Accused of conspiracy and mischief under $ 5,000 for blocking the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel on the sidelines of a demonstration against sanitary measures, six conspiratorial influencers of the Farfadaas group will monopolize a court room for at least 20 days of trial.
Anti-health measures leader Mario Roy, who is representing himself without a lawyer, like five other of the co-accused, has announced that he intends to bring about thirty witnesses to justice during this trial, the date of which has been set. until January 2023.
Judge Pierre Labelle, of the Court of Quebec, has scheduled ten days of trial on the merits, plus ten days for numerous preliminary motions that six of the seven co-accused intend to file.
The Crown, for its part, predicted that two days of trial would be sufficient.
Dressed in front of the judge in a biker-style leather jacket adorned with a middle finger in the air on the back, Mr. Roy has announced that he intends to file a motion to be tried by a jury rather than by a judge alone .
Steve Charland, nicknamed “L’Artiss”, former leader of the identity group La Meute, for his part asked that Press and the author of these lines are explicitly excluded from the trial hearings. The judge explained to him that it is a “step which is rather high”, since the legal debates are of public nature.
The co-defendants are suspected of having blocked the three lanes of the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel southbound, shortly after a march in downtown Montreal against sanitary measures. The action almost went wrong when a man, who got stuck in the traffic jam, got out of his vehicle with a hammer and started hitting the vehicles stopped at the head of the procession.
Mario Roy requested five additional days of trial to demonstrate that he was “the target” of “death threats” during this incident. He also wants to testify people who have “medical reports that they have suffered violence.”
Several of the co-defendants themselves filmed the event with their phones and broadcast the incident live on social networks. They have announced that they wish to have these videos excluded from the evidence. “I refuse that my video is used against me,” complained the co-accused Michel Deshaies.
The defendants also intend to file a petition for the unconstitutionality of the charges. Mr. Roy was recently convicted of three counts of contempt of court for violating orders prohibiting him from doing acts reserved for lawyers. However, nothing prevents him from defending himself in the context of a criminal prosecution against him, or from filing petitions on behalf of the other co-accused, insofar as these requests also concern him.
The judge gave him until August 19 to present written motions. “You’re going to be busy this winter,” he told her.
A seventh co-accused in this case, Patrick Dupuis, for his part pleaded guilty to one count of mischief which was not related to the same event. He was sentenced to 45 days of intermittent detention on weekends.