James Lewis Duncan (1892 – 8 April 1960) was a Canadian politician and lawyer.
Early life
Duncan was the son of a physician and grandson of a Presbyterian minister. He studied at the University of Toronto and in Paris and won a silver medal as a student at Osgoode Hall Law School. He fought in the First World War at the Somme, Vimy Ridge and Passchendaele. He was appointed military administrator of occupied Bonn, Germany and ended the war with the rank of Major.
Career
Returning to Canada he was appointed chair of a Fair Price Commission on milk, wrote a book on bankruptcy law and sat on a royal commission investigating farm fraud in British Columbia and helped write Canada's Combines Investigation Act.
In the 1930s, Ontario Hydro retained Duncan for a two-year investigation, leading him to be criticized by the Ontario Premier Mitchell Hepburn for charging $17,000 in legal fees. Duncan was expelled from the ruling Ontario Liberal Party and responded by comparing Hepburn to Adolf Hitler and Hepburn called Duncan "a rat."
Duncan had a colourful reputation as a lawyer. He once challenged a Supreme Court justice to step out of his courtroom and repeat his statements in the hallway and was fined $2,000 in 1957 for "scandalizing the court" when he asked a Supreme Court justice to withdraw himself from a hearing without giving a reason. He never paid the fine but was barred thereafter from arguing cases before the Supreme Court.