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Obituary: For judge Josiah (Joe) Wood, love mattered most

If the virtues of a judge hailed as a civil libertarian and pioneer of programs for First Nations and women were outshone, it was only by his love for his wife. Josiah (Joe) Wood, 73, stood up for anyone charged with a criminal offence.
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Josiah Wood with his grandson and namesake, Josiah James Wood, in a photograph taken in December 2012.

If the virtues of a judge hailed as a civil libertarian and pioneer of programs for First Nations and women were outshone, it was only by his love for his wife.

Josiah (Joe) Wood, 73, stood up for anyone charged with a criminal offence. The Duncan provincial court judge died Monday, after a long fight with cancer and chronic lung problems.

His career was remarkable, but for all the values he instilled in his sons Jeremy and James about justice, it didn’t compare to what he taught them about love and being a man.

“From a son’s point of view, what left me in awe now and when he was alive was his extreme love for my mother — his commitment and his total love for my mom,” Jeremy Wood said.

The day before Josiah Wood was admitted to Cowichan District Hospital on May 31, he disappeared into the upstairs bedroom of his Duncan home.

A half-hour later, he reappeared with a box full of letters, hotel keys and restaurant bills collected during the years he courted his wife, Tina, who lived in England.

“He and my mom spent the day going through those letters,” Jeremy Wood said.

After her husband was admitted to hospital, Tina Wood returned home to share the box with her son.

“It was all in that box and no one knew of its existence,” said Jeremy Wood. “He was sentimental. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for my mother.”

He remembers the day his dad repaired the deck on the family home in Fort Langley, pounding in hundreds of nails to spell out Joe Loves Tina.

“His love taught me about things like loyalty and respect and what a man’s respect for a woman looks like and the importance of being a great listener and devoting yourself entirely to your partner,” Jeremy Wood said.

Former B.C. attorney general and judge Wally Oppal called his friend a civil libertarian — “he defended people who needed to be defended and he cared for people who were poor.”

Josiah Wood was an articling student for former lawyer Bill Deverell, now a bestselling author. Deverell said Wood was a “supremely skilled trial lawyer who charmed juries not by being a wily courtroom thespian but by being true to himself, honest, straightforward and caring, with a quick wit and gentle, self-deprecating touch.”

He was promoted to the B.C. Supreme Court bench in 1983. In 1989, he was appointed to the B.C. Court of Appeal — B.C.’s highest court — and he stayed there until 1996, when he decided to return to private practice.

But the rules of the Vancouver law firm would have forced him to retire earlier than he wanted, so he applied for a job as a provincial court judge and was assigned to Duncan.

Josiah Wood was the only provincial court judge with a resumé that included stints at the two higher levels of the B.C. judiciary.

His reasons for returning to court, and the relatively modest pay of a provincial court judge, lay in his empathy for people who needed help, Oppal said. In that vein, Wood started a court in Duncan to handle the unique challenges faced by aboriginal people in the system.

Wood also shepherded a domestic violence court initiated by a predecessor.

“My dad had a strong belief in justice being more than a blunt instrument of punishment and that it can do much more in a community and society at large,” Jeremy Wood said.

Chief Judge Tom Crabtree of the B.C. provincial court said Josiah Wood “was an inspirational judge, and showed how treating people with compassion and respect can make a difference in people’s lives.”

Josiah Wood is survived by his wife, Tina, their sons Jeremy, 42, and James, 47; Jeremy’s wife, Tina, and their daughter, Sadie, 6, and son, Josiah, 2; James’s daughters Cassandra, 21, and Nicole, 19, and his partner, Cathy.

The family is setting up a trust fund in the hopes that in lieu of flowers people will want to contribute and support Wood’s “firm belief that more can and needs to be done to address the abject failure of our criminal justice system for First Nations,” Jeremy Wood said.

charnett@timescolonist.com

smcculloch@timescolonist.com