PROVINCIAL OFFENCES COURT THIS MORNING

Well I am slowly beginning to think that perhaps our judicial system is going to positively surprise me. I know, I know, deep down, somehow, despite everything I've seen and heard, at heart I'm a silly optimist. There I said it!

I met and spoke with the prosecuter, Mr. Alex Andres, briefly prior to court. He had just finished having a chat with mayor Shantz's lawyer, one Randall Martin. Mr. Andres explained to me what was to happen this morning and indeed court did follow as he had explained. I was called to the front in order to identify myself to the judge as the complainant. Also I advised Mr. Andres in front of the judge that Wednesday December 2, 2015 at 9 am. in Provincial Offences Court was fine with me as well.

Mr. Andres advised the judge that the adjournement was necessary in order to determine if the Crown wished to pick up the case and proceed with its' prosecution. Also Mr. Andres used a legal term I have not heard before and to my ears it sounded like "chatecum". Quite frankly I am guessing at the spelling and even at the overall word. A friend with me in court suggested that she thought the word was in reference to whether or not Provincial Offences Court was the best location for all the charges. Now my friend while not a lawyer nevertheless has more on the ball legally than I and she thought it might be referring to a couple of the charges perhaps needing to be heard in criminal court. As you can tell this is all Greek to me.

The good news is that if the Crown decide to go with this then for the first time we will have professional authorities, without an axe to grind, actually seriously looking at the merits of the case. Afterall they need to know prior to trial whether there is a reasonable prospect for conviction. To that end Mr. Andres advised me privately that he and I will need to have further discussion regarding all the evidence currently available.