Thomas Carlyle talks to all the superficially successful, faux-pro franchisee lawyers.

If what you have done is unjust, you have not succeeded.

Blackstock sees ‘imbalance’ between $55M lawyers’ bill, welfare victims’ compensation

The Canadian Press
November 14, 2023

Cindy Blackstock holds a press conference regarding First Nations child welfare in Ottawa on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Cindy Blackstock, one of the people responsible for bringing forward a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal case that led to a historic settlement agreement, says she is concerned about an “imbalance” between what lawyers and victims will be paid.

The Federal Court approved a landmark $23-billion class-action lawsuit settlement last month to compensate more than 300,000 First Nations children and their families for chronic underfunding of on-reserve child-welfare services.

The federal government and class-action lawyers from five legal firms have since reached an additional $55-million deal over legal fees, which they promised to negotiate as part of the settlement agreement but which has not yet been approved in Federal Court.

“I don’t understand the system where the person who will have to have the most courage — those who are victimized — to bring forward the complaint (will) receive only a minutiae of what the lawyers receive who argued the complaint,” Blackstock, a lawyer with the First Nations Child & Family Caring Society, said in an interview on Tuesday.

The settlement came after a years-long battle with the federal government, which included a 2016 tribunal decision that the underfunding was discriminatory, and a 2019 ruling awarding $40,000 in compensation for each affected person.

The initial complaint revolved around allegations that Ottawa’s underfunding of on-reserve child-welfare services amounted to discrimination, and that First Nations children were denied equal access to support, including school supplies and medical equipment.

The tribunal found in 2016 that First Nations were adversely affected by the services provided by the government and, in some cases, people were denied services as a result of the government’s involvement. It acknowledged the suffering of those “denied an equitable opportunity to remain together or to be reunited in a timely manner.”

Indigenous Services Canada said last week it considers the $55-million proposed agreement to cover class-action lawyers’ fees to be reasonable. The department said that amount is in line with legal fees paid for previous class-action lawsuits.

Still, Blackstock said she is concerned about an “imbalance” in compensation being paid to lawyers, when victims are to receive comparatively little.

In documents submitted to the Federal Court dated Nov. 6, class-action lawyers said previous materials filed to the court estimated the total value of work up until the settlement approval hearing would be approximately $17.5 million.

That figure remained accurate by the time parties were making arguments about a final amount, the document reads, with the value of the work estimated at just under $17.6 million by the end of October.

Blackstock pointed to that figure, saying: “So why should there be a premium of this order?”

In an affidavit prepared for the Federal Court dated Oct. 6 and submitted a month later alongside other documents, David Sterns, a partner at Sotos LLP who worked on the case, said language included in fee retainer agreements would have resulted in much higher legal fees.

If those agreements were followed to the letter, then the costs would have been as high as $2.3 billion, he said.

Instead, the lawyers sought a lower $80-million figure.

Ottawa still found that price too steep, and a full day of judicial mediation to resolve that impasse was unsuccessful. The details of the mediation are confidential.

But the class-action lawyers noted in the documents submitted to court on Nov. 6 that “it was the view of all plaintiff counsel that the (final settlement agreement) is a historic achievement and that focus should be placed on the settlement rather than a dispute over legal fees.”

The $55-million figure was ultimately “fair and reasonable and in the best interests of the class,” they concluded.

Blackstock said the costs of the original 2007 human-rights complaint were largely paid for by her organization, with lawyers often doing the work pro bono.

“But then you have this class action that started just four years ago — after we had the main decision made — and they’re going to get $55 million in legal fees,” Blackstock said.

Court documents show that Canada agreed to pay $5 million to Blackstock’s Caring Society to assist with the “implementation and administration” of the settlement over an approximately 20-year period on a non-profit basis.

Blackstock said the fee was reached separately because her organization was not part of the class-action lawsuit, even though its original complaint was the basis for it.

She said the $5 million will go toward helping children and adults who are entitled to compensation in the final agreement but had been left out of previous proposed settlements. The money will only be used to make representations on behalf of such victims, she said.

Blackstock said Canada should not wait for tribunal decisions and class-action settlements to right wrongs against First Nations children.

“It’s much more in the public interest to actually end injustice, and not create victims, than it is in trying to seek some form of compensation for victims,” said Blackstock.

– Alessia Passafiume, The Canadian Press

David Sterns
SotosLLP.com “Leading Franchise and Business Law Boutique
SotosClassActions.com “Standing up for what’s yours”

Les Stewart’s franchisee prayer.

***

Mine is a most peaceable disposition. My wishes are: a humble cottage with a thatched roof, but a good bed, good food, the freshest milk and butter, flowers before my window, and a few fine trees before my door; and if God wants to make my happiness complete, he will grant me the joy of seeing some six or seven of my enemies hanging from those trees. Before death I shall, moved in my heart, forgive them all the wrong they did me in their lifetime. One must, it is true, forgive one’s enemies– but not before they have been hanged.

Heinrich Heine 1797 – 1856

Most people are content to drift on the light breezes of franchise industry lies.

People are more interested in blaming others rather than breaking the shell of their own ignorance.

In that way, franchising re-distributes resources to those most aware.

Fifty per cent (50%) of franchisees who lost their life savings to common industry practices are ready to spin the wheel a second time.

Predatory franchising and the franchise bar rely on you misunderstandding the core reason for your economic loss.

It’s not the brand that will save you a 2nd time.

Learn the real reasons behind franchise fraud.

Franchising is usually an overwhelmingly distractive force.

The complexities grow when a lawyer is brought in to help.

Pattern recognition is best done by those who are not monopoly (1) law and (2) franchise bar practioners.

Throw away the powdered wig and those who cling to its antiquated value.

Some wisdom that’ll likely be lost on most self-satisfied franchisees.

Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in 3 generations.

Andrew Carnegie 1835 – 1919

“Anything, Roman Catholicism, Buddhism, LSD, I’m for anything that works,”: Cohen on the means of spiritual seeking.

The new record opens with the title track, “You Want It Darker,” and in the chorus, the singer declares:

Hineni Hineni
I’m ready my Lord.

Leonard Cohen at home in Los Angeles in September, 2016. Photograph by Graeme Mitchell for The New Yorker

Hineni is Hebrew for “Here I am,” Abraham’s answer to the summons of God to sacrifice his son Isaac; the song is clearly an announcement of readiness, a man at the end preparing for his service and devotion. Cohen asked Gideon Zelermyer, the cantor at Shaar Hashomayim, the synagogue of his youth in Montreal, to sing the backing vocals. And yet the man sitting in his medical chair was anything but haunted or defeated.

“I know there’s a spiritual aspect to everybody’s life, whether they want to cop to it or not,” Cohen said. “It’s there, you can feel it in people—there’s some recognition that there is a reality that they cannot penetrate but which influences their mood and activity. So that’s operating. That activity at certain points of your day or night insists on a certain kind of response. Sometimes it’s just like: ‘You are losing too much weight, Leonard. You’re dying, but you don’t have to coöperate enthusiastically with the process.’ Force yourself to have a sandwich.

“What I mean to say is that you hear the Bat Kol.” The divine voice. “You hear this other deep reality singing to you all the time, and much of the time you can’t decipher it. Even when I was healthy, I was sensitive to the process. At this stage of the game, I hear it saying, ‘Leonard, just get on with the things you have to do.’ It’s very compassionate at this stage. More than at any time of my life, I no longer have that voice that says, ‘You’re fucking up.’ That’s a tremendous blessing, really.”

— Leonard Cohen makes it darker, The New Yorker magazine, October 17, 2016

Franchising and the Tyranny of Evil Men

Some money costs too much. It may not nececessarily be up to us to decide what source nurtures or what source poisons.

And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee..
— Ezekiel 25:17

Tim Hortons’ franchisees fancied themselves above all other franchise systems renters.

Even McDonald’s.

Maybe they never met Ray? Or his loyal Canadian subordinate, George?

 

Boom, Like That

I’m going to San Bernardino ring-a-ding-ding

Milkshake mixers that’s my thing now

These guys bought a heap of my stuff

And I gotta see a good thing sure enough now

 

Oh my name is not Crock, that’s Kroc with a K

Like crocodile but not spelled that way now

It’s dog eat dog, rat eat rat

Kroc-style… Boom! like that

 

Folks line up all down the street

Now I am seeing this girl devour her meat now

And then I get it Wham! as clear as day

My pulse begins to hammer then I hear a voice say:

 

These boys have got this down ought to be one of these in every town

These boys have got the touch It’s clean as a whistle and it don’t cost much

Wham! Bam! You don’t wait long, shake, fries, patty you’re gone

How about that friendly name, heck, every little thing ought to stay the same

 

Or my name is not Crock, that’s Kroc with a K

Like crocodile but not spelled that way now

It’s dog eat dog, rat eat rat

Dog eat dog, rat eat rat now

Oh it’s dog eat dog, rat eat rat

Kroc-style… Boom! like that

 

You gentlemen ought to expand

You’re gonna need a helping hand now

So gentlemen well what about me?

We’ll make a little business history now

 

Oh my name’s not Crock, you can call me Ray

Like crocodile but not spelled that way now

It’s dog eat dog, rat eat rat

Kroc-style… Boom! like that

 

Well we’ll build it up and I buy ’em out

But man they made me grind it out now

They open up a new place flippin’ meat

So I do too, right across the street

 

I got the name but I need the town, sell em’ in the end and it all shuts down

Sometimes you gotta be an S.O.B. you wanna make a dream reality

Competition sent em south, if they’re gonna drown put a hose in their mouth

Do not pass “Go”, go straight to hell

I smell that meat hook smell

 

Oh my name is not Crock, that’s Kroc with a K

Like crocodile but not spelled that way now

Ohh it’s dog eat dog, rat eat rat

It’s dog eat dog, rat eat rat

Ohh it’s dog eat dog, rat eat rat

Kroc-style… Boom! like that

I smell that meat hook smell