Anti-sanitary measures leader Mario Roy, who has been at war with the Barreau du Québec for several years, was acquitted on Friday of two counts of criminal harassment and intimidation against a person associated with the justice system.
The verdict was returned by a jury that took nearly 72 hours to deliberate, after a week-long trial.
The charges the 51-year-old man had to defend himself against had led to his arrest and preventive detention for around 120 days, in the spring and summer of 2021. The anti-sanitary measures militant group the Farfadaas, of which Mr. Roy was one of the figureheads, had started wearing and selling biker-style leather jackets to help fund his legal expenses.
Finally, Mr. Roy defended himself in court, bluntly dismissing a criminal lawyer he had hired.
“It will cost them dearly. I will seek $5,000 restitution per day in jail, plus $520 per day for lost earnings, plus gas, parking and transportation expenses for the trial,” he announced following his acquittal.
At the head of the organization called the Citizen Anti-Corruption Unit, Mr. Roy is investigating the Department of Youth Protection (DPJ), which he describes as a “child abduction network” which acts in concert with lawyers and officials to take custody of children away from parents. On his Facebook account, which reached several thousand Internet users before being closed, he has long claimed that he wanted to carry out the citizen’s arrest of “corrupt” judges and lawyers, with the help of people holding a gun license.
His mission quickly put him on the road to the Barreau du Québec, which successfully prosecuted him for illegal practice of the profession of lawyer. From his first encounters with the organization, Mr. Roy published several videos in which he aggressively denounced two Bar lawyers who investigated his practices, calling them “corrupt people” and “criminals”, particularly targeting a lawyer whom he called “badly fucked”, “bitch” and “pitcher”. A very broad publication ban prohibits us from naming these lawyers, as well as a dozen other lawyers, five judges and other people who have been directly or indirectly involved in this case.
Judge Myriam Lachance refused to admit into evidence several videos that Mr. Roy wanted to present to prove the existence of this so-called “child abduction network”, judging that they were not relevant to the debate concerning charges of criminal harassment and intimidation to which he had to defend himself.
Mr. Roy asserted, on the contrary, that they were necessary to understand the “corrupt system to the core” by which the Barreau du Québec attacked him and his organization.
The former Farfadaas member, who is still awaiting a verdict in another mischief trial, for the blocking of the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel in 2021 with Steeve Charland and Karol Tardif, says he will now ” turn the page” and close its Citizen Anti-Corruption Investigation Unit. “We live in a system of filthy rot. Me, I pick up, ”announced Mr. Roy.
“I hope that the Ministry of Justice will investigate for real what is happening to crimes committed by lawyers in the Youth Division, he added. I’ve been reporting him for a long time, and during my trial it came out. I hope that the Barreau du Québec and journalists and lawyers will start to show me a little respect. »
“The reality is that it was the investigator from the Barreau du Québec who wanted to shut the mouth of the director of the Citizen Anti-Corruption Investigation Unit. It was nothing else. That was the proof. I am investigating a child abduction ring, the truth will come out, and people will be forced to compensate me, ”he concluded.
The Barreau du Québec said it was “very disappointed with today’s decision”. “It is now up to the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions to analyze the case and make the decision to appeal. For its part, the Bar will continue to take care of its employees,” said the organization’s communications director, Hélène Bisson, by email.
Corrigendum: a previous version of this text erroneously indicated that the criminal lawyer fired by Mr. Roy had been assigned to him. Rather, it was Mr. Roy who hired him. Mr. Roy also intends to claim $520 per day of imprisonment for loss of income, and not $120. Our apologies.