The Magistrate

Mr Scully, the magistrate who on Saturday morning dealt with the demonstrators who had been arrested, behaved in court like a petulant little bully. In threatening to clear the courtroom at the slightest sound from the members of the public present, Mr Scully seemed at times to be deliberately provoking the tired and dejected spectators. As a remand and bail was sought for a demonstrator, Mr Scully paused for several seconds ("and bail of $150 in . . . his recognizance") before naming the sex of the defendant—a reference, apparently, to the length of the demonstrator's hair. This was repeated in each case, accompanied by a leer at the defendant, and in Shadbolt's case Mr Scully actually said "in her recognizance" before making a play of stumbling into a recognition of Shadbolt's gender. This display, and Mr Scully's irritable demands for respect in a courtroom in which there were far too many policemen to clearly suggest the independence one would have wanted in evidence, brought discredit upon the Court.

On the other hand, and I mean this in no way to lessen the force of the immediately preceding remarks, Mr Scully's actions—in giving remands and allowing bail where sought-and those of Mr Jamieson SM-in handing down what seem to be very fair sentences ($25 for Shadbolt, $24 for Verschaffelt)-cannot be questioned.