The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The notorious case of former Flin Flon lawyer Michael Bomek will be told in the pages of a forthcoming book about attorneys who end up on the wrong side of the law. Lawyers Gone Bad: Money, Sex and Madness in Canada's Legal Profession is the working title of Canadian author Philip Slayton's latest work, due out sometime next year. "It's an interesting story with lots of things happening," said Slayton of the Bomek case, which will have its own chapter. "It's the story of, by many accounts, a gifted and effective lawyer who, by many accounts, ably represented his various clients from Pelican Narrows, and other aboriginal clients, who had a sort of spectacular fall from grace." Slayton traveled to Prince Albert last year to interview Bomek, who had been out of prison for less than a year after pleading guilty to charges that included sexually assaulting past or present male clients in Pelican Narrows and surrounding reservations. Having spoken with other disbarred lawyers, the Nova Scotia-based author was struck by the resilience displayed by his subject, who was residing in the basement of a friend's electronics store. "He had no money, so he was living in pretty straightened circumstances, but he seemed quite cheerful to me," recalls Slayton. "He wasn't going around with a long face or anything." And he didn't hold back. For the next three days, Bomek spoke frankly about the ordeal that cost him his career, including his September 2002 arrest in Pelican Narrows. "Obviously he, it would be fair to say, put a positive spin on things, but I think he was quite candid," says Slayton, "and from checking what he told me against other sources, it seemed correct." This will be the second book to detail the Bomek case after Bitter Embrace: White Society's Assault on the Woodland Cree hit store shelves this past spring. As with a good piece of journalism, Slayton, a respected legal affairs writer and former lawyer, presents a balanced view of the story. Bomek is given fair opportunity to present his side of the story, contending that all of his relations were consensual. Slayton also interviewed local residents with good things to say about the man who practised law in Flin Flon for 15 years while becoming heavily involved with the community. "I talked to a number of people in Flin Flon who said, 'Look, while he was here, he helped out with the community, community projects, community charities,'" says Slayton. "There was a lot of positive sentiment." No such impression was held by the prosecutor in the case, who reportedly argued that Bomek abused a position of authority to gain the compliance of his accusers. Yet out all of the people he interviewed for the book, Slayton says the prosecutor was the only one who believed Bomek's punishment Ð two years less a day in prison with a promise to never again practise law Ð was befitting. For his part, Slayton says the case is not one to be viewed in black and white terms. With so many factors involved, he believes shades of gray are in order. "I certainly would not agree with the school of thought that says he was a very bad man who got what he deserved, end of story," says the author. "I think it's a complex story. I think he clearly behaved with very bad judgment, to say the least. I mean, he ruined his professional career. He didn't conduct himself in the way perhaps he should have, and he paid a huge price for that." With such a promising career behind him, Bomek, according to Slayton, now makes his way by running a hot dog stand in Prince Albert. "I suppose he'll eke out a living as best he can, like most people," says the author. "He seems to be settled into Prince Albert."
