The two women victimized by James Bowie said the former criminal defence lawyer “weaponized” his position of trust and friendship for his own personal gratification.
Bowie, 43,
was found guilty in March
of criminal harassment and extorting a friend by pressuring her to obtain a gun for him to “take care” of
his former client, Leanne Aubin
.
Ontario Court Justice Paul Cooper found Bowie not guilty of one additional count of extortion related to Aubin, but found him guilty of uttering threats to kill her.
Crown prosecutor Kerry Watson called for a four-year jail sentence for Bowie, including one year for criminal harassment, one year for extortion and two years for uttering threats, each to be served consecutively.
Watson also requested an order for Bowie to submit a DNA sample, a 10-year weapons prohibition, a non-communication order with the victims and the forfeiture of his GPS tracking devices that were seized by police during their investigation.
Bowie’s defence lawyer, Eric Granger, countered with a request for a conditional sentence with a “significant” period of house arrest and probation. Granger noted Bowie is a first-time offender who has abided by his curfew and release conditions in the 27 months since he was granted bail in April 2023.
Cooper reserved his decision for a sentencing hearing scheduled for Sept. 2, but said Bowie’s crimes will likely merit a penitentiary sentence of at least two years.
The two victims were emotional in court as the judge revoked Bowie’s bail and ordered him remanded into custody. Aubin was cradled by her lawyers Michael Spratt and Emilie Taman as Bowie walked past them from the defence bar to the prisoner’s box to begin serving his sentence.
The name of Bowie’s former friend is shielded by a court-ordered publication ban. A similar order shielded Aubin’s identity before she requested to have the publication ban lifted earlier in the proceedings.
Both women provided lengthy testimony during Bowie’s trial, and both women stood before the court again on July 28 to provide victim impact statements for the judge to consider in rendering his sentence.
Aubin said she was enduring “one of the darkest, most frightening moments” of her life when she was facing a criminal assault charge in 2023 and sought out Bowie’s legal counsel.
She was “vulnerable and desperate for guidance, for protection, and for someone to help me hold onto my future,” Aubin said Monday.
“Mr. Bowie used his status, his experience and my desperation to try to turn me into something I never was: an object he could manipulate and abuse for his own gratification.”
She said Bowie’s suggestion that she exchange sexual favours for legal services made her feel “frozen in horror… I felt worthless, I felt dirty, I felt dehumanized.”
Bowie was ultimately acquitted of
the extortion charge
related to the sex-for-legal services allegations. The initial assault charge against Aubin was quickly withdrawn after she hired a new lawyer.
The fear and threats didn’t end there, Aubin said Monday, but “multiplied” when she learned he was trying to acquire a gun.
“Mr. Bowie didn’t just abuse his position, he weaponized it,” Aubin said. “He didn’t just break the rules, he preyed on the vulnerable — the very people the justice system is meant to protect.”
After Aubin complained about his conduct to the Law Society of Ontario — resulting in
an investigation and eventual suspension
from practising law — Bowie “spiralled into a campaign of threats and harassment,” according to the Crown.
He pressured his friend to obtain a gun and tracked her with GPS devices when the woman broke off contact.
“What you did to me — harassing, manipulating, attempting to extort and coerce me into committing a crime to help you — isn’t just morally bankrupt, it’s reprehensible,” the woman said in court Monday.
“To do that under the guise of friendship is a betrayal so vicious it’s hard to fit into proper professional words.”
The woman said she suffered panic attacks and post-traumatic stress after Bowie “invaded every corner of my privacy.”
Watson said Bowie’s conduct demonstrated “a deeply troubling pattern of predation of vulnerable women” and said “that trust was used as a weapon.”
Bowie spoke to the Ottawa Citizen after he was found guilty in March and denied he had ever threatened anyone and claimed there were “a number of fabrications” in the testimony of both witnesses.
“I never threatened to kill anyone, ever, or have anyone help having anyone killed on my behalf, nor would I ever do so,” Bowie said in the interview.
Both the Crown and defence said they struggled to find any similar cases in Canadian law to establish a precedent for an appropriate sentence.
Bowie launched his own legal practice in 2017 and “undertook something of an educational campaign,” Granger said, by “live-tweeting” the various court cases related to the 2022 convoy protests. He gained a large social media following during those contentious bail hearings, and Granger said he often encouraged his followers to donate to local charities.
“He seemingly was on his way. Things changed and there was a downward spiral,” Granger said. “These were the actions of a man who had reached rock bottom, who saw his career disappearing on him, who saw those close to him disappearing on him.”
Bowie was in “significant decline” after Aubin’s complaint to the Law Society was picked up by local media and was “desperate for self-preservation,” Granger said.
He said Bowie had since suffered “significant consequences” with the loss of his law career.
When asked whether he had anything to say to the court, Bowie complimented the judge and expressed “great sympathy” for the task of determining a sentence.
“I’m at peace with it,” Bowie told the judge. “I have no hard feelings and I wish you all the best.”
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