“I think that there’s a collective expertise. “I don’t think one expert in the area is required,” Brian Greenspan, a criminal-defence lawyer in Toronto for nearly 50 years, said in an interview. Some practitioners say the court is up to the challenge. “I just think there’s so much that needs to be known.” Peter Sankoff, a University of Alberta professor specializing in criminal law, who also advocates at the Supreme Court, said the court will be put to the test in cases that affect courtroom procedures and the rules about evidence – the daily stuff of criminal trials.Ĭriminal justice “is an entirely separate and distinct procedural system,” he said in an interview. Gang leader Jamie Bacon sentenced to 18 years less time served in Surrey Six case Now the Supreme Court of Canada’s task is to decide whether that hearing should go ahead. The court upheld the findings of guilt against the men, but said it would not register convictions until Justice Wedge held a full hearing on the evidence to resolve the Charter issues.
Once Justice Wedge found a possible abuse of process, she should have held a full hearing to hear evidence about the abuse, rather than a summary hearing. Court of Appeal said that was the wrong approach. But society’s interest in holding a trial for individuals accused of killing six people outweighed the harm to the justice system of halting proceedings, she ruled. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Wedge, who presided over the trial, found in a summary hearing that the state conduct could amount to an abuse of process so serious the only acceptable answer would be to stay the proceedings. The idea is to prevent frivolous claims from taking up time.ī.C.
Summary hearings involve little evidence about alleged state misconduct. The legal question involves the use of “summary hearings” to decide whether defence counsel may argue that the state violated an accused person’s Charter rights. The case also involves thorny procedural questions, and Tuesday’s hearing even includes a rare, in-camera component at which defence counsel will not be present. Corrections authorities are alleged to have relented to police pressure and put the two in solitary confinement for 14 months in pretrial custody to frustrate their access to counsel and make them vulnerable in police interviews.
It involves allegations of severe police misconduct, including sexual activity with potential witnesses several officers were charged criminally and pleaded guilty in relation to misconduct. By any measure, the case of mass killers Matthew Johnston and Cody Haevischer is complex.
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