The Crown attorneys in the trial of Freedom Convoy organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber finally closed its presentation of the case Tuesday. Lich and Barber face charges of mischief, intimidation, obstruction, and counselling to commit the same crimes not committed.The prosecution called 16 witnesses to the stand over the course of 27 days in court since the trial began on September 5.Originally, the trial was scheduled to last 16 days, but the prosecution has taken far longer than anticipated to present its case, with many instances of questionable conduct. The Crown indicated several times throughout the trial it intends to try Lich and Barber under the Carter application, which is a conspiracy charge where Lich could be charged for Barber’s words and actions and vice versa. The trial will resume November 27, as the defence requested “five days to mount its case,” The Democracy Fund (TDF) said. After that, court staff are looking for available court dates in January 2024.“Defence is expected to file two motions” in the upcoming section of the trial,” TDF said, “each requiring a judge's ruling.”The Crown’s witnesses, many of them Ottawa police officers, have regularly appeared on the stand unprepared with “no notes,” someone else’s notes, or completely wiped phones. TDF lawyer Adam Blake-Gallipeau, who was in the courtroom this week, said now that the ‘PLT (Police Liaison Team) Disclosure’ email chain has been unredacted, “it appears as though all PLT officers were instructed to upgrade their phones (post convoy), and were told it would result in the loss of all data.”“None of them backed up their phones,” Blake-Gallipeau said Monday, though the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) tech team had emailed “instructions for upgrading work phone[s].”“The content of the email includes that OPS phones are ‘corporately owned’ and that there is a personal side and work side to the cell phones,” he tweeted. “The instructions in the email included ‘booking a migration appointment’ with IT (to update the phone).”Defence read from the instructions from the tech centre which stated that on all devices a “wipe is required and all stored data will be deleted as a result of the upgrade.”.Data from a ten-year federal study demonstrates the average amount of time it takes to reach a final decision in a criminal trial in Canada is 98 days with six appearances and 142 days with eight appearances for multi-accused charges. Multi-accused charges, which made up 62% of cases that exceed this average involve certain types of offences such as drug offences, weapons, and possession of stolen property. With the trial of the Freedom Convoy organizers anticipated to stretch on into the new year, it could begin to push the Jordan rule, which means the accused has a right to be tried within a reasonable period of time. In July 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) set a new framework and timeline for processing criminal court cases in Canada and introduced a new “presumptive ceiling.” Criminal court cases in Canada should last no longer than 18 months at the provincial level and 30 at the federal level, following a preliminary inquiry. “Anything beyond these time periods is presumptively (or deemed) unreasonable,” Statistics Canada wrote on their website. “Once the presumptive ceiling has been exceeded, the burden is on the Crown to justify the delay on the basis of exceptional circumstances.”The research found one quarter of all provincial court charges were completed within one month or less and three quarters were completed within nine months. Only 6% of provincial court trials exceeded the presumptive ceiling and of that number, 30% exceeded 30 months to reach a final decision. Most of these instances were for cases with multi-accused charges.The average time-to-judgment in Ontario civil non-jury, non-family trials is 98.3 days, with a median of 67 days, according to the Canadian Legal Information Institute (CLII). A total of 61% of judgments were rendered in 98 or fewer days — 39% of judgments exceeded that average time frame and some 1.5% exceeded 400 days.As for time-in-trial, the federal court mean, which can extend “substantially longer [...] than it is in the Ontario courts,” is 13.4 days with a median of 10 days. 64% wrapped in fewer days. “One-third of civil bench trials, regardless of jurisdiction, are likely to exceed the average in terms of duration,” CLII said.
The Crown attorneys in the trial of Freedom Convoy organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber finally closed its presentation of the case Tuesday. Lich and Barber face charges of mischief, intimidation, obstruction, and counselling to commit the same crimes not committed.The prosecution called 16 witnesses to the stand over the course of 27 days in court since the trial began on September 5.Originally, the trial was scheduled to last 16 days, but the prosecution has taken far longer than anticipated to present its case, with many instances of questionable conduct. The Crown indicated several times throughout the trial it intends to try Lich and Barber under the Carter application, which is a conspiracy charge where Lich could be charged for Barber’s words and actions and vice versa. The trial will resume November 27, as the defence requested “five days to mount its case,” The Democracy Fund (TDF) said. After that, court staff are looking for available court dates in January 2024.“Defence is expected to file two motions” in the upcoming section of the trial,” TDF said, “each requiring a judge's ruling.”The Crown’s witnesses, many of them Ottawa police officers, have regularly appeared on the stand unprepared with “no notes,” someone else’s notes, or completely wiped phones. TDF lawyer Adam Blake-Gallipeau, who was in the courtroom this week, said now that the ‘PLT (Police Liaison Team) Disclosure’ email chain has been unredacted, “it appears as though all PLT officers were instructed to upgrade their phones (post convoy), and were told it would result in the loss of all data.”“None of them backed up their phones,” Blake-Gallipeau said Monday, though the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) tech team had emailed “instructions for upgrading work phone[s].”“The content of the email includes that OPS phones are ‘corporately owned’ and that there is a personal side and work side to the cell phones,” he tweeted. “The instructions in the email included ‘booking a migration appointment’ with IT (to update the phone).”Defence read from the instructions from the tech centre which stated that on all devices a “wipe is required and all stored data will be deleted as a result of the upgrade.”.Data from a ten-year federal study demonstrates the average amount of time it takes to reach a final decision in a criminal trial in Canada is 98 days with six appearances and 142 days with eight appearances for multi-accused charges. Multi-accused charges, which made up 62% of cases that exceed this average involve certain types of offences such as drug offences, weapons, and possession of stolen property. With the trial of the Freedom Convoy organizers anticipated to stretch on into the new year, it could begin to push the Jordan rule, which means the accused has a right to be tried within a reasonable period of time. In July 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) set a new framework and timeline for processing criminal court cases in Canada and introduced a new “presumptive ceiling.” Criminal court cases in Canada should last no longer than 18 months at the provincial level and 30 at the federal level, following a preliminary inquiry. “Anything beyond these time periods is presumptively (or deemed) unreasonable,” Statistics Canada wrote on their website. “Once the presumptive ceiling has been exceeded, the burden is on the Crown to justify the delay on the basis of exceptional circumstances.”The research found one quarter of all provincial court charges were completed within one month or less and three quarters were completed within nine months. Only 6% of provincial court trials exceeded the presumptive ceiling and of that number, 30% exceeded 30 months to reach a final decision. Most of these instances were for cases with multi-accused charges.The average time-to-judgment in Ontario civil non-jury, non-family trials is 98.3 days, with a median of 67 days, according to the Canadian Legal Information Institute (CLII). A total of 61% of judgments were rendered in 98 or fewer days — 39% of judgments exceeded that average time frame and some 1.5% exceeded 400 days.As for time-in-trial, the federal court mean, which can extend “substantially longer [...] than it is in the Ontario courts,” is 13.4 days with a median of 10 days. 64% wrapped in fewer days. “One-third of civil bench trials, regardless of jurisdiction, are likely to exceed the average in terms of duration,” CLII said.
