 | JCT: The bad news is that Superior Court Judge W. Festeryga dismissed the Nielsens appeal of the Edward refusal to quash their charges.
The good news is that they weren't appealing the Edward decision. Har har har har. It was for an Order of Prohibition. The judge didn't even read the motion. He got it wrong, kept it wrong all the way and could not be corrected. After Judge Edward had dismissed the Nielsens' motion to quash their charges as unknown to law, the lower court decision can't be appealed until after the trial is heard with the general appeal. If you want to continue a pre-plea objection, you then have to go to the Superior Court for the extraordinary remedy called an Order of Prohibition. It stops the improper prosecution below. When Judge Edward ruled that he was bound by the Hitzig decision to continue prosecuting the charges under the repealed law, the only way to avoid that costly affair is to now move to prohibit Judge Edward's order to continue this illegitimate prosecution.
So here they are in Superior Court for an Order to prohibit the ordeal Judge Edward was putting them through. The old Brantford Courthouse has one of the most beautiful old court-rooms I've ever seen. Big beautiful windows, subdued non-fluorescent lighting. The clerk said it had been designated a heritage building. We had lots of time to study it because Greg Smith was an hour late and showed up chewing a cud of gum like a cow after we'd all been warned against it.
Of course, he had no materials. But then he didn't need any. The judge hadn't read anything either. The judge asked what was going on. And here, we misplayed but we learned a lot. You would think that with over a month to look at the material, we could have expected better.
When you have a judge who says he has read the motion, then you can continue on to a summary presentation. Doug and Laurie were ready for a judge who had read the motion and I hadn't prepared them for how to deal with a judge who was completely ignorant of what was going on.
Of course, it's a lot easier for a Crown to trick a judge who hasn't read anything and who then insists on having the Crown explain Doug's case for him because Doug wasn't a lawyer who could put it in the legalese to compensate for the judge's presumed weakness in common English.
So I'll admit I had not prepared Doug and Laurie for a judge who wouldn't know what was going. So here's a judge who hadn't even cracked open the material and now we're going to have to explain the tape recorder law to which is unfamiliar to the average judge who has never experienced such a demand before. Turmel's Abolitionist Team of guerrilla lawyers are the only people who ever seek the best info and use S.136 to tape their hearings. When they have never heard of it before, it helps for us to read the whole section to them.
"Ontario Courts of Justice Act S.136 Nothing prohibits a party acting in person from unobtrusively making an audio recording of the court hearing for the sole purpose of supplementing or replacing handwritten notes in the manner that has been approved by the judge."
Keep in mind that 20 years ago, you didn't need the judge to approve the manner. I just had the right to tape for my own notes. The qualifier was added later but that only gives the judge say over the manner of taping, not the taping itself. No judge may prohibit taping, only an offensive manner of taping. For instance, I could understand a judge being not too happy about us trying hang a boom mike in his face or pin a microphone on his robe. Of the dozen or so appearances at the Court of Appeal for Ontario leading up to the Parker- Hitzig-Turmel appeals, I got to tape them all except for once,and it was a particularly interesting day. Sad the old judge didn't realize he could have been taped for posterity if he had kept up on the rules. When Judge Edward refused the Nielsen request to tape, not having been aware of the section but ruling without giving it much thought, a habit maybe, I decided I was tired of ignorant judges being able to plead ignorance of section 136 and by the time they learned how to do their jobs right, it's too late. We've already been denied our right by a judge ignorant of our right. That's why I decided to fore- warn all judges from now on by including section 136 for them to read right in the Notice, and then stressing that they control manner of taping, not taping.
And of course, the first time the Notice of Motion with the written demand for the judge's approval on the manner of taping was used by Richard Johnson in Elliot Lake just last week and was okayed despite Crown objection. The manner was okayed, not the taping, because she was aware of the difference of issues having read the Notice.
So doesn't help if the judge hasn't read the motion he is to rule on. And bad luck, here we have a judge who didn't read about Section 136 of the Ontario Courts of Justice Act, the typical ill-informed judge.
Remember, there are no quality controls to make sure these judges know the court rules since you can appeal incompetent decisions. It's not like in sports where the referees have to know the rules because there's no appeal process for incompetence. Judges don't have to know their rules because their mistakes can be corrected. And the lawyers make more money. The courts have a built-in mechanism to allow continued incompetence. Peter Principle ad infinitum. So no need to test judges like referees on whether they know the rules.
So here we have an older guy who doesn't know the rules and who thinks civilians can't know them either. Very easy to be duped by the Crown and he was. He told Doug that there were transcripts available and Doug said he couldn't afford them.
Unfortunately, I hadn't armed Doug with this new advice when facing an ignorant judge who didn't read the material. It's to simply read the whole Notice of Motion to convey to the judge that he had control over only the manner of taping, not the taping itself. But Doug just said that he was asking to tape according to Section 136 and ended without reading the whole thing out to the guy who hadn't read it but should have known. Alas. We learn.
Did the judge crack open the Rule book to read Section 136? Didn't he want to see for himself what he was not familiar with? I've seen some judges open the book, the first one 20 years ago, anyway. Not this one. Maybe he didn't want to let the room know he didn't know about S.136. Preserving appearances. Instead, he asked Mr. Smith to explain it. This gave the Crown the chance to fool the old ref who didn't know the rules and would not check them out for himself.
Crown Greg Smith pointed out that Doug had asked Judge Edward who had prohibited taping despite the section that says "Nothing prohibits taping." Doug quipped "Just because it has never been done before doesn't mean that it's not allowed."
Just like Smith used the "Hitzig court wouldn't have resurrected the law if they couldn't have resurrected the law so they can resurrect the law" argument before, he now argued that "Edward wouldn't have prohibited taping if he couldn't prohibit taping so he can prohibit taping and you can too. He used the fact that Judge Edward had ignored Section 136 to argue meant all judges could now follow that precedent. So the judge who had never even read Section 136 and knew Doug couldn't afford transcripts still decided to deny him his Section 136 right to recorded personal notes. After all, if one judge gets away with not following the rules, it sets a precedent for the others to get away with it too. "Oh, I didn't think I wasn't following Rule 136 because Judge Edward hadn't followed it." Those kinds of alibis don't work for real criminals, "oh he got away with it so I thought I could too;" and why should they work for judges?
So we learned. If the judge is ignorant of Section 136 of his rule book, we have to read the whole paragraph from the Notice stressing his say over the manner of taping, not the taping itself.
So the ignorant old judge blew his first test. It did not bode well. Doug and Laurie may have to order the transcript because it's interesting reading but it won't be available for months. Until then, this non-taped rendition will have to suffice.
Now on to the Motion to Prohibit Prosecution. Once the judge had alerted us that he was clueless to the case, Doug should have simply read the whole unread Notice of Motion pointing out the quotes from the relevant appendixes so the judge couldn't be confused about what was under discussion.
Here, the judge hadn't read it and I hadn't told Doug to read it all in for clueless judges and so the judge immediately got confused and constantly interrupted Doug's presentation. So, with no structured argument to cope with a completely confused judge, there was nothing Doug could do. The judge insisted that the Crown explain to help solve his confusion. Har har har har. Let's face it, we've watched Crown Attorneys dupe judges before with out and out lies. It has to be easier for the Crowns to trick the referee when the ref hasn't read what the game's about.
Of course, the Crown told him that the motion to appeal the Edward refusal to quash was improperly before his court. Of course, only we were aware it's for an Order of Prohibition, not appealing Edward's quash ruling. But the old judge didn't know and fell for the lie.
Smith continued that he couldn't make heads or tails of what the motion was about. Of course he nit-picked that the documentation was listed in an Appendix rather than listed in an Affidavit which didn't deter the Elliot Lake Judge from taking the scandal seriously.
He did a recap of how the law was "in flux" while it was dead. How Hitzig made prohibition "known to law again." Doug broke in that the Interpretations Act S.43 and 2(2) says only Parliament re-enacts struck down laws.
He pointed out how Judge Edward had dismissed the motion to quash and dismissed the motion to reconsider the new information. Doug pointed out that Judge Edward had refused to sign off on the motion to reconsider new information that the Justice Doherty of the Hitzig panel had not signed the Order that Judge Edward had said he was bound by. Doug pointed out he was pre-plea and had the right to put in as many motions as he wanted with new relevant info and Edward didn't have the right to not sign off on his motion. I guess we'll have to get a copy of the back of the un-endorsed Record of Application to Reconsider to prove that Judge Edward did not sign off on it and that Smith lied.
With all this discussion about the Edward rulings, is it any wonder that the judge thought it dealt with the Edward rulings even though Doug had mentioned it was a motion for prohibition?
So, Smith misinformed the court that this was a completely improper way to appeal the Edward decision and the Nielsens had to wait until the end of their trial to pursue it. Bringing their objection to the Edward refusal to Superior Court made no sense to him. He said this was not an extraordinary circumstance and that their only recourse was wait until the trial was over.
The judge condescendingly explained to Doug that his forms to appeal the Edward quash decision were all wrong, that he couldn't be seeking what he was seeking here.
Doug rebutted that there were 8 other such cases that were being heard around the country and this is the only court that wouldn't listen.
Still, the judge simply noted that the proper procedure was to wait until the end of the trial and he couldn't come here to jump the queue. Once the trial was completed, then you can appeal the Edward decision. Where does it say we have to wait and can't jump the queue? Extraordinary relief is available from Superior Court. But he summarily ruled that it was not. Of course, nowhere in the documentation was there any mention of Edward at all. The judge didn't know because he didn't read.
What's funny about judges not knowing the rules they enforce is that in my Hill Bust case, I had moved to quash like we all do now in step 1. Then, instead of going to step 2 next, the Superior Court motion to prohibit which may be appealed, I appealed the refusal to quash which has to wait till the end of the trial. But though the Doherty Court of Appeal pointed out I could not appeal the refusal to quash, they converted it into a refusal to prohibit which they could deal with.
That's why now, after step 1 under Criminal Code S.601 to quash is dismissed, we have step 2 to apply for the Prohibition order which, when refused, may be appealed, as the court instructed. Except if you run into a judge who doesn't realize it's a prohibition order. So, I now run into a judge who didn't even find out the Nielsens were following the procedure that his superior Court of Appeal had told me to do. Har har har har. Like I say, they need remedial school for judges.
Imagine wasting the whole morning with a judge who couldn't even focus on the first three lines of the Notice of Motion:
"TAKE NOTICE THAT on Jan 14 at 10am or so soon thereafter as can be heard the application to a judge for 1) an Order to prohibit prosecution of all charges"
So because I'd never laid out a strategy to handle explaining the case to ignorant judges, we got caught playing cards for an up-on-the-case judge to a not up-on- the-case one.
And that let the Crown get away with his lies about what was going on and made the judge blow his second decision. Hey, if he won't crack the paperwork and will accept "it's bunk" as an argument, he deserves to get caught in having his decision on the wrong motion made public. He kept looking at the clock, I guess he was hungry.
I'm not going to have to go to the Court of Appeal arguing he dismissed the motion "to prohibit" because he had been duped into thinking it was a premature appeal of a motion "to quash."
Finally was the motion to cite the Crown for contempt.
Smith said that Mr. Frankel had to be served in Toronto or Ottawa for such a contempt charge and that's when Doug hit him with our new strategy.
Doug pointed out that Mr. Smith should be cited for contempt for prosecuting under an invalid law. Doug pointed out Crown Attorney Frankel's admission that the law was invalid but it went in one ear and came out the other virtually unimpeded by grey matter.
And of course, with no press and hubbub to alert the judge that there was something special going on, he was free to treat it as a lark and act on the Crown's "no merit" defence.
Doug pointed out his application had overwhelming evidence but the judge didn't care. After all, he'd been told it was a quash appeal, and even after Doug had informed him it was a prohibition order, he had managed to quickly forget.
The judge was no help to his self-represented client. He didn't even look into the law. He just accepted from the Crown it was bunk and dismissed. Didn't even crack the motion open. He should be ashamed for how he treated the self-represented accused before him so lightly as to not even read it.
Remember when I recently told Glenn Gray :
>GG: I can't go into a courtroom and stand before a judge to say "I don't know". >JCT: "I don't know which Ace to play?" It's the judge's job to help you pick the right Ace. Not to trick you up. He has to see that the system treats you fair when you don't have a pro doing it for you. Don't underestimate the value of not having a lawyer and making the judge take over certain concerns about your rights. JCT: It's the judge's job to see the Nielsens won the pot if they had the Aces. Did Judge Festeryga do his job? Did he check for Doug's aces? Har har har... sob sob sob sob, no.
From another forum: >Qwiz The forms are free and have all that you need to defend yourself. You don't even need to say a word in court, as the forms are complete and self explanatory. When you represent yourself the Judge must by law represent you against the prosecutor.
JCT: I guess not in Brantford. Our problem is preventing judges from being able to plead ignorance once they admit the don't know what's going on. We have to find a way to stop them from playing stupid. This one walked in, asked what was going on, got it wrong, kept it wrong and would not be corrected. Could not be reasoned with once he'd gotten the wrong story into his head.
Doug and Laurie Nielsen report:
>Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 20:55:10 -0500 >From: ddniel >Subject: >To: John Turmel
Unfortunately we got a stuffy old miserable, old school judge. The crown lied & said our motion was already dealt with by J. Edward. After that this judge wouldn't have anything to do with it. think that was the plan anyway.
Doug did a great job with all the points he made & even called the crown a liar at one point, thinking they might try to rebut it & then he could prove his case.
JCT: When Doug called David Frankel Smith's "senior partner," Smith turned and said "he's not my senior partner." Doug argued Frankel in his own words stated that sections 7 and 4 had been struck down. Smith's eye-brows went up as if he didn't know. He caught the attention of the recorder and asked for a transcript. Doug quipped "I want one too."
Doug argued that now that Mr. Smith knows this and if he doesn't immediately drop my charges, then he's in contempt of this court and me for continuing this prosecution.
D&L: & when Doug told him Krieger is the highest case law, not Hitzig & why, it was the same reaction.
JCT: As if Smith didn't know about Krieger? Could it be possible he hasn't read it at all? Or is it an act for the judge?
D&L: If it had been heard, we feel that we stood a really good chance at winning, the crown just kept saying he didn't know what it was all about, but then with a citation for contempt on the table he probably wanted to be careful. They just wouldn't listen to anything we had to say & sent us to the Appeals Court.
The judge didn't seem to like that fact we were representing ourselves, guess he would rather we spend thousands of dollars.
JCT: Especially when Smith told him they were wasting his time. He even asked he Court to hit Doug with court costs. Doug replied: If anyone's wasting the court's time, it's the Crown wasting time by prosecuting people under a repealed law. If anybody should pay, they should.
D&L: This justice system needs a way to hold these judges responsible for their lack of respect for upholding the law. JCT: Remedial classes on the Rules of their job perhaps?
D&L: So guess we're off to T.O. to the Court of Appeals now, higher up & one last chance. Sorry the news wasn't better, but we'll keep fighting & everything we learn, we can pass on to help the next people out. D & L
JCT: The good point was there was no decision on the merits. The judge didn't even see the Krieger decision once he had already decided he had no jurisdiction to deal with the appeal of a quash decision. So we we have to appeal that he did have jurisdiction to deal with the Prohibition Order he didn't know we were actually dealing with. Of course, the Crown said he didn't know what it was about either.
Look, we've recently had an honest opinion from a lawyer on why he thinks Krieger can't save Kid Manitoba until more people admit it. Let's presume all lawyers were trained to think this way and are waiting for the greater consensus before admitting Krieger applies across Canada. The point is that it only hits that greater consensus once the media have reported it. If the media won't report it, the lawyers won't look. Still, was Smith raising his eye-brows as an indication of contempt or surprise?
So that's my report. They were rail-roaded out of that court-room so fast, it made my head spin. But as we were leaving, all I could do was laugh stentorially "the judge didn't even read it and the Crown tricked him."
Unless it was all an act to let the judge duck the real issue that Justice Serre in Elliot Lake dared tackle. Tomorrow's the Big Day with the real issue at stake.
And of course, should there be some kind of defeat, then Richard can file his Superior Court Motion for an Order of Prohibition just like the Nielsens and maybe get lucky and have heard what Greg Smith managed to fool the Nielsen judge out of dealing with in Brantford.
I think yesterday's hearing brought the administration of justice into disrepute. What does the Internet Court of Public Opinion think? Did the Nielsens get a just hearing of their application to prohibit charges under sections struck down by Parker and Krieger?
The transcript of the Tuesday Elliot Lake decision will be published Friday night, but as soon as ready to the medpot- preview group anyone can join by putting a reporter on the spot about the Frankel Gang Bogus Charges Scandal and reporting that fact to medpot-preview@yahoogroups.com
Of course, should the Serre decision make the news, I'll feel free to publish it and my report earlier. No news, time delay for all who haven't let their fingers do the walking to the telephone dial. (Virgil, Ron, GEM, send email adds)
If Krieger doesn't win tomorrow, I start kicking at the Supreme Court of Canada next. Maybe a letter to the Prime Minister about how the Court can't handle their uppity clerks. As if some clerk's going to rule a law doesn't apply to me and I'm going to back down quietly?
Last point, resistance is growing. There are reinforcements on the horizon:
>Date: Jan 13 2005 >www.overgrow.com or org >sledman jones >title: We can empty Canadian jails for all MJ charges: possession/ cultivation / trafficking
Read the latest posts on this forum about the ongoing battle in Canada for the end to prohibition of Mj It deals with the issues which Lothar brought up in the other post here and Mr Turmels answers to Lothar. http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/MedPot/ I find them very convincing and I am working on my motion to quash as we speak.
JCT: Keep in mind that even though the Crown refused to answer Judge Edward's third Question about whether the Hitzig Court had the power to resurrect the statute that had been struck down but insisted that they wouldn't have if they couldn't have so they can, Ontario Judge Edward accepted that he was bound the 3 higher Ontario judges' Hitzig ruling. No other province judge can say they're bound to continue with the Simmons, Goudge, Doherty deed. No other province judge can lay the blame for the dirty prosecution on higher ups. Only Ontario lower judge's can use the Nuremberg "I vas just following orders" alibi. A Manitoba judge can't use the Nuremberg defence. He can't do the dirty deed to Kid Manitoba saying he's bound to do the dirty deed by the Doherty Deed Court.
That's why we have to get this before a judge who can't plead the Nazi defence when the truth gets out. In other provinces, the judge has to do the dirty deed on their own, no forced dirty deed by higher ups there.
>Lothar Ok man, do what you wish. I told you already that you can't hurt yourself by the "Turmel" motion to quash as long as you make no admissions... Do you get the idea that I am out to harm you or prohibit you from making a proactive defence??? Go for it, I'm just saying that it's a dead end. It's wrong in law.
JCT: I'm saying it's a dead law but I sure appreciate your advising your friend right. So why not try the "it's good out of Alberta too" defence some time? What have you got to lose? I know lots of people who'd hire you as their legal aid lawyer if you'd make their Krieger presentation for them. Especially in Alberta where you too believe Krieger rules. How about helping at least the Frankel victims in Alberta if not the rest of the country, yet. You could still be the first lawyer to present the case. That glory is still open. Is it really so hard to accept that a scientist trained in determining fairness with math can be superior to the trial and error profession? All you have to do is accept that I dug out the truth because I was the only one who saw it and say "I too see the light." And make legal history.
Anyway, if anyone sees an opportune time for Kid Manitoba to launch his attack, if you spot a moment when it would cause the Crown real inconvenience to have a charge come at them out of a Hitzig-proofed province, make sure to speak up and let me know.
Say, isn't that 19-year old kid busted with 1 joint coming up in Brantford in a few days? 30 day notice to quash, 3 day notice to prohibit, gee, we could be back before Judge Festeryga in as little as 5 weeks. What a challenge. Maybe the kid will be able to set him straight. We'll see.
Perhaps the kid should file his Superior Court motion without a motion to quash. Then Smith won't be able to point the quash motion in the prohibit motion and confuse the judge like he did here. What better proof that the quash decision had nothing to do with the Superior Court prohibit decision than being able to go for the prohibit without the quash.
Preferably, it's all over tomorrow. Except for me. The Engineer would have to then push abolition of prohibition of the Tree of Life more forcefully on the World Social Forum. It would certainly free up more time to concentrate more fully on the world-wide solutions.
-- Abolitionist Slave Leader John C."The Banking Systems Engineer" Turmel for UNILETS interest-free time-based currency in U.N. resolution C6 to Governments in the http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration.htm http://www.cyberclass.net/turmel 519-753-0645 USENET: can.politics
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