Rumours about lawyer who sexually harassed women had been circulating in legal community for years: docs

< warm>WARNING: This story contains computer graphic inside information of sexual torment and force, as well as coarse language.

Details from a cache of law society documents used by a tribunal to find that four women were sexually harassed by now-disbarred Ottawa lawyer James Bowie — details which have not been reported until now — raise troubling questions about what the capital's legal community knew when, and whether colleagues should have spoken up before a client of Bowie’s ended up blowing the whistle in 2022.

Lawyers are duty-bound to inform the Law Society of Ontario about problematic behaviour by their colleagues, subject to caveats regarding solicitor-client privilege and first-hand knowledge.

Docs show rumours were circulating about lawyer well before first sex misconduct allegations

The law society's investigative documents were filed at the December Law Society Tribunal hearing where Bowie was disbarred. The tribunal accepted as fact that Bowie sexually harassed four women and offered them cocaine from 2018 to 2022.

Also contained in the documents are the accounts of two other women who told the law society they were sexually harassed and assaulted before Bowie became a lawyer.

The law society couldn't investigate these two women's stories because it had no jurisdiction — Bowie wasn't a lawyer at the time. It included the women's accounts in the documents, however, because of their relevance to the overall investigation into Bowie’s misconduct.

The only early warning sign for the public came in the form of a review of Bowie posted on a website that rates lawyers, a screenshot of which is contained in the documents.

Posted in June 2020, the review reads:

The Law Society Tribunal's findings that four of the six women were sexually harassed are not the same as criminal convictions.

And it's important to note that Bowie did not mount a defence to any of the society's allegations. His previous lawyer asked to stop representing him and was allowed to step down early on in the process, despite Bowie’s objections that he couldn't afford another lawyer and she should be compelled to keep working for him because of the case’s complexity.

After Bowie was imprisoned, the Law Society Tribunal sent him a request to rely on the allegations made by four of the women against him as fact — allegations he hadn't yet responded to. After Bowie again failed to respond, the tribunal went ahead with the hearing in his absence.

The materials include transcripts of interviews with the women — two clients and four members of the public — and others, as well as social media videos made by two of the victims, email exchanges, lawyer case notes and more.

You can read B's story here, C and D's story here, E's story here, and F's story here.

Common themes in the women's stories include Bowie's aggressive communication style, offers of cocaine, and his fondness for fellatio and masturbation. He also frequently uses the social media site Snapchat, the documents show, which automatically deletes messages after they’re viewed unless a user saves them individually.

(An Ontario Court judge sentenced Bowie to four years in prison last year for twice threatening to kill Bowie’s whistleblower ex-client, as well as criminally harassing another woman and extorting her to get a gun for him so Bowie could "end" the whistleblower. Bowie has appealed his criminal conviction with the Court of Appeal for Ontario, arguing that the judge relied on prior discreditable conduct that was more prejudicial to Bowie’s case than probative, and that the judge allowed "bias (or at least the appearance of bias) to affect his decision as to guilt.")

The other client was the whistleblower, Leanne Aubin, whose story has been extensively covered by the media since she came forward. The tribunal found that Bowie tried to extort her into paying for his legal services with oral sex, after the related criminal extortion charge was dropped by the Crown at Bowie’s separate criminal trial due to insufficient evidence.

The tribunal also found that Bowie breached Aubin's confidentiality by sharing personal information about her online after she came forward.

"This lawyer guy came into our store ... Asked us if we wanted to do cocaine with him in the bathroom. He literally went in and did a f--king line of cocaine in our bathroom," one of the young women, C, says in a video she shared with her friends, as D laughs in the background.

"And he invited us over [to a nearby bar]. So when we closed the store we went over and he bought us each three shots. And then ... Since I have a boyfriend, he offered [D] $250 dollars to suck his dick, and me $50 just to watch. Obviously we didn't do it, but the fact that he offered us that is f--ked."

Bowie was asked by the tribunal to admit the authenticity of the videos, among other materials, and did not respond.

The other, F, said Bowie twice yanked her arm forcefully to stop her from getting out of his car after giving her a ride to a pool hall, and kept asking for penetrative sex. She said she felt she had to give him fellatio in order to escape.

Mumblings "in the defence bar and in the legal circles" about Bowie's "problematic conduct" were happening before his sex-for-services scandal was first reported by local media in late 2022, according to a transcript of a law society investigator’s interview with criminal defence lawyer Michael Spratt.

"Never really any details," Spratt told the law society investigator about the gossip that had been circulating in the legal community. "But just rumors that, you know, women were creeped out, articling students felt uncomfortable around him. Things like that."

"Young female counsel would say, like, 'I've got to go,' 'I don’t want to be here,' or would extract herself from the conversation" if Bowie was approaching a table where lawyers had gathered, Spratt told the investigator. Spratt also heard that Bowie "interacted inappropriately" with university students on social media, and that as a result, Bowie had been asked not to attend a simulation of a court hearing for law students.

So, should Spratt or someone else have come forward back then?

"With the benefit of hindsight, perhaps. But I think that that's a call that maybe couldn't have been made at the time."

Under the regulatory duty to report rule, some things lawyers are required to tell the law society include "conduct that raises a substantial question as to another [lawyer's] honesty, trustworthiness, or competency," "conduct that raises a substantial question about [their] capacity to provide professional services," "and any situation where a [lawyer's] clients are likely to be severely prejudiced."

The reporting rule exists to protect the public and preserve trust, and because unless lawyers are "checked at an early stage, loss or damage to clients or others may ensue," the law society states. "Evidence of minor breaches may, on investigation, disclose a more serious situation" or the beginning of a pattern that might "lead to serious breaches in the future."

Reporting can also prompt lawyers to address any "stressors, physical, mental or emotional conditions, disorders, or addictions" underlying their behaviours, before they get worse.

Bowie has been open about his mental health struggles, and at his trial he didn't deny offering Aubin cocaine.

They sat in the living room on separate couches. Bowie then walked over to B, sat down next to her and tried to put his arm around her.

B "stood up immediately, and at this point I'm just thinking like, 'OK, I need to get out of this situation. And I need to do it in a way that is sort of gentle,' if that makes sense," she said. "I didn't want to make him mad."

She suggested going into the backyard where they could be seen. There he asked her inappropriate questions — if she wanted to be friends with benefits, do cocaine and more — shared his sexual preferences and fantasies, and made comments about her appearance, B said.

"He had told me that he had a client at the time who was 19 years old, who he had got addicted to cocaine. And he liked the control that he had over this client because … she had become sort of dependent on him," B said.

Bowie also told her he had a client who paid him with sexual favours instead of money.

"I got the vibe that he was sort of implying that maybe that was an option that I could do," B said.

At one point Bowie asked if anyone had ever masturbated in front of her, and "I don't know if he was reaching in his pants or undoing his buckle or what he was doing, but it was definitely like he was trying to start to try to do that in front of me," B said.

She quickly asked him to stop, and he did.

B said she felt "trapped." She was worried about getting Bowie to leave because she would have to take him back through the house, where people nearby would be less likely to hear her if she needed to scream for help.

Eventually she said she had to leave to meet her friend and got up. They walked into the house where she grabbed her purse and phone in the kitchen. She was booking a ride-hailing service at the counter when she turned around to find Bowie standing right in front of her, almost "pinning" her.

She got around him and led him to the door, and he grabbed his things on the way.

"So we're not going to do anything?" Bowie asked as B unlocked the door, she said. She said no, and then "he tried to reach his arms around me and walk towards my bed, which was just a few feet from the front door."

B told Bowie he had to leave, and she led him out.

"I couldn't breathe a sigh of relief until I got into the Uber.… I was so scared and shaken up and sort of in disbelief," she said. "He made me feel really worthless."

B later went to Ottawa defence lawyer Bruce Engel to take over her case, and told him everything that had happened.

"She mentioned a potential law society complaint or going to the police about [Bowie]," Engel wrote in his case notes on B, which were handed to the law society. "I told her she doesn't have to do anything she doesn't want to do but I cautioned her about the road she's going to go down.

"She's basically going to accuse a lawyer of misconduct. It could get ugly and she's got to be adamant about it," Engel wrote.

Over the following months Engel repeatedly reminded B to write out what happened and make a complaint, according to his notes. B told him she was "having problems getting to it and having trouble dealing with it," Engel wrote.

Eight months after B first came to Engel, he wrote in his final notes that "she may not get a lot of satisfaction" by making a complaint, and, "If she is going to do complaint she should do sooner than later [sic].… Go on website and get it done been saying that for long time and has not [sic]."

Engel did fulfil a separate professional obligation by encouraging B to report what happened.

Spratt, who helped Aubin fill out her law society complaint form and send it, thinks the lawyer should have gone further, but added that defence counsel can be overburdened.

Engel declined an interview. In an email he said he had spoken with his client and he had "nothing more to add."

C and D, the two women Bowie offered cocaine to as well as $250 and $50 respectively for a sexual favour, told the law society Bowie was especially focused on and physical with D.

"He starts grabbing my arm," D said in her interview with the investigator. "He's like, let's go, let's go to the bathroom. You can do [cocaine] off me, you can do it off the counter. And I'm like, 'I don't do coke, thank you, I don't want to do that, I'm also at work.'"

Bowie invited them to a nearby bar after closing time, and C and D agreed to watch out for each other and leave if anything bad happened.

D said Bowie grabbed her breast at the bar, used her hand to touch and squeeze his penis over his clothes and tried to kiss her. D and C left because she didn’t want the physical contact, they said, and Bowie continued to talk to them on Snapchat that night. He upped his offer to $500, and then to $2,000 each per month to become his "sugar babies," C said.

C told the investigator she woke up the next day feeling "really crappy." The money Bowie offered was a lot for a broke university student, C said, and she had thought about accepting it.

"I was crying in [my boss's] office and I felt very ashamed of myself that I would ever consider something like that. And [my boss] talked to me about it and basically said it's not my fault, and he's just a gross man … that that's what those kinds of people do."

E, who said Bowie masturbated in her car unprompted, went to high school with him at Lisgar Collegiate Institute more than 20 years ago.

One night in the summer after her first year of university, she was hanging out with Bowie at his house and he caressed her legs, E said. She didn't want that and told Bowie she had to go, she said, but Bowie insisted on showing her a canoe paddle in his room. E "knew what he was trying to do" and kept saying no, but after he wouldn't let it go she said she eventually gave in, took a quick look and turned to leave.

"He had put himself in the door frame, and I kept kind of dodging left and right to try to get by him and he wasn't allowing me to leave, and I finally kind of ducked. Can't remember if it was under him or around him, but I had to sort of escape him and then run out the front door. But this was just sort of … classic James behavior, unfortunately," she said.

Around the same time, she drove him home after they went out for a glass of wine, E said.

E thought a sexual joke was coming, but claims that Bowie "pulled his penis out and started whipping it around in circles. And then he started masturbating in the car beside me," she said.

"And finally after a minute or two … he zipped up his pants and got out of my car. And that was really the last time I saw James."

Her friend had to use the bathroom but Bowie said the pool hall bathroom was nicer, and they left, F stated. When they parked near the pool hall, F said her friend rushed out of the car to pee.

"And as I was trying to get out of the car, Bowie grabbed my arm and wrenched me back in, quite violently. And I tried to get out again and he yanked me again, harder," F said. She yelled out to her friend not to leave but realized he hadn’t heard her, she said, adding that Bowie was matching her efforts to leave with equal force. 

"So I started trying to like, talk him down," F described. F further claimed that she repeatedly declined intercourse, and managed to convince him to accept fellatio with a condom instead.

"It turned into this surreal conversation … but it's because I knew there was no other safe way out of the car, and I figured it was the best chance to get home safely to my kid."

"He was really rough," F stated. "I had bruises, like a clear hand mark on my arm the next day. My shoulder that was wrenched was sore for two or three days, and I had what felt like bruising in my throat from him forcing my head down on his penis."

It makes E and F angry to learn that rumours had been circulating in the legal community, and no one came forward before Aubin.

"There should be consequences for [not doing] that.… They sit in a very trusted position in our society, and there are responsibilities as a result of that," E said.

"It makes me furious," F contended. "Where is the line drawn? And maybe just some better clarity on when and how to report those things would be helpful, because certainly the way it's being done is not working.

"He would not have proliferated for so long if it was working."

The Ottawa Police Service doesn't confirm or deny investigations into specific people.

B, the client Bowie harassed at her home, also filed a criminal complaint about Bowie with the force in late 2022, B said.

By October 2023, however, B called the investigator to say she no longer wanted to proceed. She was pregnant, she wanted to focus on her health and avoid stress, and she knew it would be a grueling process.

The investigator told B that police had been set to file charges against Bowie in her case the very next day, and that they would keep her statements on file if she ever changed her mind, B said. (There is no statute of limitations for prosecuting serious sexual offences in Canada.)

Instead, the law society wrote that "it would be unusual for [it] to consider, after the fact, whether others should have brought the information" to its attention.

And scrutinizing lawyers "who may have had some information" could deter lawyers from helping people in situations like B's in the future, the law society argued, "due to fear" of being punished later on.

The regulator can only take action when "specific statutory and evidentiary thresholds are met," and "second-hand information may not meet those thresholds," it said.

As an example, the law society "may conduct an investigation into a licensee's conduct" if it gets information "suggesting" misconduct. But before it can exercise "certain investigative powers … a reasonable suspicion is required."

In addition, any complaints made on behalf of someone else have to be made with that person's knowledge and consent.

"You wouldn't have someone with outstanding criminal charges who's presumed innocent babysit your kids, because that's not the standard we rely on. And so I think that there is some room for some debate and some reflection on that," as long as it’s done carefully, Spratt said.

The law society has a confidential phone line anyone can call if they're concerned about sexual misconduct by lawyers and paralegals. And if a lawyer is unsure about whether they should report a colleague, they can call the law society's confidential practice management helpline for guidance.

From 2020 to 2024, an average of about 12 per cent of the total complaints to the law society were initiated by lawyers each year, including lawyers making reports about themselves. In the same time frame, the average number of total complaints per year was about 6,090.

Bowie has not filed for judicial review of his disbarment, and the deadline to do so has passed, according to the Law Society Tribunal. He can apply for a licence to practise law again in the future, and would have to meet the good character requirement, the law society said.

As for his prison sentence, Bowie will become eligible to apply for day parole in June and for full parole in December, according to the Parole Board of Canada. Becoming eligible to apply is not a guarantee that an offender will get parole at that time.

His date for statutory release (after serving two-thirds of his sentence) falls in March 2028.

Support is available for anyone who has suffered sexual misconduct. You can access crisis lines and local support services through this Government of Canada website or the Ending Violence Association of Canada database. ​​If you're in immediate danger, or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911.

Senior writer, justice

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