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Accused convoy leader Chris Barber abandons 'abuse of process' motion to stay all charges
Ottawa Citizen ^ | Apr 04, 2023 | Aedan Helmer

Posted on 04/04/2023 3:05:03 PM PDT by nickcarraway

The move represents the latest manoeuvre in a case that has become something of a legal chess match

The lawyer for accused convoy leader Chris Barber has withdrawn an “abuse of process” motion, officially abandoning a bid to have all his criminal charges stayed after the Crown mistakenly released thousands of pages of Barber’s private cellphone records during last year’s bail hearings.

Barber’s lawyer, Diane Magas, filed the official notice of abandonment last Thursday — the latest manoeuvre in a case that has become something of a legal chess match — and follows last week’s court decision concerning a move for recusal of the assigned trial judge, Ontario Court Justice Heather Perkins-McVey.

The recusal motion — a rare Crown-initiated request for an out-of-town judge — was one of several pretrial motions that have, so far, been argued before Perkins-McVey in the increasingly complicated case.

In hearings in March, Crown attorneys Dallas Mack and Jason Neubauer argued an out-of-town judge should be assigned out of concerns for an ”apprehension of bias” with a local judge since it was “inevitable” that senior Crown attorney Moiz Karimjee would be called to testify during the abuse of process motion.

Karimjee served as senior prosecutor on the majority of convoy-related cases during the bail phase and recently filed an affidavit acknowledging Barber’s “irrelevant” phone records had been released “in error.”

Barber’s phone records, including an extensive transcript of his text messages, were entered into evidence at the time to support Crown arguments for denying bail to Barber’s co-accused, Tamara Lich.

Perkins-McVey would have been called upon to rule on Karimjee’s “credibility and reliability,” according to a summary of the case from Superior Court Justice Robert J. Smith.

Smith ruled in favour of the Crown in a motion last week to “compel” his fellow Justice Perkins-McVey to first decide if a “reasonable apprehension of bias” existed in the case before proceeding with any other motions.

That recusal motion, presumably, has been rendered irrelevant now that the abuse of process application has been abandoned.

Perkins-McVey is also considering a severance motion filed by Lich’s lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, seeking the two matters to be heard and tried separately.

Barber and Lich were both arrested near the conclusion of the three-week convoy demonstration on Feb. 17, 2022, and were jointly charged with mischief and other related offences.

Tentative court dates have been set aside in September for a trial scheduling conference.


TOPICS: Canada; Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: canada; convoy; donatefreerepublic; freedomconvoy; trudeau

1 posted on 04/04/2023 3:05:03 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Sheesh, and I thought the US legal system was overly complicated.


2 posted on 04/04/2023 3:16:40 PM PDT by taxcontrol (The choice is clear - either live as a slave on your knees or die as a free citizen on your feet.)
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To: taxcontrol

13 paragraphs of gobledigook.


3 posted on 04/04/2023 3:21:11 PM PDT by Fungi
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To: taxcontrol

“after the Crown mistakenly released thousands of pages of Barber’s private cellphone records”

Yeah mistakenly..right.


4 posted on 04/04/2023 3:31:31 PM PDT by gibsonguy ( )
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To: nickcarraway
"...after the Crown mistakenly released thousands of pages of Barber’s private cellphone records..." Wow, didn't know that the Ottowa Citizen hired NYT/WaPo/NPR junior "journo-list"ers. We really should go in with Canada to aid in financing and building all the guillotines both countries will need to adequately "process" all the pretend journalists and politicians after the upcoming "Big Cleansing".
5 posted on 04/04/2023 3:36:19 PM PDT by Da Coyote
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