| Migrant smuggling trial proceeds
VICTORIA
(CKNW/AM980) -- The B.C. Supreme Court Justice who
threatened to dismiss migrant smuggling charges against
nine Koreans, unless they were freed on bail, has
reversed his decision, to the surprise of both the Crown
and the defence.
Justice Ron McKinnon had threatened to dismiss
all charges against the nine Koreans unless Immigration
Canada agreed to release them so they could more easily
meet with their lawyers. But Justice McKinnon says, in
his frustration over all the legal wrangling, he forgot
that the defence only wanted a week to review the 45
hundred pages of late-disclosed documents, not the
several months he initially thought they would need.
As a result, even though Immigration Canada has
refused to drop warrants for the nine, the judge
withdrew his threat to scrap the charges, and revoked
the bail he granted the accused last week.
Once four replacement jurors are selected,
testimony in the trial that began three months ago will
finally get underway.
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