Tony Accurso sidesteps justice
Tony Accurso, facing charges of fraud against the Canada Revenue Agency, has once again sidestepped justice by getting a stay of proceedings based on some technicalities about seized evidence.
(But I was wrong. Please read H. John’s comment.)
Update: La Presse’s Vincent Larouche looks at ten years of wasted effort on a case so complex that it foundered on the literal weight of the evidence.
H. John 18:25 on 2021-07-08 Permalink
He didn’t sidestep justice, and it wasn’t stopped because of “some technicalities”.
I read a blurb recently from a European who now teaches criminal law in the U.S. He is still shocked by the use of the term “technicalities” when the prosecution loses or is overturned (he was commenting on the Bill Cosby case).
It’s the rule of law. Both sides in a criminal case have rules of procedure to follow. In this case, those rules are written by the National Assembly.
The crown attorneys were warned by the judge.
Kate 19:28 on 2021-07-08 Permalink
Thank you, H. John. I appreciate the clarification.
David754 12:14 on 2021-07-09 Permalink
No, this is pretty much a textbook stupid technicality.
Basically, the crown produced documents, some of which were marked up working docs rather than what they seized. Attorney work product is a privilege that can be and is waived with production. Accurso’s team argued that the production was not code compliant, and the judge agreed, ordering the crown to do a supplemental production of the original documents, and imposed a deadline. The crown then reported that it could not produce the documents within that time frame, and so the case had to be dropped under that idiotic pro-criminal Jordan decision.