“You have to really hate yourself to do that,” Brearley said as he leaned back slowly in his swivel chair, looking past JP, in the same way his blue piercing eyes looked through everyone he talked to, in a matter of fact way. JP nodded slowly as if to show his agreement, but kept his gaze on Brearley fixed and unblinking, to show his intent to listen for more.
Brearley was not aloof. Quite the opposite. He was entirely there, and his tall stature made him an Abe Lincoln type of gentleman. JP had never met anyone like him. He could say, “I believe in hierarchy” like some people say, “I like vanilla ice cream”, without it seeming at all out of place or pretentious. It was not. It just was and he said it, and JP agreed with it, as he did most things that Brearley said.
The longtime Professor of Civil law property at McGill was the perfect image of the undertaker, at six foot five, and as slim as would be required to play the part, yet to anyone who knew him, he was more of a teddy bear than a purveyor of the dead. If you were tired and depressed, you could tell him and he’d say, “We all get that way sometimes,” and that was sufficient salve. You could then turn your mind to your edits to the next draft of “Louisiana Civil Law”, check your watch to see if it was time to head off across the field to the racket ball courts, or to the library.
His lectures were, certainly, a journey beyond the grave, to another time, before the Quiet Revolution, before the race and gender wars, and the treason trials, and long before women got and lost and got the vote again. He would pause his perfect lectures, suddenly, and for no apparent reason, apologize in his quiet voice and ask if he should repeat the distinction between common law and civil law property, as he perceived he had lost us. He hadn’t, but it was always comforting that he interpreted our amazement that way, and asked our permission to proceed, which we always silently granted with concentric nods in the auditorium, and with a cascade of smiles, and a shimmering of light-hearted chuckles that are so welcome to law students, or to all so deep in their work or studies that they need to be reminded that they are indeed still among the living.
“Caron left it to me. I have no idea why. Maybe it was a joke.” The Gothic Grandfather clock was of a hall design made by the Colonial Manufacturing Company. It was clearly meant to be standing in a hall, but Brearley had it crammed in the corner of his absurdly small office amid teetering stacks of mismatched books and papers. It had tubular chimes and a heavy metal dial, with three undersized crosses carved in among the upper oak embellishments, suggesting it was made for use in a church or church school. It was when JP turned towards it that it chimed two — and Brearley tapped his pen in echoing fashion on his desk pad. JP looked back from the clock and saw that Brearley was smiling, as if thinking of a one liner. “I have to go, “ said JP. Brearley nodded, holding the same fixed smile, but following him with his blue eyes.
“Counsel…. COUNSEL!”
JP re-emerged, “Yes Justice? …”
“Please get on with it, we are nearing the afternoon break and I have a family law matter I have to deal with at 4:30, or so I’m told.”
“Yes, of course.”
The new form examinations for discovery were a pre-trial civil procedure, lifted from the common-law rules, to allow a party learn more about the other side’s case. The revisions to the rules avoided the need for most chambers’ applications as an assigned judge participated in the questioning by video link. The judge at a discovery acted mostly as an observer and was there to make any necessary rulings, usually on issues of “relevance”. The new form rules avoided most time consuming and frivolous interlocutory applications and kept the judge assigned to the action, which meant he, she, they or it, was aware of the basic facts and issues. JP didn’t mind the intent of the new rules, but it did limit to some extent the free rolling journeys through the facts he had enjoyed when only counsel and parties had been participants. He enjoyed those free ranging explorations of the minds and psyches of the claimants, or embittered shareholders, and could push the limits, especially when faced with less experienced opponents. These were not so much fact finding exercises, as the rules had intended, but were in JP’s hands a form of personal entertainment. He was long past the point where he needed much if any facts. Claimants were merely types, with little or no individuality. You had cases of “shitty life syndrome” or “SLS”, by far the largest class, inclusive of both sterile, cubicle dwelling working women in their 50s, with a dog they called their child, and the unfortunate foreign doctor, academic or engineer, reduced to driving an Uber or making blizzards at DQ for whiny neurotic behaviourally challenged white children, or those prematurely diagnosed with OCD or ADHD — or for the deer eyed and mute types who barely seemed to occupy space in this world. Another class was the young perma-cripple, terminally symptomatic, and systematically diagnosable and medicated. All were closely related classes or sentiments of what passed for humanity.
The subject today was a lady of the highly diagnosed and medicated type. Her name was Krystia Dlapsey. She was impressively unimpressive, pasty faced and round. She stood 5’3”, or so she said. Her normal weight was around 155. She was currently about 160. She still lived with her parents and brother at 555 Dulcimer Place in Montreal, which is where she was living at the time of her fall on the bus in late 2024, the subject of this lawsuit. She alleged that the fall (which had been captured on video) somehow resulted in a concussion, the lingering symptoms of which had “ruined her life”.
Krystia was born February 9, 1986. She believes she was born prematurely or so she had heard. There was some issue with her breathing. Thereafter, she carried with her a doctor’s note, updated with clock-like regularity, confirming a medical opinion that she was not to engage in physical activity that might overwork her sensitive lungs. She enjoyed moving about by walking, but was careful not to overdo it. Her care had produced the inevitable result. She had no plans to move, from her parents’ place that is, until she could find something “affordable” (not to mention something tolerable to her myriad pre-fall chronic mental and physical complaints). She had been married in 2009 to Roy. They separated after two or three years. The divorce was finalized in 2024. They had no children. She remained unattached.
She thought she had ADD and dyslexia. Her dad, William Dlapsey, was diagnosed with PTSD from his time in the military, although he never shared particulars of the triggering event, if any. William was possibly more unimpressive than his unimpressive daughter. He used to spend his days — after slowly getting out of bed around 10 am each morning and taking his anti-depressants and anti-psychotics — in front of the big screen in the living room, immobile, with the expression on his face of someone who had just downed a glass of urine thinking it was lemonade. In recent years he sat at the kitchen table in front of his old laptop, sprinkled as it was with years of tiny remnants of past meals and snacks, watching videos. He had also accumulated $10,000,000 in play money playing online slots and black jack. He never celebrated a big win, but would provide summaries of the days best spins or cards, aloud, in a monotone, whether or not there was anyone in ear shot to hear him.
William reportedly had a history of being abusive towards Krystia and her mom. Krystia described her father’s abusive side as having its “ups and downs” -- but that he was mostly “okay” these days, adding, “I really don’t care how he’s doing, to be honest”. Krystia got along “very well” with her mother, Draina Dlapsey. JP did not ask any other questions concerning Draina such that what he knew about her was limited to what a name itself may tell us about its holder. He was satisfied in her case that this was sufficient. JP did examine Krystia at length on the nature of the family violence, while having to deal with several objections from her lawyer, Lucien Huibert, whom JP knew only as notoriously unpleasant, even with his own clients, often rolling his eyes effeminately, and yelling at them to “listen to the question!”, with a tone that implied, “please shut the eff up”. He also liked to talk about his trips to Cuba, where he seemed to spend all his spare time. Huibert argued that JP was merely “fishing” for dirt and that his client’s private life was irrelevant. The judge, Madam Justice Singh, a recent appointee under the new protocols, sighed, and appeared to be in physical pain every time Huibert made an objection, as if she found her duties either extremely challenging to her brain, or beneath her, JP was never quite sure which— although he tended towards the former. In the end, and invariably, Justice Singh allowed the question, adding in each and every case, “let’s see where this line of questioning goes, but I caution you counsel to exercise caution,” which JP found about as useless a direction as was humanly possible, having the purpose only of adding the veneer of decision to pure indecision. Krystia described the abuse as “emotional/verbal”.
“No broken bones, trips to the emergency?”
“No.”
JP left it at that for now.
Education
Krystia recounted with profound indifference that she had attended the public education system off and on to Grade 8 (at Queen of Oka Elementary school), but was otherwise homeschooled by her mom through Gatineau Valley distance. She graduated in 2005. Her goal on leaving high school was to become either a lawyer or a “researcher”. She had not decided yet, but was now leaning heavily towards social work.
JP opened a psycho-education assessment report of psychologist Dr. Richard K. Malone, dated February 20, 2005. The report had been buried in the voluminous records of her family doctor. Her family doctor was the aptly named Dr. Payne. Malone would later become a notorious whore of the Plaintiff’s bar, prepared to add anything to or omit anything from a report to assist his paying client. The report on Krystia read as more measured than his more recent work. Dr. Malone took a history from Krystia confirming that her few months of high school had been a struggle. This ordeal continued when she resumed her homeschooling. The assessment was done in her Grade 12. She or her family had initiated the testing as she anticipated needing accommodation to succeed at college or university. JP asked why she sought help so late, in Grade 12 when she had noted problems herself years before. She answered: “We live in a system where you need a diagnosis in order to access services, and so that was the motivator”.
The 2005 Malone report concluded:
CHILD'S/YOUTH'S VIEWS
Krystia herself identified Gender and Women’s studies as being her strongest academic subjects, and Math and English as her weakest (because 'you have to be smart enough' for these subjects). She identified 'comprehension' as being the most difficult aspect of English for her, but also the fact that she cannot write essays, and thus has her learning assistance teacher 'do it for me.' She further described herself as struggling with both reading decoding and spelling.
Outside of school, Krystia has little social life, as she works two days per week at Tim Horton's and was nervous around people otherwise. She works mainly on cash, which she finds difficult, as she sometimes miscalculates change [JP imagined she wouldn’t have any trouble today with the new digital currencies and AI]. She further stated that she gets extra daily learning assistance. Something she just sleeps in and doesn’t have the energy to think.
Krystia reported that she is hoping to enroll in college to become a Special Education Assistant after high school, as her main interest is in helping children. She described the anxiety she has experienced as arising mainly from social concerns, “strange dreams” and nightmares which had no definitive theme, but also from her worries about global warming.
Dr. Malone made the following recommendations:
1) Krystia should attempt to sit at or near the front of the room in each of her classes, in order to increase her ability to focus on the teacher and reduce her chances of being distracted.
2) Krystia may also find it effective to intersperse her study/homework sessions with relatively frequent, short breaks, which will help her avoid becoming mentally fatigued and having her concentration deteriorate. She should also attempt to study in a setting with minimal distractions, including no music, t.v. or electronic devices until her breaks.
3) Krystia would further benefit from assistance in breaking down large school assignments into the series of steps needed to complete each one. Additional instruction in outlining methods would also be helpful to her, as she should routinely create an outline for each of her written assignments. Additionally, strong consideration should be given maintaining a funded tutor — but increasing the support to two hours a day, to assist her in organizing her approach to her studying and assignment completion.
4) Due to her marked difficulties sustaining her concentration, it is recommended that Krystia be allowed to write her exams in a room apart from the rest of her class and to have an extended time limit.
5) Consideration might also be given to having Krystia undergo an ADHD medication trial. If so, please let me know and I will make the necesssary referral to my clinic. Krystia is an ideal candidate.
6) Given the fact that Krystia’s intellectual ability test results suggest that she would not be considered a natural academic learner, any post-secondary education program or career that she considers should be one that places minimal emphasis on academically-oriented courses or academic skills. She may be well suited to passing on her insights through counselling.
She recalls underdoing the ADHD medication trial, but couldn’t remember much about it. “I am drawing a blank on that.” She claims she was never “hyperactive” so the correct lettering should probably be ADD. While availing herself of all recommended accommodation, she took courses up to third year level in at Concordia University and briefly at the University of Sherbrooke. The classes were in Psychology, Gender and Women’s studies, Decolonization and Social Work. Even with the accommodation, she never obtained a degree and failed most of her courses. She is still hoping to get her Masters eventually. She would “love” to go back to school, if she could “find a way” given her myriad physical and cognitive functioning issues, most of which she says were caused by the “concussion”.
“It’s the concussion from the fall.” she blurted out. I was stable until the fall. I have trouble processing information now. I have trouble downloading,” she added. JP made a note that this was probably a pre-fall limitation and noted, “concussion dubious”.
Work and Ongoing Health History
She was on Prozac by age 13, as well as being diagnosed with bipolar disorder type 2, although her school clinic doctors in Sherbrooke years later questioned the bipolar diagnosis and were treating her as more likely suffering primarily from long-term major depressive disorder, social anxiety and general anxiety and environmental and systemic sensitivities. There were a shortage of safe spaces at the university in those days.
.
She was involved in two car accidents in 2008 or 2009. She was a passenger in both cases. Roy was driving. She acknowledged suffering physical injuries. JP didn’t bother asking for details, directing her instead to the clinical notes of her family doctor. It seems that when she returned to Montreal (after some time in Kingston, Ontario) in 2015, Dr. Payne suggested in his notes a link between her depression, anxiety and fibromyalgia and these remote 2008-2009 car accidents. She did “wonder” if there was a connection -- but wasn’t sure. JP made a note that her problems were longstanding and chronic by whatever standard one chose and whatever the initial cause. Generally, pain was considered chronic by any hack medical expert after two years, with the invariable opinion of “unlikely to ever resolve”. JP had till now yet to examine a claimant on a subsequent injury claim who didn’t testify that the previous traumatic injuries, labelled chronic and permanent, had without question entirely and mostly resolved. Krystia was at least vague.
Krystia was moved to Kingston, Ontario, across the Quebec border sometime after the 2008-2009 car accidents. The reasons were unclear and Krystia ended up spending some time in a homeless shelter. “I had nowhere to go,” but didn’t provide many details. “I was having bad dreams.” She was on government unemployment insurance in Ontario in 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2021. She did manage to find work briefly in telemarketing in 2015. She couldn’t remember what she was selling: “We were following up on some medical treatment, to see if the patients were ok or something, I think.” She also worked at the Kingston Drop-In and Drug Rehab Centre as an adult care worker. It was located on King Edward Way.
She went on short-term disability benefits for a time, returned to work at the Rehab Centre briefly in October 2017, and was employed there until the Spring of 2018, at which point she was laid off due to “health” issues. She was suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome or encephalomyelitis and fibromyalgia or myofascial pain syndrome. She was diagnosed with fibromyalgia by specialists in Kingston. The first bad bout of these illnesses occurred in 2017: “The Rehab Centre was a stressful environment … I couldn’t handle it… and I couldn’t sleep … I was getting funny dreams. I couldn’t concentrate… maybe that is when I went to the shelter?” Her symptoms included fatigue, dizziness and daily nausea.
In 2019, she was working in the Walmart pharmacy in Kingston, where she worked about five months. She was stocking shelves. She also suffered from costochondritis, or inflammation of the wrist cartilage, which is why she quit Walmart in 2019. She thinks it was related to the lifting. She also worked at a dollar store in the fall of 2020 in Kingston. She left her uninspiring existence in Kingston in 2020 to access services for her chronic conditions in Quebec, which were being cut back in Ontario. She had been seeing staff at a chronic pain clinic in Kingston between 2017 and 2020, including a psychologist, Dr. Rose, and psychiatrist, named Dr. Meisri, but learned they were cutting back the program length due to recent events. The demand was “through the roof” because of the pandemic. They were no longer serving “longer term clients”. She lost a lot of weight because of stress. She decided to return home and reconnect with her old family doctor, Dr. Payne.
She also had an adverse response to the medication “Nabilone” which apparently mimics THC. JP did a quick Google search on his iphone and noted that Nabilone is used to treat severe nausea and vomiting caused by cancer chemotherapy. Nabilone is for use only when other medications have been unable to control the nausea and vomiting. She was on it a couple of years. Krystia’s face seemed to freeze on the screen, which happens from time to time during a videoconference. JP asked the grey skinned, tatted and pierced female court reporter , “is she frozen?” — but no sooner did Krystia re-animate — adding that she had suffered “strange and severe mental health issues … Yes.” This was another reason she wanted to return to Montreal, where she was put on a waiting list and eventually admitted into what they told her was a complex chronic disease clinic. She went through the orientation in June 2023. She couldn’t remember the name of the clinic. JP asked for the full name and the records, for both Kingston and Montreal pain clinics.
She collected social assistance for a time in Montreal. At this point, her prescription medications included Cymbalta, Elavil, Lamotrigine (an anti-seizure medication) and Celexa, as well as Codeine-Contin, Flexeril and plain Codeine for fibromyalgia pain. In 2020, she worked at Outremont Academy daycare as an EA. She assisted the teachers in the area of early childhood education. She thinks she worked there about a year. She quit because she did not like some of the “treatment” administered by staff, including isolation, overmedication and verbal abuse. She also saw what she understood to be possible signs of sexual abuse. She never reported these concerns to the Ministry as she didn’t want to trigger her own PTSD symptoms. When she was 19 years old, she had been the victim of sexual abuse at the hands of one of Roy’s friends. She was dating Roy at the time. She preferred not to give details, and JP decided not to press. She really wasn’t sure what was going on at OAC anyway.
She had another job at this time, doing respite work with an adult with autism. The patient was Jason. His mother was an anti-vaxxer and blamed her son’s autism on early childhood vaccinations and fluoride in his toothpaste. Jason was at times aggressive and Krystia used a shield to subdue him, if necessary or, in other words, daily. When he needed drugs, he asked for his “melties” — which was short for “meltdown” meds. She helped Jason apply for accommodation in university. Krystia was eventually hired by the Montreal School District. She worked there two days a week, and the other three she started homeschooling another student with a disability. His name was Mark. Mark could neither speak, feed himself, stand or even sit. He received daily music therapy. The homeschooling job was through a company called HumanDesign. This was also basically EA work.
In January 2024, she started her current job at the Outremont Women’s Centre. She had begun volunteering at OWC in September 2019. At around this time she was receiving cognitive therapy at the pain clinic and was put on various trials to find the right meds, a process which was ongoing. She remembered being diagnosed with the social anxiety by a “Ministry doctor” in 2017/18. JP pointed out to there that the records referred to an apparent suicide attempt in around 2016-18. She had forgotten that, but yes, she had taken a whole bottle of her dad’s Seroquels, finished off a bottle of his vodka and then drove his SUV into a snow bank. It was a “funny time.” She laughed. “I think I just wanted to get back at him.”
She took her anti-depressants for short spurts and rarely as recommended. On January 30, 2023, the clinical notes indicated she asked for Ritalin and Ativan (Lorazapam). The anti-depressants were not working and thought these medications, which she had taken in the past, might help. She claimed she was not taking any medications at the time of the fall on the bus. She was trialed on Zoloft in 2022, but it caused weight gain. A note from Dr. Payne in January 2024 referred to an “eating disorder”. She wasn’t sure if this was an actual diagnosis, but didn’t deny it. She added that “some people see me as obese but I don’t consider myself to be obese. Society still has issues with people like me.”
She contracted what they called viral meningitis in 2020 and fully recovered. All she can remember is having a piercing headache. She saw a Dr. Lloyd, psychiatry, pre-fall in January 2023. She assumes this is related to her social anxiety, which was obviously a chronic problem at this point. She thinks there was only one appointment. She added this consultation also related to flashbacks from the sexual assault, from which she believes she suffers from PTSD . Dr. Lloyd gave her some sample Lorazepam pills, but did not give her a prescription. He did recommend therapy, namely counselling, which she thinks happened at the clinic.
In the six months before the fall on the bus, she was also seeing a naturopath at the Me-First Health Clinic, getting massage at a clinic she can no longer remember and also received physiotherapy for “maintenance”.
JP looked up and into the dazed eyes of the court reporter, whose grey look had turned almost greenish, and smiled: “What do you say we take a 10 minute break?”
“I will need the full 15… make it 30 minutes counsel,” interjected Justice Singh.
“Ok, no problem,” said JP. “I am almost done”.
This is a work of fiction. Although its form, content and narrative may at times suggest real people, real documents and records, autobiography or that the work is historical non-fiction, it is a product of the imagination. Space and time have been rearranged to suit the convenience of the book, and with the exception of public figures, any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental. The opinions expressed are those of the characters and should not be confused with the author’s.
to be continued ….