Edith Marion* married David STURDY. Born ca 1910. David died bef 2012; he was 102. Occupation: Lawyer. They were divorced.
- David was the lawyer in the last Canadian case that was tried before the British Privy Council.
- In 1937 David Sturdy established the Chillawack law firm Baker Newby LLP
From Chilliwack Progress, March 26, 2013, p 12:
Baker Newby LLP and its predecessor firms have been practicing law in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia since 1937. Starting with a sole practitioner in Depression-era Chilliwack, the Firm has grown to become one of the largest law firms
in British Columbia outside Vancouver. (From Baker Newby website)
From The Law Society of Manitoba Communique August 2011:
In the last issue I mentioned Louise Ritchie’s retirement after 18 years as a claims examiner in our Insurance Department. I asked Louise about how she first came to work with the legal profession. Here is what she wrote back: “I was 19 when I started my first job in a law firm in Vancouver where I was bitten by the law and never recovered. …
The senior partner, David Sturdy, took the last Canadian case to the Privy Council and won. We all sat on the floor of his office and celebrated with the libation of our choice, after his telephone call from London”.
(Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, a board of the British Privy Council which, until 1949, served as a court of final appeal for Canada. (Canadian Encyclopedia).
Wikipedia article about History of the Supreme Court of Canada, says “The last Canadian case heard by the Privy Council was in 1959, as the case had been grandfathered.”)
From Ottawa Citizen, Feb 7 , 1958 ()
New BC Party Wants to Head off Socialism
A new political party has been formed in BC. Its announced aim is to head off socialism by improving the caliber of the free enterprise parties. Its voice is David Sturdy, the Vancouver lawyer who sparked the Sommers case involving corruption charges against a former minister of the crown. The group is to be known as the Provincial Voters’ Association. Mr Sturdy said in a statement the movement “as presented constituted includes Liberals, Conservatives and Social Crediters and is primarily and educational and moral movement.” Its main aims are to press for the election of only men and women
of the highest character to the B.C. Legislature.
Mr Sturdy in 1955 told the Sloan forestry commission he had evidence that would indicate that then lands and forests minister, R.E. Sommers, took bribes for the issuance of forest management licenses. Two months later Mr Sommers resigned his cabinet post but has retained his seat in the legislature. Charges of bribery were laid against Mr Sommers but the case has been repeatedly postponed.
Excerpt from Wikipedia article: Robert Edward Sommers (January 3, 1911- 2000) was an Alberta-born elementaryschool principal and a politician, who served as a Social Credit Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from 1952 to 1958, representing the riding of Rossland-Trail in the Canadian province of British Columbia. He served as Minister of Lands, Forests and Mines from until his resignation February 27, 1956. He was tried and in 1958 was convicted of bribery and conspiracy making him the first cabinet minister in the British Commonwealth to serve a term of imprisonment for accepting
bribes in connection with his office.
See also Book The Sommers Scandal: The Felling of Trees and Tree Lords Betty O'Keefe, Ian MacDonald. Heritage House Publishing Co, 1999