The lawyer of Marc-Yvan Côté, former vice-president at Roche, believes that because of the leak investigation to the UPAC, the court file of his client may not be completed until five or six years.
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July 22, 2020 17h26
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Trial Side-Normandeau: the leak police to the origin of all problems”
Isabelle Mathieu
The Sun
Some 50 leaks in the police investigation Yoke and Ivy “are at the origin of all problems” pleads the lawyer of Marc-Yvan Côté, Me Jacques Larochelle. It is, therefore, according to him, the prosecution that must bear the odious of time.
The former deputy premier Nathalie Normandeau has filed an application for stay of proceedings for a period of time as it evaluates to 57 months, which is triple the ceiling of 18 months issued by the supreme Court in the judgment in Jordan.
His five co-accused are attached to the request. They face various counts of abuse of trust, fraud against the government and corruption in municipal affairs, for their part, claims to UPAC, to a system of political financing, occult, organized by the firm Roche.
In turn, their lawyers have started to address the judge André Perreault of the Court of Quebec to convince him to make a decision opposite to the one that he delivered in march 2018 and to order the proceedings to be stayed.
The lawyer of Marc-Yvan Côté, former vice-president at Roche, believes that because of the leak investigation to the UPAC, the court file of his client may not be completed until five or six years. The request for a stay of proceedings because of the leaks that were found in the media must be heard before the trial.
According to Me Jacques Larochelle, the Crown will not be able to wash their hands of the actions taken by police officers. “The police and the prosecutors are both, together, the receivables of giving evidence and bringing the accused swiftly to a fair and just trial, pounds Me Larochelle, his booming voice so characteristic. It is the public ministry to tell us why the ceiling of 18 months became five or six years.”
The lawyer of the former mayor of Gaspé François Roussy, Me Stéphanie Pelletier-Quirion, also believes that the conduct of the police cannot become a “separate event”, which should remove time limits at the expense of the Crown. “Otherwise, it would open a Pandora’s box, argues the lawyer. The prosecution cannot discharge its responsibilities due to mistakes of police officers.”
The judgment in Jordan provides that the maximum time limits can be broken when the folders are of a certain complexity.
Me Pelletier-Quirion submits that the prosecution has itself complicated the issue by bringing conspiracy charges in 2016 to remove a few years later.
The parties will minimally need Friday for a fourth day to discuss the request for a stay of proceedings. Alone, the prosecution think to plead for more than one day.
