While representing a children’s aid society in a sexual abuse lawsuit, Toronto lawyer Gary McCallum stated in court records in 2018 that a 14- or 15-year-old girl is not a child, but a “sexually mature young woman.”He is now facing discipline proceedings over that statement, according to a notice filed this week by Ontario’s legal regulator.As first reported by the Star in March 2019, McCallum made the comments in an affidavit filed in court the previous year, as the lawyer representing Kenora-Rainy River Districts Child and Family Services in the lawsuit.“The fact that the Law Society is taking this kind of conduct seriously and is pursuing disciplinary charges is a very important step toward recognizing the irreparable harm that was done to my client, and sends a clear message that such conduct is not to be tolerated,” Jellinek said Friday.“One questions why Mr. Leonard waited so long to take proper and immediate action regarding this offensive position.”When first contacted by the Star in March 2019, Kenora CFS refused to say when it became aware that McCallum had made the statement, nor whether it planned to rectify it in court, other than to say it disagreed with his “inaccurate” position.Several days later, Leonard acknowledged that the plaintiff had contacted him about the statement in October 2018, and that he had also seen the statement quoted in a court ruling from the case in January 2019."