Court chaos allows Jaggi Singh to get off
Jaggi Singh was in court in Quebec City this week to face charges dating from almost three years ago whem he went there to demonstrate against fascist groups, but he met what sounds like chaos in the court as the prosecutor in the case was off on maternity leave, nobody in the court could speak English, and Quebec City’s lawyers are all off on some kind of leave or other. The judge promptly acquitted Singh, who took the bus home to Montreal.
Singh is quoted as suspecting the prosecutor knew he couldn’t win this one. He had told police his name was Michel Goulet and that he resided in La Colisée, the Nordiques’ old arena.
Update: Facebook statement from Singh on language and other matters.
qatzelok 09:50 on 2020-01-16 Permalink
“nobody in the court could speak English”
Singh has been living here a long time to not be able to speak French fluently. Perhaps someone should demonstrate on his West Island lawn.
Kate 10:08 on 2020-01-16 Permalink
qatzi, if you read the pieces, you’ll see that Singh spoke French in court, up until hearing the charges. He wanted to be charged in English, which is his right. I don’t know whether that was a conscious ploy to achieve the result it did, or whether he simply wanted to have that information made unequivocally clear. It was at that moment that the judge had to admit defeat.
(I speak French, but I admit, in a few areas of life, I like to understand things in English: crucial health issues, and issues to do with money, as at the bank. It’s a weakness but there it is. If I were facing jail time or a big fine, I’d want that in English too.)
Singh is not a stupid man and has been living in Montreal a long time. Of course he would be able to speak French.
Ian 10:09 on 2020-01-16 Permalink
Under the law Singh is entitled to be charged in English, it’s not cause for doxx party. Nice little jab implying the West Island isn’t “real” Montreal too. Who else don’t you consider “real”?
You’ve been hiding the reactionary & intolerant ethnonationalist side of yourself in the guise of reactionary & intolerant ecowarrior for a while now, qatzi, it’s been a long time since you got to trot our your anti-anglo bona fides. I was wondering when it would inevitably resurface like a recurrent boil.
qatzelok 10:14 on 2020-01-16 Permalink
The West Island isn’t “real” anything. It’s a fake Hollywood simulation of “country living” that is more alienating than central Paris, and deader than Chlorodorme. And a ring of this fake nothingness surrounds virtually every city in North America. There’s no sense of unique place at all.
qatzelok 10:15 on 2020-01-16 Permalink
The Singh phenomena emerges from this empty space, and gives his work a McProtest feel.
Kate 10:20 on 2020-01-16 Permalink
qatzi, are you specifically aware of Singh’s home address or are you just casting aspersions here for kicks?
I do not personally know Singh, but I’ve met him and have been aware of his activities for years. I’d be very surprised to learn he lives in a cushy house in Pointe-Claire or Beaconsfield.
qatzelok 10:23 on 2020-01-16 Permalink
With a four-car garage and two large smoke trees.
Michael Black 10:40 on 2020-01-16 Permalink
Wikipedia says Jaggi was born in Toronto, and went to university there, then British Columbia where he attended. UBC.
So at least the implied “he grew up on the west island” is false.
Tim 10:51 on 2020-01-16 Permalink
The first time I ever heard of Singh was when the police in Vancouver scooped him up gestapo style in advance of Suharto’s visit to Vancouver in 1997. This preceded a brutal crackdown on protesters which then led to the infamous “I like pepper on my steak” comment from Chretien when asked why free speech was being curtailed for a brutal dictator.
Kate 13:09 on 2020-01-16 Permalink
I am reliably informed by someone who knows Jaggi Singh that he lives in a central part of Montreal, not in its suburbs.
qatzelok 13:39 on 2020-01-16 Permalink
“Wikipedia says Jaggi was born in Toronto, and went to university there, then British Columbia where he attended. UBC. So at least the implied “he grew up on the west island” is false.”
No one said he grew up in the West Island. And all the places you named are full of West Islands anyways.
Kate 13:43 on 2020-01-16 Permalink
qatzi, you’ve made weird arguments here before, but this ranks among the sillier ones. Whatever you’re flapping your keyboard about has nothing to do with Jaggi Singh, so please stop.
Faiz Imam 14:40 on 2020-01-16 Permalink
As someone who considers myself a regular acquaintance of Jaggi, if perhaps not a friend, I have to say he’s easilly among my favorite Montrealers. He’s been a core part of the radical activist community for longer than most, and is quite brilliant at fighting the right fights.
Kudos on him for beating another BS charge.
Flipper 16:56 on 2020-01-16 Permalink
This acquittal won’t exactly douse water on that longstanding activist rumour of Jaggi being an undercover narc.
ricardus 22:03 on 2020-01-16 Permalink
s. 503 of the Criminal Code permits an accused to choose the official language of the trial. He had every right to do what he did and even if he insisted on going in French, a judge probably would have commanded him to proceed in English. I remember when I had this ticket trial, I speak French, but the judge insisted on having an interpreter for the police testimony.
ricardus 22:11 on 2020-01-16 Permalink
Let me explain why the Crown crash and burn against Mr Singh. They try too hard, they go too far. The Crown in the CBSA case wasted a whole year on this useless exercise based on this idea that perhaps this is not Mr Singh at all but is a master criminal in disguise. As a result, four charges were stayed in a Jordan application. Here, the Crown wasted a lot of time hiding information from the Court and from Mr Singh and went on this aggressive attack against the trial judge in wasting another year with another useless set of extraordinary remedies. The prosecutor was reduced to tears when Judge Biche of the Court of Appeal said that it was false that Judge Grenier described the trial judge as “ignorant” and “incompetent” as claimed by that prosecutor (Judge Grenier by the way mocked the Goulet charge as “perhaps not the best-founded charge in the history of Canada). The trial judge on Wednesday knew that there was no way that either he nor an appeal court would not find that the delays were unreasonable which is why he forced the Crown to proceed here. It was end it here or end it in a later Jordan.
ricardus 22:19 on 2020-01-16 Permalink
Mr Singh does not live in the west island.
ricardus 22:26 on 2020-01-16 Permalink
I wonder though if Judge Bordeleau decided to read up on what the Crown said about him during the extraordinary remedy saga… they insulted him mercilessly and made all sorts of false accusations against him. Their arguments against him were all nonsense. They also … told the Court of Appeal that if they reverse the decision as to the disclosure order, they would be forced to drop the charges as the order was impossible to fulful. After the appeal was granted and the case restored to Judge Bordeleau, the Crown asked Bordeleau for another 30 days to execute the order which they did. Talk about your crying wolf.