In the scheme of things — a dead doctor, her physician husband arrested and charged with first-degree murder in her death, and at least for the time being three children essentially orphaned — this was small potatoes.
But from a systems perspective, what happened at Toronto’s Old City Hall courts Saturday, when M S made his first appearance, was nonetheless a grotesque comedy of errors, or, as one lawyer said Monday, “a total shitshow.”
A partial recording of S’s bail hearing — and by partial, I mean partial, in that it was exactly one half-page long — obtained by Postmedia’s Sam Pazzano Monday, shows that S's lawyer, Liam O’Connor, asked for a ban on publication on the proceeding and that the Crown attorney asked for a non-communication order preventing S from talking to two witnesses.
The first is a standard statutory publication ban common at bail hearings; the second is also a common feature of criminal proceedings, the idea being to keep an accused person from potentially influencing the evidence of a witness.
O’Connor didn’t oppose the Crown’s request, and Justice of the Peace Odida Quamina promptly imposed both a .517 order and a .486 (5) (1) order.
That fateful reconciliation. 