XPost: van.general, alt.true-crime   
   From: gregcarrsober@gmail.com   
      
   Once dubbed the Lex Luthor of crime, disgraced but not disbarred, former   
   Vancouver lawyer Martin Chambers is squaring off against Ottawa in   
   B.C.’s highest court.   
      
   At 74, the once-incandescent sex, drugs and rock’n’roll legal playboy   
   wants to return home from his American prison cell after serving more   
   than 12 years of a 15-year, eight-month sentence for money laundering.   
      
   But despite serving more than the maximum Canadian sentence allowed for   
   his crimes, he has run into the Stephen Harper government’s   
   cold-shoulder to citizens busted abroad.   
      
   B.C. Supreme Court Justice Arne Silverman said Chambers is caught in a   
   “Kafkaesque” situation and on July 4 declared he is being “unlawfully   
   detained according to Canadian law.”   
      
   On Monday, with the Correctional Service of Canada ignoring that   
   declaration, Chambers filed an appeal.   
      
   “For every day they don’t act, his rights are being violated under the   
   Charter, which may ultimately be worth something (in terms of a later   
   award for damages),” his lawyer John Conroy said.   
      
   He is trying to get an expedited hearing before the B.C. Court of Appeal.   
      
   Chambers, however, is one of the country’s most notorious prodigals.   
      
   During the 1970s, when Vancouver was earning a reputation for drug   
   running and its stock exchange for financial shenanigans, he was a   
   blazing light. Money, stock transactions, land deals, Chambers dabbled   
   in it all — and not without risk.   
      
   He beat his first criminal charges in 1971, for conspiracy to possess   
   stolen pearls and gold bars. When he was charged 10 years later with   
   conspiracy to import cocaine, the gilded lifestyle and haughty hubris   
   were deemed to have caught up with the infamous rake.   
      
   Whether Miami Vice or Dallas, Chambers’ was an epic soap opera splashed   
   across front pages.   
      
   In 1983, he was surprisingly acquitted when a judge dismissed much of   
   the Crown’s wiretap case against him.   
      
   Three years later, however, the Supreme Court of Canada ordered a new trial.   
      
   And in 1987, Chambers, who had let lapse his membership in the Law   
   Society, was convicted by a jury and sentenced to nine years imprisonment.   
      
   Still, he continued to lead a charmed life.   
      
   In 1990, the Supreme Court of Canada “with considerable regret” ordered   
   a third trial, ruling 6-1 that he had suffered a “significant injustice”   
   when asked an improper question by the prosecutor at his second trial.   
      
   The Crown gave up.   
      
   Some might have given thanks, but Chambers continued rolling the dice   
   and was linked during the 1990s to several scandals including the failed   
   Vancouver mortgage brokerage firm Eron Mortgage Corp.   
      
   His luck ran out in 2002 when Chambers was arrested in St. Louis, while   
   en route to Miami, and charged in a big international securities fraud   
   sting launched by the RCMP and FBI.   
      
   The cops compared him to Superman’s archrival. He accused them of having   
   a vendetta.   
      
   In September of 2003, Chambers was convicted of five counts of money   
   laundering and later sentenced to 15 years and 8 months imprisonment.   
      
   On May 13, 2013, Chambers applied to complete his sentence under the   
   International Transfer of Offenders Act.   
      
   He started doing time Aug. 18, 2003, and with good conduct his U.S.   
   release date is Sept. 7, 2016. Under Canadian law, the maximum sentence   
   he could have received was 10 years and that was up Aug. 18, 2011.   
      
   The U.S. approved his transfer request last Sept. 4.   
      
   On Sept. 17, Correctional Service senior manager Joseph Daou rejected   
   it, saying Chambers was ineligible because he must “still have at least   
   six months of the sentence left to serve in order to transfer.”   
      
   If Chambers was transferred to Canada, he would be immediately released.   
      
   In response, Chambers launched two court actions — one in B.C. Supreme   
   Court and one in Federal Court.   
      
   The first to hear the case, Justice Silverman solidly supported Chambers.   
      
   He declared the correctional service wrong and expected that “Daou would   
   then forward the petitioner’s application in the usual way to the   
   minister (of public safety and emergency preparedness) for a decision to   
   be made.”   
      
   Primarily because the case was before the B.C. court, Federal Court   
   Justice James Russell on Wednesday declined to get involved. He, too,   
   said he presumed that Daou would follow Justice Silverman’s findings.   
      
   Daou hasn’t.   
      
   Lawyer Conroy said he is not surprised because the Conservative   
   administration since taking office in 2006 has adopted the view that   
   Canadians who commit crimes abroad deserve what they get.   
      
   Ottawa has regularly refused transfers or ministers have dragged their   
   feet, he said, because there is no timeline in the legislation requiring   
   them to make a decision within a certain period.   
      
   “It was virtually unheard of Canada to not approve a transfer (under the   
   Liberals),” Conroy explained. “Since then, (the rejections) started with   
   (Public Safety Minister) Stockwell Day, then it was Peter Van Loan, then   
   Vic Toews and now Steven Blaney ... I think I got Vic Toews reversed (in   
   court) 21 times before they made him a judge in Manitoba (last July).”   
      
   Conroy also noted that if Chambers finishes his entire sentence in the   
   U.S. and then is deported back to Canada, his criminal record will not   
   show up in the main Canadian police database nor would he be under   
   parole or other supervision.   
      
   That was why some Canadians do not apply for a transfer, he said, to   
   avoid scrutiny on their return.   
      
   “Why put yourself in the clutches of the Correctional Service of   
   Canada?” Conroy asked. “Your record follows you back.   
      
   “It used to be you were always better to serve your time in Canada. Sure   
   there are American prisons you don’t want to go to, but if you are in a   
   medium- to low-(security) type U.S. facility you’re probably better off   
   these days than in the clutches of the CSC.”   
      
   Conroy said he thought it made more sense in terms of public safety to   
   allow Chambers’ transfer.   
      
   “We say the minister should be ordered to consent and then he’ll come   
   back and be released. Or, in the alternative, the minister should be   
   given a short timeline to make a decision.”   
      
   You can read the B.C. Supreme Court ruling at bit.ly/1jU7TUS   
      
   imulgrew@vancouversun.com   
      
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