Still no Charter decision in child abduction case

JUDGE AWAITING DISCLOSURE FROM GOVERNMENT

A Lethbridge woman accused of abducting her child and fleeing to Central America three years ago is still waiting for a judge to decide whether he’ll order the Canadian government to disclose information relating to the case.

Judge Jerry LeGrandeur was expected to rule Wednesday in Lethbridge provincial court on a defence application that he order Global Affairs Canada to disclose information about his client's extradition from Belize earlier this year. But LeGrandeur said he first needs to determine whether the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms allows it.

Lethbridge lawyer Bill Wister believes his client’s rights under the Charter may have been breached when Canadian officials helped to remove her from Belize and return her to Lethbridge, where she once resided before fleeing the country with her young son. But without disclosure from the government, he doesn’t know if he has a Charter argument.

The Crown for the federal government has admitted the government is in possession of documents relating to the matter, but it maintains they are not relevant to the accused’s defence to the charge of child abduction. The Crown also insists the Charter doesn’t apply to Canadian officials abroad, so the application for disclosure based on a Charter argument should be dismissed.

During Wednesday’s hearing, LeGrandeur said he must determine if the Charter applies before he can decide whether to order the government to comply with disclosure principles. He ordered the Crown to provide him with the disclosure, which he will review before deciding whether to hold a voir dire — a mini trial within a trial — to go over the evidence.

“I can see no other way to deal with it,” LeGrandeur said.

On Jan. 6, 2014 the boy’s father told police his ex-wife had taken their son and left the country. The following month she was charged with child abduction and a warrant was issued for her arrest.

Police tracked the woman and child to Mexico, Guatemala and various parts of Belize, and the mother was the subject of various international Interpol alerts.

Last July Lethbridge police learned Belize authorities found the pair in the town of San Ignacio in the Cayo District and took them into custody. The mother was jailed and fined for failing to produce valid immigration documents, and the fouryear-old boy was placed in the care of Belize Human Services.

In August the mother was deported to the U.S., where she was arrested after landing in Houston, Tex., then returned to Canada later that night. She was taken into custody by Lethbridge police officers at the Calgary International Airport and charged with child abduction, then released from custody Aug. 23 following a bail hearing in Lethbridge.

Wister said outside the courtroom that Belize does not have an extradition treaty with Canada, and she shouldn’t have been forced to leave the country. He said previously that if the actions by the Canadian government in assisting Belize authorities breached his client’s Charter rights, he will seek a stay of proceedings, which would conclude the case without a conviction.

The matter is scheduled to return to court Feb. 16.

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