SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Hugh Latimer went to law school because his father told him years ago in the rural Nova Scotia town he grew up in that he'd have to find a profession he could earn a living at.

Hugh Latimer walks a trail in Yellowknife. He always loved the outdoors and had a "frontier kind of mentality," said his brother David. - photo courtesy of Moira Latimer

He died at the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton on March 24, due to complications from a blood disorder. He was 83 years old.

One of Yellowknife's most respected and well-known defence lawyers, Latimer always wanted to become a professional musician, says his brother David. One of his greatest experiences was landing a role in the opera La traviata, put on by the Nova Scotia Opera in Halifax.

"I think it was his passion. It was his most important passion," said David.

Latimer kept up his talents in Yellowknife, performing with the Yellowknife Choral Society and the Yellowknife United Church Choir.

But singing wouldn't pay the bills, so Latimer applied himself to the legal profession with the same passion he had for the performing arts. It was this passion he carried with him, from his call to the bar in 1955 in Nova Scotia, all the way into courtrooms across the Northwest Territories where he continued serving clients until December 2012.

Randi Morton began working with Latimer as his assistant at his law firm in Yellowknife in 2003. It was her first such assignment, and one she would continue until Latimer's retirement.

She recalls her boss and friend, with his collection of canes, a magnifying glass and even a cape which he wore to court one time as an extension of some of his favourite plays and mystery novels.

"It was like he was a character - he was becoming a character for his role in court," said Morton.

"He'd have different looks, like if he was feeling particularly rebellious, he wore a motorcycle outfit, or the debonair long coat of a gentleman."

But it wasn't just the look Latimer brought to his practice. He liked to make his courtroom submissions a kind of theatre, often citing lines from his favourite pieces.

"He would quote Shakespeare in jury trials," remembers fellow defence lawyer and friend Nikolaus Homberg.

"He was very versatile in being able to recall plays ... he would fit it into his submissions very well. Sometimes he got a chuckle out of it, but often it was very fitting to the case."

Latimer's humour would carry on outside the courthouse, especially when cases were won.

"It was an occasion," said Morton, adding Latimer would always organize parties at the Top Knight afterwards. Calling them "a motion for a commotion" he'd pay for everything, not only celebrating his victories but those of his colleagues.

While Latimer's theatrics certainly garnered him plenty of attention over the years, they belied a bulldog of a lawyer. Latimer always liked to take the toughest cases, diving into the dregs of Yellowknife to fight for the those often overlooked by society.

Homberg remembers Latimer as a fixture at the Yellowknife courthouse. He always seemed to be around, whether making passionate pleas for his clients in the courtroom or relentlessly researching for his next court appearance in the courthouse library.

Latimer never quite caught on to computers, spending long hours hunched over a table in the courthouse library, doing his research "the old way." Homberg said he'll always think of the library's table as Hugh's table.

Paul Falvo, a lawyer and longtime friend of Latimer's, remembers that while working as a Crown prosecutor in the early 2000s, he'd sometimes receives late-night "Hugh-grams" in the office.

Typed on a typewriter in all capital letters, the message would arrive - looking like a telegram - via fax machine to the Crown's office.

"It would always be about some charter issue or some obscure thing that he picked up on. And you'd think he was crazy and you'd laugh at it ... but then you'd start getting worried that he was right," said Falvo.

Latimer's competence was something Falvo quickly picked up on, despite outward appearances.

"Here's an older gentleman, and his hair is unkempt, and his buttons aren't matched up or some buttons are flying off his coat, but if you underestimated him, you were making a mistake."

Latimer had the ability to make the judge or jury see what nobody else could see in cases. His obsession with cases involving the Charter of Rights and Freedoms earned him the nickname "Chartimer" among his co-workers.

While many lawyers in the North can get bogged down with volumes of depressing work, ranging from domestic abuse to rape and murder, Latimer never became jaded.

"He was always ready to pick the unpopular battles, to stick up for unsympathetic characters. Sometimes, they were just that, and other times, he would be proven right."

Latimer's dedication for his clients may have stemmed from earlier struggles of his own. It was no secret he'd battled alcohol addiction while he practised law in Nova Scotia in the 1970s. Latimer eventually quit the profession down south and worked on getting sober.

After attending treatment and achieving sobriety, Latimer made the move to Yellowknife in 1980, where he restarted his legal career with new-found passion.

Latimer worked hard defending his clients until the bitter end, refusing to retire until he was physically unable to continue his practice at age 81.

Although Latimer walked a little slower to the courthouse each day, Homberg says he was still shocked when he learned he was stopping his practice in 2012.

Morton says retirement was never part of Latimer's plans.

"He told me, 'If I quit being a lawyer, then I'm going to die,'" she said.

Latimer took on thousands of cases during his time in the North. Whether he was flying to remote communities across the territory, or battling it out in Yellowknife's courthouse, he carried with him a civility which earned him the respect of his fellow defence lawyers, Crowns and judges alike.

"He was an extremely dedicated criminal lawyer," said Chief Judge Robert Gorin, in a rare interview with Yellowknifer.

"He always did what he thought was in his client's best interest, and always within the applicable ethical guidelines.

"He will be missed."

He leaves behind his sons Brian and Philip and daughter Moira, as well as four grandchildren. Latimer was predeceased by his son Jonathan in 2011.

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