Read more
Law Society of Upper Canada unlikely to win the Allard Prize for International Integrity
September 25, 2015 Donald Best.CA One comment
Lawyers have significant influence in the shaping, drafting and enforcement of policies and legislation that protect critical checks and balances necessary for a healthy society.
But who regulates and oversees the lawyers? And what happens to a society if lawyers abandon ethics and societal accountability in the pursuit of money? What happens if greed, not justice and truth, becomes the primary motivation of lawyers?
Such has been our confidence in the legal profession that, to this time, Canadians have allowed lawyers to regulate and discipline themselves without independent civilian oversight, public accountability or any real transparency. That willingness of Canadians to allow lawyers to self-regulate is changing with revelation after revelation of serious wrongdoing by lawyers and coverups by governing legal bodies.
In Ontario, the Law Society of Upper Canada has time and time again covered up or ignored criminal activities by lawyers; especially if the lawyers are associated with any of Canada's largest law firms. The recent 'Broken Trust' series of articles in the Toronto Star looks into why over 80% of Ontario lawyers who commit serious criminal offences in relation to their law practice never face criminal sanctions.
My own case ('Donald Best v. Gerald Ranking et al'. Superior Court of Justice, Central East Region: Barrie, Court File No. 14-0815) is just one of many where Law Society of Upper Canada ignored and covered up solid evidence of criminal wrongdoing by Ontario lawyers and protected members of 'the club'.
Evidence filed in Best vs Ranking shows that members of the large law firm club receive unhealthy deference from the Law Society of Upper Canada and other regulators in matters of misconduct and discipline.
In my case, the Law Society of Upper Canada ignored and covered up evidence of serious criminal offences by lawyers from large law firms. The law society also refused to assist me, an unrepresented litigant, to find legal counsel in a special situation where the vast majority of lawyers were too intimidated and frightened to represent me before the courts. Read more
Crown Attorney's concern: Public needlessly at risk from Ontario lawyers' criminal conduct
Hamilton Councillor Sam Merulla embraces police investigation of Mafia connections - with custom Godfather logo