MILT HARRADENCE, THE WESTERN FLAIR
A MEMOIR BY C.D. EVANS

Over Ten Weeks on Calgary's Best Seller List proves once and for all that Milt Harradence and C.D. Evans are still at the Top!

Calgary, Alberta — Renowned defence lawyer C.D. Evans, who is best known for his numerous newsmaking criminal trials and his reluctance to speak to the press, is spilling the beans. In his newly published book Milt Harradence: The Western Flair, Evans perpetuates the legend of his flamboyant, larger-than-life colleague with whom he shared thrills, spills, brilliant courtroom spars — and close friendship — for over thirty years. According to Evans, “Yes, there are many fine criminal lawyers but next to Milt we’re all a bunch of soda jerks. He was the Einstein of barristers and the rest of us mere Neanderthals.”

Five years in the writing, the “warts and all” portrait Evans paints of the Honourable A. Milton Harradence Q.C, D.U.C. is admiring, affectionate and, at times, irreverent and critical. Frequently, in this selective history, Harradence is presented as madly eccentric. But, as the Honourable John C. Major, Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, notes in the book’s introduction, “Without that eccentricity, Milt could not have been the person he was.” He further declares, “I was always of the view that Alberta, and maybe Canada, was too small a stop to do credit to his remarkable talents.”

In addition to painting a portrait of his friend, mentor and benefactor, in Milt Harradence: The Western Flair, C.D. Evans also provides revealing insights into not only the practice, the events and the characters of the Alberta Criminal Bar of its day but of Western separatist politics, the “cowtown culturati,” and a group of off-the-wall stunt pilots known as the Confederate Air Force. Famous personalities woven throughout the narrative include the usual suspects such as John Diefenbaker, Pierre Trudeau, Ralph Klein and Ernest Manning, but more surprising are references to the likes of Oliver Cromwell, Oscar Wilde and The Scarlet Pimpernel.

Although set primarily in Calgary, the dynamic duo of Harradence and Evans also mount cloak and dagger expeditions to Costa Rica, pilot the notorious “Fishtail 8” with a trunk full of kidnap ransom cash and make the scene at the Fountainbleu and the Beverly Wilshire. “We’ve got no choice!” was Harradence’s action motto whether rallying a posse to challenge Social Credit’s hammerlock on Alberta politics or grilling a hostile witness during a murder trial.
As barrister colleagues, Harradence and Evans shared a veneration for the law, a commitment to professionalism in technique and ethics, a love of courtroom combat, and constant stimulation by the challenges of defending various rogues, scoundrels and, of course, the innocent.

As an emotional memoir, as a chronicle of Calgary’s historical escapades and as a colourful record of a brilliant courtroom warrior, Milt Harradence: The Western Flair is a work of controversy, courage and candour.

Milt Harradence: The Western Flair
Durance Vile paperback, 334 pages plus colour photo plates
ISBN: 0-9689754-0-2