Decision on defence motion in Contrecoeur trial expected Monday

The first witnesses to give evidence at the Contrecoeur fraud trial aren’t expected to be called to testify before next week — at the earliest.

The judge presiding over the trial of former Montreal city hall No. 2 politician Frank Zampino, former construction magnate Paolo Catania, and former executives of his company, over a 2007 municipal land deal, is expected to render a decision on a defence motion on Monday.

That would, in theory, clear the way for the trial to begin hearing evidence if no other motions are presented.

On Tuesday, the court heard final arguments on the motion, filed by Zampino’s defence, that seeks disclosure of evidence relating to police wiretaps that were conducted in a separate investigation in 2015 and that intercepted calls between Zampino and his lawyers.

Court of Quebec Judge Yvan Poulin said he would render his decision in court on Monday and asked that the first witnesses, who are expected to be police officers, to be prepared to testify.

Zampino’s lawyer, Isabel Schurman, has argued the interception of communication between her client and his lawyers violated a key constitutional protection, that of confidentiality between an accused and their lawyer.

During the Sûreté du Québec wiretap operation that targeted Zampino and others, calls with lawyers were supposed to be blocked as confidential in the SQ wiretap room unless a judge ruled they were not confidential. However, a handful of the recordings wound up in a computer system that could be accessed by police investigators. The Crown argues that Zampino’s defence has presented no evidence that investigators violated lawyer-client confidentiality.