TORONTO -- Arguing that a man who took his six-year-old daughter to Bermuda had thumbed his nose at Canadian justice, a lawyer on Friday urged a judge to reverse her earlier ruling and instead award custody to the mother.

Dr. Peter MacLellan, who married his former lawyer Jackie Stubbs and now lives in Bermuda with his daughter and Ms Stubbs, defied a court order and did not attend on Friday's hearing at Osgoode Hall in Toronto.

Madam Justice Janet Wilson of the general division of Ontario Court, who reserved her decision, has already found Dr. MacLellan in contempt of court.

She said at an earlier hearing that if Dr. MacLellan did not return to Canada with the child and attend court on Friday, she would award custody to the girl's mother, Marguerite Kopaniak, and issue an arrest warrant for the father.

John Legge, the mother's lawyer, urged Madam Justice Wilson to do just that, and to find Dr. MacLellan in contempt a second time. Mr. Legge said he had hired the Bermuda law firm of Mello, Hollis, Jones & Martin to make sure papers ordering Dr. MacLellan to appear in Toronto were handed to him in Bermuda.

The man's actions were "a snub to Your Honour, and a snub to the court'', Mr.

Legge said.

Madam Justice Wilson had harsh words for Bermudian lawyer Ms Stubbs, who court was told is the subject of a complaint to the Law Society of Upper Canada.

The judge said that if Ms Stubbs was correct when she told the court that her relationship with Dr. MacLellan, who was her client in the Ontario custody battle, did not begin until March of 1996, then "the existence of the relationship should have been disclosed to the court during the trial in June, 1996''.

"I conclude that I was deliberately misled by (Dr. MacLellan) and perhaps also by his counsel as to this material fact of the trial,'' Madam Justice Wilson said in a judgment released on December 23.

The judge said she was "very concerned about the propriety of the conduct'' of Ms Stubbs, particularly in a child custody case. Ms Stubbs apparently was told by someone at the Law Society that the court did not have to be advised of the relationship, the judge said.

"I note that a complaint has been made (by Mr. Legge) to the Law Society of Upper Canada,'' which polices Ontario lawyers, Madam Justice Wilson said.

"From a review of the material filed before me, an investigation is warranted.'' While reserving her decision, the judge hinted she would award custody to the mother. The mother would then have to try to enforce that order in Bermuda.

"I anticipate the next step is going to be in the courts in Bermuda,'' the judge said.

"Assuming (Dr. MacLellan) follows the order of the Bermudian court, and assuming the court orders that the child return (to Ontario), I don't want him arrested, particularly in the presence of the child,'' Madam Justice Wilson said on Friday. "I don't think that's in anyone's interest.'' On October 31, Bermuda Puisne Judge Vincent Meerabux awarded an ex parte child custody order to Dr. MacLellan at a hearing on the Island at which the mother was not represented. Madam Justice Wilson had granted Dr. MacLellan custody on August 26, at which time Dr. MacLellan had given no sign he planned to move to Bermuda and had promised to facilitate access for the mother, who remains in the Toronto area.

"This court is the appropriate forum to determine the issues in relation to this child.'' Madam Justice Wilson said in the December judgment. Dr.

MacLellan "cannot spirit the child out of the jurisdiction without notice, and purport to change the jurisdiction to which the child is subject. To do so makes a mockery of our system of justice.'' When Dr. MacLellan failed to show on Friday, the judge told one of Ms Kopaniak's lawyers to telephone his Bermuda lawyer, Georgia Marshall, and find out whether he was coming.

The lawyer returned and said Ms Marshall told him: "She did not know where he was and he did not intend to appear here today.'' Court was also told that Dr. MacLellan has filed for bankruptcy in Ontario to discharge debts of $354,816. To allow that to happen under the circumstances also "makes a mockery of our system of justice'', said Madam Justice Wilson, who has ordered the bankruptcy proceedings stayed.

Most details of the custody fight, which the judge described as more than three years of "domestic guerrilla warfare'', remained sealed.

"I have nothing to say to Dr. MacLellan,'' Ms Kopaniak said outside court on Friday. "It is my daughter's seventh birthday on Sunday. I would like to tell her that her mother loves her and wishes her her best birthday.''