John Stewart Struthers

John Struthers is an active member of the Ontario legal system, operating his own practice in downtown Toronto for nearly 30 years. He recently served as the Provincial Director of the Criminal Lawyers Association for the province of Ontario. In the past, he held the position of Toronto Director of the CLA for four years, and his commentary on current legal issues is actively sought after by a wide range of media outlets such as the CBC, CityTV, CTV and Global TV, as well as various newspapers and internet-based publications.

John got his start in the field of criminal law as a prosecutor, serving as an assistant Crown attorney for four years in the late 1980s in the North Crown’s Office headed by the legendary Stephen Leggett. He decided to open his own criminal defence practice in 1989 in Newmarket with offices on Eagle Street.

Since then, he has had an extremely successful career, defending some of the most high-profile cases in Toronto during the 27 years since he first opened his practice.

John has defended his clients from over 100 murder charges in various levels of criminal court, including many full jury trials in Ontario Superior Court.

Arguably his best-known case is that of Tyrone Edwards, who was accused in 1996 of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder during the annual Caribana festival parade in downtown Toronto. After a lengthy jury trial, Edwards was acquitted of all charges and freed.

Another successful high-profile case he defended was that of Maureen Laidley, an unfortunate victim of the now-disgraced ex-pathologist Dr. Charles Smith. John was able to discredit Dr. Smith’s testimony regarding the death of Laidley’s step son.