Renaud Gilles

Article by Kathleen Hay
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August 2008

A good read is the Hon. Justice Gilles Renaud's driving motivation when he picks up a book, whether it's one on baseball or the legal profession. For several years now, the Ontario Court Judge has written book reviews and recently published his sixth book, ''L'évaluation du témoignage: un juge se livre" (Sandstone).

The Hon. Justice Gilles Renaud of the Ontario Court of Justice admits he's a voracious reader. A huge baseball fan - especially the Boston Red Sox - he devours information on the sport. He loves non-fiction, fiction, bestsellers and literature. He'd much prefer to read than watch television, and a stack of books he's already read this year sits on a shelf attesting to this passion.

Renaud's love of reading is probably only surpassed by his love for law and, of course, his family. However, from what began as a simple enough request to write an article on compensation appeal in 1988, two of these passions - reading and law - have now culminated in the publication of his sixth book, "L'évaluation du témoignage: un juge se livre" (Sandstone).

"My personal and professional pastime is to write," explains Renaud. "I take great pleasure in reading and researching various areas of the law, and then trying to write book reviews, articles and case comments that are of sufficient quality and interest to be published in a variety of journals, some popular, some quite specialized.

"Every so often, I combine the work I've done in an area and put together a book." His Honour takes a special interest, too, in illustrating many of his suggested approaches by means of reference to both classic and popular literature, and even sports For instance, his fourth book.

"Les Misérables on Sentencing: Valjean, Fantine, Javert and the Bishop Debate the Principles" (Sandstone), was on the subject of sentencing philosophy and witness evaluation. "I wrote it as if the characters were lecturing to a present day conference on sentencing and punishment to point out how certain issues Hugo discussed might be considered today," Renaud explained. "For example, the Bishop spoke of the need for forgiveness, and this was balanced by Javert's lecture on the need for consequences if someone commits a crime."

In addition to these books, he's also written "Principales de la Détermination de la peine" (2004) on sentencing philosophy; "Speaking to Sentence: A Practical Guide" (2005); ''Advocacy:" A Lawyer's Playbook" or, as he puts it: "how to get people to agree with you" and "Demeanour Evidence on Trial: A Legal and Literary Criticism."

His next work: "The Objectives of Sentencing in Canada," has been tentatively accepted for publication, but is still in progress. His publications have been used in law classes and, in fact, Speaking to Sentence: A Practical Guide, was recently quoted in a Supreme Court of Canada decision.

However, Renaud doesn't let this go to his head, but prefers to relish that in law, there are many different points of view on how one sees a situation. "There are as many people who will disagree with a number of my suggestions, but that is the nature of advocacy," he says with a slight grin.

"That's what's fun about it, is there are people who show you you're wrong - when you're working on a book, you don't have two lawyers arguing the case.

"When the book's published, someone is bound to come up to you and say, 'Well, what about this?' Then you say, 'You're absolutely a right! I'll have to put that into my next one. '' Renaud enjoys reading as many baseball books as he does the "serious stuff." This has spilled over into his writing career, too, and he has been called upon to write reviews for The Library Journal for books such as "The Psychology of Baseball," by Mike Stadler, and "The Gashouse Gang" by John Heidenry.

"There's a great quote in The Gashouse Gang," he laughs. "He writes about how Dizzy Dean gets a ball in the head, and the hospital did an X-ray. "The next day, the headlines read, ''X-Ray of Dean's Head Reveals Nothing."

When he's not behind the bench, writing or reading, Renaud enjoys lecturing to students or interested groups, making school presentations with police officers and eventually hopes to return to school himself on a part-time basis to obtain a Master of Laws.

He's exceedingly conscious of the need for him to remain completely neutral no matter where his work leads him. "That's my biggest challenge in writing - not to lose the neutrality a judge must retain. You present both sides and have to be ever mindful to be neutral.