The Chilliwack Progress from Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada • Page 15

te Progress N1TY Section Wednesday, November 1, 1989 Supreme Court of B.C. Justice David Hinds named days there was no safety net of bursaries and student loans and there were few scholarships. "You blinking well earned your own money. "It helped me in life, really, too. You get an appreciation of how other people think if you work at that really heavy, tough work." In May 1950, at 23, Hinds completed his law degree and returned to Chilliwack to article (apprentice) for well-known lawyer Frank Wilson.

He considered himself lucky because he was paid $50 a month, which was more than the going rate in Vancouver, and after three months had that doubled to $100 a month. Called to the bar in May of '51, Hinds was taken on by Wilson as a partner three months later. Shortly after that, in May of '51 he married his high school sweetheart June Brett. Brett, a year behind Hinds in school, had also been active in athletics. Their first date was Brett's Grade 12 graduation dance they went steady for six years after that.

Brett also went to UBC and then to normal school to become a teacher. After teaching in Abbotsford for a year she found a job teaching in Chilliwack in the fall of 1951. relatively small, Chilliwack law firm over the space of 11 years. Another Hinds, Davies lawyer who worked with the firm in 1968, Darragh Vamplew, went on to become a provincial court judge, adds Hinds. "So we're kind of proud that our little firm has really produced three county court judges two of whom have become Supreme Court judges (Hinds and Davies) and a provincial court judge." Hinds attributes the firm's success "primarily to the grounding that Frank Wilson gave Wilson was in his early 40s and a school principal in Mission when he decided to become a lawyer, says Hinds.

At that time there was no law school so in 1940 Wilson came to Chilliwack where he articled for five years before becoming a lawyer in 1945. "Frank pretty quickly developed a pretty big practice he really was an outstanding man." Throughout the years leading up to Hinds' appointment to the bench in '74 he was active in the community. He was a member of the Kinsmen Club before eventually becoming president in 1957. In the late '60s he was a member of the Rotary Club, and he served as a school board trustee for six years from 1966 to 1972. His partner Wilson had been a stalwart on the school board for 15 years before him.

by Phil Salembier Justice David Hinds, a resident of Chilliwack for more than 54 years, has been named the 1989 Citizen to be Recognized by a selection committee of the Chilliwack Chamber of Commerce. The Progress talked to Hinds last week about growing up in Chilliwack during the Second World War, his distinguished legal career, community involvements and plans for the future. Born in Goudhurst, Kent (England) on May 4, 1927, a community "about the size of Rosedale," Hinds came to Chilliwack with his father Bertran, mother Marjorie and sister Prudence in 1935. Hinds' father was hired to come to Chilliwack as manager of the Haas Hop Company. Hinds went to Sardis Elementary on Vedder Rd.

and took junior and senior high school and senior matriculation (equivalent to first year university) at Chilliwack Secondary. At age 10, while going to school, Hinds began working for his father in the hop yards. Because the war was raging it was difficult to find laborers, he explains. At school Hinds found his interests were in English, history and geography, although he took a mix of courses so as not to limit his options. "In high school and senior matric I wasn't positive what I wanted to do." Outside of academics "I was pretty involved in athletics," says Hinds.

In fact, he was on the school's basketball, baseball, track, soccer, badminton and table tennis teams. His favorite track events were in middle-distance running (the 220, 440 and half-mile events) and broad jump, but Hinds is modest about his achievements. "I held my own," he says. And Hinds was captain of the basketball team, though he claims he was "certainly not the best At the elementary level there was a great rivalry between Sardis and Chilliwack, he recalls. "There were a lot of good athletes (in Sardis).

We would really thump Chilliwack." But there was only one high school at the time, and all the old Sar-disChilliwack rivalries fell by the wayside when the students combined to form the high school teams. From the year he graduated from senior matriculation until 1949, Hinds worked every summer at a logging camp in Powell River. He was classified as a handyman which meant he performed jobs including setting chokers, booming, greasing the cats, and driving the cats and gravel trucks. "I like to think that people are basically good. I don't take the attitude that most people are crooks and scalawags, (but) there are times when you're saddened to find that people don't measure up to what you think." hr hi fo W.

WjW? "Ill jjQMn nm mm nw tr-v 11 1 jJ 1 Uli H-ra-J "The lawyers have done their bit on the school board around here," he says. As well, throughout the '50s and '60s, Hinds was variously involved teaching Sunday school at Chilliwack United Church, working as the municipal solicitor, and sitting on and chairing committees including one that guided the completion of the Coliseum and another that managed the conversion of the old Agricultural Hall to Evergreen Hall. "I was a damned busy fellow," he adds. In April 1954 Hinds became a father with the birth of his first daughter Diane. Sixteen months later his second daughter Patti was born.

Combining the solid grounding given him by Wilson with equal parts of initiative and ability Hinds became committed to the benchers of the Law Society (the body that governs lawyers) and Queen's counsel in 1971. His work for the government kept him on the road and allowed him to become known at the provincial level. Thus, Hinds speculates, when a County Court seat became available in New Westminster and "the powers that be decided they needed somebody from the Fraser Valley" his name came up. And though Hinds' mentor Wilson was a widely known Liberal, Hinds says he doesn't believe his appointment was politically motivated. "I'm apolitical.

I'm not committed to any party and never have been. But I have lots of political ideas that I can't express now that I'm a judge." Hinds was elevated to the Supreme Court of B.C. in September 1980. He believes that move was also motivated by a desire for wider representation on the bench rather than partisan politics. "I don't think anyone can truthfully say that either Bill (Davies) or I have been elevated because of political connections." "I'm very fortunate.

I deal with such a wide variety of factual situations and I see so many interesting people. "We range (in the Supreme Court) from murder and the seemier side of things, perhaps sexual, to dry, academic (judgements as to) whether a certain piece of legislation is legal." "And I really do work with a very nice group of people for whom I have a lot of respect in the sense that they are dedicated to try and deliver justice. They're very hard working and there's a lot of pressure on them and I think, by and large, they do render fair decisions." Hinds says despite his work on cases that deal with the "seemier side" of human nature "I like to think that people are basically good. I don't take the attitude that most people are crooks and scalawags, (but) there are times when you're saddened to find that people don't measure up to what you think." What lies ahead for Justice Hinds? The highest court in B.C. is the Court of Appeal, but Hinds says "I have no aspiration to go there, I'm very happy where I He says he hopes to continue for another lxk years when he can either semi-retire, to become a part-time supernumerary judge, or completely retire.

Whatever his choice, Hinds says he plans to spend more time at home in Chilliwack pursuing his hobby: gardening, and getting more involved in the community again. "I've had a very happy life here in Chilliwack. In my quiet way I'm a very strong supporter of this community." Justice Hinds will be honored tonight (Nov. 1) with a recep- tion and dinner, at 6:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

respectively, in the Rainbow Country Inn. Tickets are $30 each and are available from the Chilliwack Chamber of Commerce on Luckakuck Way. For more information call 858-8121. Meanwhile, Hinds was also involved in the army cadets corp. He became a captain in Grade 10.

When the army cadets became the nucleus of the new air cadets corp Hinds was WOl (Warrant Officer 1), the top ranking cadet, in Grades 12 and 13. "At that time (circa 1944) Canada was putting the emphasis on the air force." When he completed senior matric Hinds decided to enter the arts program at the University of B.C. "I had made up my mind that I wanted to be either a lawyer or a school teacher." Hinds says he was greatly influenced by his teachers, especially socials teacher and basketball coach Wilf Graham. But by the time he had completed his third year he decided to seek a combined law and arts degree. "I thought I would try the more difficult one (law) first until I get kicked out." Hinds, just 18 when he completed senior matric, wasn't at all sure he'd be able to make it in law school.

In 1945 most law school students were veterans and many had fought in the war, he says. Meanwhile, from the year he graduated from senior matric until 1949, Hinds worked every summer at a logging camp in Powell River. "I thoroughly enjoyed it," he recalls. "I did most of everything in the logging camp. "They knew I wanted to make money in a hurry," explains Hinds, "and it was often difficult to get men to work overtime." Eventually Hinds was classified as a handyman which meant he was able to perform a number of different jobs including setting chokers, booming, greasing the cats, and driving the cats and gravel trucks.

He even went back on his Christmas break to drive a road grader. Hinds was able to earn enough money in the camps to put himself through school comfortably. He says he was "bent on" earning the money he needed because in those JUSTICE DAVID HINDS "By that time I knew where I was going," says Hinds. "Times were different in the legal world then, there weren't as many openings. I counted myself very fortunate to have a job and very fortunate to be taken in as a partner." Meanwhile Hinds and Wilson had built their practise into a growing concern.

The name of the firm had changed from Frank Wilson to Wilson, Hinds and in 1955 June's younger cousin Bill Davies joined the firm as a law student. Davies was called to the bar later the same year and in 1956, when he was asked to become a partner, the name of the firm changed again to Wilson, Hinds, Davies. In 1965 Jim Baker joined the firm, and in 1967 Wilson left to become a County Court judge. Because you can't have a judge's name in the name of a law firm it was changed to Hinds, Davies. In 1974 when Hinds too was appointed a County Court judge the name became Davies, Baker.

And in 1978 when Davies also became a County Court judge (alert readers will notice a pattern here) the name changed to its present form: Baker, Newby. No less than three County Court judges had been appointed from the one, in tr r- if 07 ry mm i III I mm) 3 2Fr I Qt-mVSLEn JEEP EAGLE A DIVISION OF O'CONNOR MOTORS LTD. TlymouS CHRYSLER 45730 HOCKING AVENUE, CHILLIWACK I I icvwm DLN 5S52.