Hearing delayed again after Bain fails to cooperate
Refuses to speak to psychiatrist
Is he or isn’t he, that is the question.
A Quebec Court judge spent most of Friday morning pondering whether Richard Henry Bain, charged after last fall’s provincial election night shooting, is fit to stand trial.
“It’s not that he’s not capable, he’s not willing to talk about the facts,” Judge JeanPaul Braun said.
“That’s correct!” Bain shouted from the prisoner’s box. “My lawyer advised me not to talk about my case.”
A chaotic hearing involving a no-show psychiatrist, Bain raising his hand to speak, and confusion over whether the defence lawyer actually had the mandate to represent the accused was finally postponed until Monday.
It’s the third time the hearing to determine if the 62-year-old is fit to stand trial has been put off. Last week, it was postponed because the psychiatric report was written only in French and Bain is being tried in English.
Friday, the report was ready in English, but the psychiatrist who wrote it was missing in action, so couldn’t testify. Before Christmas, the hearing was postponed because Bain hadn’t wanted to speak to a French psychiatrist.
Bain faces 16 charges, including first-degree murder in the death of Denis Blanchette, a sound technician working at the Métropolis election night, attempted murder, arson and weaponsrelated offences. After Bain was arrested outside the downtown nightclub, where premier-elect Pauline Marois was giving her victory speech, he shouted that anglos were waking up.
He is alleged to have wounded David Courage and threatened to kill two others, as well as trying to set the club on fire as Marois stood on stage, oblivious to the chaos outside.
Legal aid lawyer Elfriede Duclervil has represented Bain since Sept. 6 — two days after the fatal shooting — but has been trying to get off the case since Bain was found in October not to qualify for the free service. On Friday, she once again told Braun she didn’t have the mandate to represent Bain.
“You are in the file for now,” Braun told Duclervil. “I want to hear from you (on the report).”
“How can I do that if I don’t have the facts?” said the lawyer, visibly frustrated.
She said the psychiatrist concluded in her report that she was unable to access Bain’s thoughts, either because of an “underlying psychotic disorder or he’s rigid and doesn’t want to give access.”
“I need him to talk to me and he doesn’t because he wants a psychiatrist of English culture,” Duclervil said.
Bain, who claims he’s fit to stand trial, then piped up and said he didn’t want the psychiatrist, Chantal Bouchard.
“I can’t understand what my lawyer is doing here,” he said. “She’s supposed to be defending me.”
As the Crown scrambled to reach Bouchard by phone to see if she could testify Friday, Bain told the court he was broke and wanted to do his income tax in order to determine if he was owed money. “My truck was seized and it has gold and jewelry in it,” he said.
Crown prosecutor Éliane Perreault then announced Bouchard was homesick and the judge ordered that Bain, who claims he has been beaten in detention, continue to be kept in protective custody. When everyone agreed they could make it back to court Monday — including the psychiatrist — the judge was clearly relieved.
“Monday! Yeah!” he exclaimed.