Arguments on hold in abduction case
Charter arguments in a child abduction case are still on hold while lawyers wait to hear whether police and other officials in Belize will co-operate with Canadian authorities. Calgary lawyer Bill Wister and Tony Bell with specialized prosecutions hope Belize authorities will provide evidence in the case by closed-circuit TV from the Central American country. But Thursday during a brief hearing in Lethbridge provincial court Bell said Belize authorities haven’t responded yet to a request for assistance.
Without a treaty agreement between Belize and Canada, Belize officials can’t be compelled to attend a trial in Lethbridge or provide evidence by CCTV. However, Wister and an Alberta commissioner could travel to Belize and subpoena officials, particularly Belize police officers, to give evidence, which could then be used in a trial in Alberta.
Wister told court Thursday he has prepared an application under Sec. 709 of the Criminal Code which authorizes a commissioner to take evidence of a witness outside Canada who is unable to attend trial.
Wister has filed a Charter notice alleging federal government officials had no right to have his client arrested and extradited from Belize in 2017, even though shewas wanted on a Canada warrant for child abduction.
Wister maintains Canadian officials denied the woman fundamental justice under Article 9 of the Declaration of Human Rights, which states “no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.”
On Jan. 6, 2014 the woman’s ex-husband told police his wife had taken their son and left the country. The following month shewas chargedwith child abduction and a warrant was issued for her arrest.
Police tracked thewoman and child toMexico, 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 four-year-old boywas 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.
Thematter is scheduled to return to court July 18, by which time lawyers hope theywill have received a response from Belize officials.
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