Information Bulletin for the trials of June 10th

During the week of June 10th, 4 people went to trial, 5 people had preliminary inquiries and eight people decided to take the crown offer and plead guilty in exchange for an absolute discharge. In regards to the 5 preliminary inquiries, the judge Pierre Verdon decided that there was sufficient evidence to go ahead with the trials.

The following is a summary of the trials.

Frederick C.

Frederick was arrested on Saturday night when he went for a walk to see what was happening close to the perimeter at the Parc de l’Amériques Francaise. Frederick was not a protester and was only going to see what was happening in the area. Unfortunately, during the time he was there, the police were maneuvering to seal of the whole area and arrest everyone. He was arrested and charged with illegal assembly.

Frederick was acquitted because it was fairly obvious that he was not part of the crowd deemed to be "illegally assembling".

Pascal B.

Pascal was waiting to take a bus back to Montreal on Saturday night and decided to spend the time before his departure in an area close to the perimeter which seemed calm. He spent a bit of time playing hacky sack with other people before sitting down to rest. Nothing notable was happening when following a few tear gas canisters lines of police rushed and surrounded the area where Pascal was situated. Pascal was arrested and charged with unlawful assembly

Although Pascal had his trial, the judge decided to postpone his verdict till August fifth.

Guy B.

Guy was in the same area as Pascal and did not believe that he was in any danger of being arrested because of the relatively calm atmosphere which all people arrested in the area describe. He was caught in the same encirclement as Pascal and charged with unlawful assembly. His verdict was also postponed to August fifth.

Sebastien L.

Sebastien was arrested at the same time in the same place as Pascal, Guy, and Frederick. He also decided to stay in the area because it seemed calm. He was caught in the encirclement and charged with unlawful assembly. His verdict was also postponed to August fifth.

General Summary

Although there is no description of the preliminary inquiries, the five people ( Jenka S., Greg W., Ryan G., Lily P., and Victorien P. ) who had them were also arrested in approximately the same area at around the same time. Most of them testified in the trials described above that the area they were in was not tumultuous and that there was no justification for the encirclement as well as no way for them of knowing that they had to evacuate the area. We still do not have the verdicts for the three trials but you would think that these numerous testimonies all telling the same story would be sufficient to acquit all the people arrested at that time and place. We will post the verdicts for Pascal, Guy and Sebastien when we get them on the 5th of August.