THOMAS BERGER

Iremember Tom Berger with great fondness because it was his intervention that propelled my art career. As a recent graduate of the Ontario College of Art, I appeared for my first assignment as a courtroom illustrator in the media box in the old Vancouver Supreme Court. With 14 defendants, the proceeding was the largest cocaine conspiracy trial in B.C. history. Reacting to my beads and braids, the court clerk insisted that I leave the media box. During an adjournment my reporter appealed to Justice Berger to allow me to stay. Returning to his seat on the bench, Tom Berger ruled, “If she’s an artist, let her draw.”