THE ADVOCATE 725
VOL. 79 PART 5 SEPTEMBER 2021
NOS DISPARUS
By R.C. Tino Bella
Gerald Gideon Goldstein
My long-time partner in the practice of law, Gerry
Goldstein, died on May 5, 2021 at the age of 80. Gerry
and I practised law together under various firm
names for 39 years until his retirement in 2017. We
struggled mightily when we started but eventually
were very successful. Gerry practised primarily
immigration law and was responsible for a number
of important decisions that materially affected his area of practice. For
Gerry, religion was a very private and personal thing. He never talked about
it, but he was a devout Orthodox Jew. I was reminded of this when his wife
phoned me at 9 a.m. to tell me he had died early that morning and would
be buried in the Jewish cemetery at 3 p.m. that afternoon.
Gerry and I first came to know each other when practising briefly
together at a small law firm. Some time after that, Gerry came as my guest
to help fill a table I had bought at a fundraising dinner for the federal Progressive
Conservative Party, in which I was active. He sat beside my father.
When my father and I were driving home, my father noted that Gerry
wanted people to think he was stupid, but he was actually very smart and
was always watching everything. My father also told me that if I ever got a
chance to be in business with him, not to pass it up.
Surprisingly, about a month later, Gerry phoned me to say his two partners
had just dumped him and he was looking for new place to practise. I
jumped at the chance to work with him and expanded our lease to add
another office. I recall vividly the day we started together: April 1, 1978. In
many ways it was an appropriate date since none of us—Gerry, me or our
partner Ray Cantillon—had a real practice. To say we were struggling is an
understatement. Just before noon, Gerry came to my office and asked