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Ron Piche says it’s just not the same.
Saskatoon’s veteran defense suggests that the cross-connection of a witness on a video screen, whose status is a few meters in person, is negative for the trial process.
“The thrust and parry of trial work is all about instant responses, if you will. Rebuttals. Just the fluidity of the trial process,’ he said in an interview.
Interviewing a witness on a television screen is precisely what Piche had to do before this month at an initial audience in Kindersley. This is a trfinish that hopes to end once COVID-19 is administered.
“The notion that more and more of these trials and preliminary inquiries are being conducted by videos is a fairly scary proposition,” he said.
The case reaches a Kindersley guy named Vern Benjaminson. He is accused of driving drunk and driving above 0.08 causing death in a twist of fate of December 30, 2016 near Kindersley.
An initial hearing is the time when an opinion on makes a decision on whether there is sufficient evidence to go to trial. Benjaminson’s hearing is scheduled for July 7 at Kindersley.
Prior to the hearing, the Crown asked two witnesses, one in Edmonton and the in Moncton, to testify via video.
The prosecutor cited the charge of air transport, car rental and accommodation, as well as the increased threat of exposure to COVID-19 accompanying air travel, as well as the desire to isolate itself for two weeks after the hearing.
Judge Robert Jackson allowed the Crown’s application.
“Despite the seriousness of the charges, the Court is satisfied that the ability to download evidence will be compromised if processed via video, especially because the credibility assessment is necessary for the purposes of the initial hearing,” Jackson wrote in his decision.
He resumes it on October 2.