When I sent a few personal letters to an Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal office in 1998, there were misunderstandings on both sides. And the situation escalated from there over the coming months. One time, I sent an indecent letter as a joke. I didn't mean to interfere in the official landlord/tenant business which was being conducted through other ORHT offices but it was sometimes hard to keep the business and personal matters separate. It was the first time I was directly involved in any court or quasi-judicial agency and I didn't know what all the rules were. If I'd known better, of course I wouldn't have sent any personal letters at all.
In the criminal court, some police deliberately withheld evidence and my young lawyer from Legal Aid* wasn't sharp enough to go after it. He also had a conflict of interest in my case and didn't represent me properly. The law society later told me I would've had grounds to sue him. Myself, I had almost no knowledge of how criminal cases were handled, at that time. It was only later when I learned to understand what the mistakes were and it was too late to do anything about them, more or less.
Within the criminal process, some of the police had also referred to me as a "love-obsessed stalker" and that's what a lot of people heard about me. But it wasn't a true picture, in my opinion, and it wasn't the whole picture.
*Some other lawyers from Legal Aid, who have assisted me over the years, have been more experienced and have provided excellent service.
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