Did Ontario's Superior Court of Justice know that Khurrum Awan was playing lawyer?

I came across this discussion of the legal ethics behind the assault on Mark Steyn and Maclean's. It focuses on Khurrum Awan, one of the PR puppets for the Canadian Islamic Congress's president-for-life, Mohamed Elmasry.

I've already asked a few questions about the propriety of Awan, who was not a complainant in the B.C. suit against Steyn and Maclean's, testifying at the hearing in place of Elmasry. I had never heard of someone sending in a surrogate "witness" before. Hell, why not hire a professional actor? And how could Awan be assisting the CIC's legal team, while also being a witness for them?

Not just a witness -- a soon-to-be-employee. Awan's examination in chief was led by Faisal Joseph -- even though Awan has said that he will start working for Joseph when he's done articling at the courts. And then there was the bizarre spectacle of Awan giving hearsay testimony about what one of his fellow student sock-puppets had told him months earlier -- while she was just sitting a few feet away in court, at the table reserved for the CIC's lawyers.

As Woody Allen would say, it was a travesty of a mockery of a sham.

But Australia's skepticlawyer asks another question: what was Awan doing acting for a private client (the CIC) while still working as a clerk for the Ontario Superior Court of Justice? Did the court know that one of their clerks was moonlighting as junior counsel?

That's not the first time Awan has taken liberties with his position. Earlier this year, he sent an angry letter to Jason Kenney, the Conservative cabinet minister who has stood up for free speech, and signed it using his job title. As you can see in Kenney's delicious smack-down, that was highly inappropriate -- and Kenney brought it to the attention of the Chief Justice. I am told that, after Kenney's letter was received by the Chief, all of the law clerks were assembled and read the riot act about abusing their offices.

It doesn't sound like it sunk in to our little sock puppet, does it?