Blatchford: But of huge concern to Norman’s lawyers — the formidable Marie Henein at the helm — is that it’s the same PCO which not only is the complainant in the case (the PCO referred the matter to the RCMP), but also the key witness and, as Ontario Court Judge Heather Perkins-McVey heard Wednesday, the controller and guardian of much of the information Norman needs to defend himself.
Imagine if a complainant in a sexual assault trial, naturally the key witness, also got to determine the course of the prosecution and vet the documents and decide which are relevant and which are not.
Now give that complainant/witness the shield of being able to claim cabinet confidence or secrecy, and you get a hint of what team Henein is facing here.
It is always the prosecution that bears the burden of disclosing relevant documents, not the defence, yet here, Henein has laid out her defence in detail, for the world to see, while prosecutors have hemmed and hawed, dragged their collective feet, declined to meet the defence team, dilly-dallied, shucked and jived.
No comments:
Post a Comment