Edward Sapiano, a colourful and fearless defence lawyer best known for challenging authority, has died of complications of kidney disease.

Sapiano died Saturday at his farm in the hamlet of Gores Landing, north of Cobourg, said William Jaksa, a fellow defence lawyer and close friend. He was 57.

Sapiano was one of Toronto’s best known criminal lawyers who for decades represented many young black defendants in high profile cases until kidney failure forced him to step back from his law practice in 2014.

He returned to the courtroom for about 18 months — conducting five major trials while self-administering dialysis during breaks — until he was overwhelmed by health challenges. Last year, a donor kidney became available, but Sapiano required more treatment to ensure he was a suitable candidate for a transplant, “and since then it’s been one complication after another, one infection after another,” Jaksa said Sunday.

Sapiano remained courageous and upbeat throughout his ordeal.

“Odd as it seems I am still the luckiest guy I know, at least up until a few years back,” Sapiano wrote in a text message sent last Thursday to Leora Shemesh, a defence lawyer and friend. “It’s the intense medical intervention that is unnatural and causing my woes, in order to keep this biological mass functioning.

“I hate being the subject of sorrow. You just get out there and enjoy your wonderful life and not fret about me. I’ve lived a wonderful life and can navigate this part too,” he said, adding several emojis.

Jaksa joked Sunday that Sapiano, who remained “sharp as a tack,” nevertheless had grown weak and was “really, really upset that in the last few months he started using emojis.”

Devastated by Sapiano’s death, his friends remembered him as a kind-hearted, generous, funny and eccentric man. He was also take-no-prisoners lawyer who, during the ’90s, assembled files about Toronto police officers accused of misconduct, lying in court and stealing money and valuables that eventually led to charges and convictions.

In 2005, Sapiano tried to have a Superior Court judge disqualified from presiding over a murder case because of his alleged pro-Crown orientation.

Defence lawyer Stephen Bernstein became tight with Sapiano after articling with him in 1991-92 at Pinkofsky Lockyer & Kwinter, then Toronto’s largest criminal law firm. He recalled Sunday how it took a lot of “guts” for Sapiano to challenge now-retired judge Eugene Ewaschuk.

While Ewaschuk refused to recuse himself, Sapiano won respect and the case ended with a hung jury. His client was ultimately acquitted after a second trial, Bernstein said.

“He would do anything possible (for a client), and it was always unusual, unorthodox, but ethical,” Bernstein said. “A good defence lawyer should always focus on the ethics and not be fearful of anything. In fact the Law Society guidelines tell us we have to defend our clients fearlessly, as long as it’s ethical. Nobody did it better than him.”

Defence lawyer Nadir Sachak, another articling student that year with Sapiano, called him a “mythical like individual, over the top, theatric, and obviously, absolutely brilliant. He had a way of litigating and defending clients that was very unusual and non conformist in nature.”

In many ways he was on a crusade, Sachak continued. He noted, for instance, that Sapiano created Piece Options, a lawyer-operated program to get illegal guns off the street.

“He wanted to leave a mark, and that mark would be the improvement of our justice system. For people who didn’t know him, they saw him as brash, a bit over the top, egotistical ... like Muhammad Ali. He loved that persona, ‘look at me, I’m the best.” But that was just an outward persona, an act.”

Ted Royle, another defence lawyer, who had also known Sapiano for 30 years, said the University of Manitoba law school gold medallist would always do “anything to help anybody out.

“He was just a dynamo, always on the go, always moving, always getting involved in projects. Once he sunk his teeth into something, he never let go.”

Sapiano will always be remembered as someone who pursued justice where it needed pursuing, said defence lawyer Gary Grill.

“In court, he could be hard and prickly, especially if you were on the wrong side of justice, but he was indeed a warm, caring and thoughtful man,” Grill wrote in a text message. “I know this is said a lot, but Edward J. was truly unique. This city will never see another advocate or man like him.”

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Added Shemesh: “He was passionate about not just the law and being a voice for those who didn’t have one — but he was so passionate about justice and speaking up when it counted.”

Journalist Shannon Kari, who covered Sapiano in court as a newspaper reporter before the two became friends, said he could be a showboat, especially in front of a jury, which was frowned upon by some “because the Canadian legal community is still relatively conservative.”

“But everything he did in a courtroom was planned out and in the best interests of his clients,” he said. “Behind that performance was someone with respect for the law. He was an incredibly skilled advocate.”

Jaksa said plans for a funeral and memorial are underway, although it’s likely they will be a few months away due to the coronavirus pandemic.