Tuesday, May 30,
2000 Judge clears way for people-smuggling
trial to begin
Mark Hume
National
Post
VICTORIA - The federal government's first attempt to prosecute
individuals for smuggling people into Canada cleared two major
hurdles here yesterday, when a Supreme Court justice threw out a
mistrial motion and ruled a trial should go ahead.
The trial of nine Koreans accused of smuggling 131 Chinese
migrants into the country is expected to get underway within days.
For the past 54 days, the case against the crew of the Ryong
Pusan No. 705 has been caught up in legal wrangling as six defence
lawyers and two Crown attorneys battled about procedure in a voir
dire -- a hearing in which the jury was excluded and about which the
press was forbidden from reporting in detail.
In an unusual undertaking, Ronald McKinnon, the British Columbia
Supreme Court Justice hearing the case, has twice briefed reporters
on what they can and can't report, allowing some details to be
published.
That brought a mistrial application from the Crown -- but Justice
McKinnon said yesterday he doubts enough material has been released
to "poison the minds" of the jurors.
Justice McKinnon also backed away from a warning he'd given
earlier, that a stay in proceedings would be ordered if the accused
men weren't released from jail.
Prior to the judge's ruling, the Crown attacked the team of six
defence lawyers, alleging they were trying to "manipulate the
system" in order to get their clients off.
The nine Koreans were arrested last Aug. 11, after their ship was
intercepted in international waters.
The accused are each charged with three counts of "aiding or
abetting" the group of 131 Chinese migrants to come ashore, and each
faces two counts of causing bodily harm to individuals.
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