Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Defence lawyer wings his way to court in far-flung corners of northern Sask.

- ALEXA LAWLOR

Criminal defence lawyer Blaine Beaven practises in various rural communitie­s in northern Saskatchew­an — and he travels back and forth to many of them by flying his own plane.

“I started practising law in 2010, and by 2013, I found I was doing over 80,000 kilometres a year in driving,” he said.

“There’d often be times where I wouldn’t get home until 10:30 or 11 o’clock at night, only to get up the next morning at 5 a.m., and drive to say Pelican Narrows. It was really starting to wear on me, and I knew there was a better way.”

Beaven’s parents own an air service in northern Manitoba, and he grew up learning all about planes.

As a teen, he learned to fly in Air Cadets, receiving his glider’s licence at age 16.

He earned his private pilot’s licence at 17.

Then, while in university, he completed his commercial pilot’s licence, and would spend every summer in Manitoba, flying bush planes as a summer job.

“I love flying. Basically since I was 16 years old, I’ve been flying airplanes — and I wasn’t doing as much flying once I started practising law,” he said.

Although he had an inkling the two profession­s could be joined — he originally had the idea while watching JAG on television in his last year of high school — it was a matter of finding the right plane, and the right time in life to be able to afford one. When he could, Beaven purchased a 1978 Mooney M20J, and began flying both to and from court, and occasional­ly also for personal trips with his family.

“What it is for me is it’s like a time machine. It gets me home sooner, it frees up more of my time. It means I’m not spending so much of my life driving a car,” he said.

One of the places Beaven travels to most often for court is Meadow Lake.

The flight is about 55 minutes, compared to a three-hour drive. The longest flight he takes is to La Loche, which is about two hours and 20 minutes.

In addition to being a time saver, Beaven said he enjoys being able to fly because he finds it keeps him refreshed in his practice. Criminal law can get pretty tiring, representi­ng people on everything from shopliftin­g to murder — so when he flies, it also helps him to maintain a balance between work and life, he said.

“Sometimes you have a not-so great day at court, you get into the airplane and you fly home — and by the time you get home, everything ’s great because you just got to fly an airplane that day,” he said.

He can’t always fly. Every day, he wakes up at the same time he would need to get up if he were to drive. If the weather is too bad to fly, he often opts to drive instead. This is especially true in winter; he said the small aircraft isn’t very comfortabl­e below -15 C, and he also has personal limits on the weather conditions he feels comfortabl­e with as a pilot.

Beaven said it’s great for northern residents to be able to go to court in their own communitie­s.

“The reality is a lot of people who are charged with crimes are impoverish­ed persons; they don’t have a lot of resources; they don’t have vehicles; they don’t have funds to get from here to there,” he said.

“So, by allowing people in those communitie­s to come to court in their own communitie­s, it really takes the pressure off of other parts of the justice system, for example, certain parts of policing and incarcerat­ion that could occur otherwise.”

Beaven said he thinks it’s important that people in remote areas can have their matters heard and receive justice, even if the court is more informal and held in unconventi­onal places, like a curling rink or the basement of a band hall.

“The reality is most of my clients are just victims at another time. There’s circumstan­ce, there’s poverty, historical issues of colonialis­m and racial problems in some of these communitie­s, and substance abuse,” he said. “Everybody deserves that defence, and I just enjoy being able to assist people in that part of their lives.”

 ?? ALEXA LAWLOR ?? Saskatoon-based defence lawyer Blaine Beaven has been flying since he was a teenager and once worked as a bush pilot in Manitoba.
ALEXA LAWLOR Saskatoon-based defence lawyer Blaine Beaven has been flying since he was a teenager and once worked as a bush pilot in Manitoba.
 ?? ALEXA LAWLOR ?? Blaine Beaven is a criminal defence lawyer who flies his own plane to work with clients in northern communitie­s.
ALEXA LAWLOR Blaine Beaven is a criminal defence lawyer who flies his own plane to work with clients in northern communitie­s.

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