* Monday, December 9 - no court         * Day 90: Thursday, December 12
  * Tuesday, December 10 - no court       * Day 91: Friday, December 13
  * Day 89: Wednesday, December 11

Abbreviations used in notes:

DC = Don Campbell (Defense)
SF = Shelagh Franklin (Defense)
GW = George Wool (Defense)
ST = Sheldon Tate (Defense)
MA = Manuel Azevedo (Defense)
HR = Harry Rankin (Defense)

LB = Lance Bernard (Crown)
JF = Jennifer Fawcus (Crown)

J = Judge

Without jury.

J orders some requested evidence to be disclosed. He has outlined his reasons in writing, but will not read it out loud unless Counsel wish to take issue with his decision.

MA - will not deal with his application to have Porter and Snow removed from the Crown's witness list, but says that ST will. MA does want to discuss getting videos to the accused.

LB - says that the agreement was that the videos would only go to the counsel, who would sign undertakings and they could show it to their clients. The exception would be to SF and W. LB says that the police are concerned with the tapes falling into the wrong hands. LB says that if there was a change in position other than of having the counsel control the videos, then he would have to discuss this with the police.

W - says that there are 50 hours of videotape and there are a number of witnesses he wants to cross-examine based on issues raised in the videos. He wants to put the relevant bits of tapes on to one tape in a time sequence. He says that if there is a cost factor here, then LB should remember that he is the one delaying things.

J will set that aside for the moment. He asks for any additional submissions regarding MA's submissions about the accused having access to the videos.

ST - from what he has seen of the videos, he sees no reason for the concerns the Crown is putting forward. He says that in order for him to show the relevant bits of video to his clients, he would want to put them together on a single tape in order to speed up the cross-examination. He isn't ready to tell the Crown yet what portions he needs. ST says that his clients' interests will not be advanced by rushing into cross-examination before reviewing all his tapes. He suggests that he and other counsel put forward edited tapes to the J. The J could then rule on unrestricted access for the accused to only these portions of the tapes. ST will make a submission to remove restrictions preventing the accused free access to the tapes, but won't be ready until next week.

DC - has a VCR that he could put into a room here that the accused could use if the J isn't prepared to remove all restrictions.

MA - clarifies W's position. W wants to be able to copy the tapes. He doesn't want the court to do the copying.

LB - says that they are copy protected and this might not be possible to do in the first place.

MA - says that the videos would have been a lot more useable had we got them at the beginning of the trial. The tapes are essentially statements made by witnesses who have already testified.

He says that the Defense isn't ready yet to say what portions they need. There are no transcripts of these tapes, which are necessary to decide what is relevant. If he were to ask for an adjournment to prepare properly, then this would be an amount of time that the J would not be prepared to give. And the amount of time could prejudice the accused because of the unduly long wait.

J says that he could alleviate any such thoughts by making remarks directly to the jury. He says for now, he will get the Crown to make a copy of the excerpts that W needs.

W - says that this will help speed things up.

ST - will discuss MA's application regarding the Crown's calling of Porter. ST says that Porter's notes didn't arrive until November 11th and he is not clear as to why the Crown is now calling Porter. If Porter knew about the police going in to the camp on Aug. 18th, then this could affect things. Percy phoned the police on the 18th and Porter may have known this. ST says that Porter was "quarterbacking" the police in the earlier part of the investigation. Prior to getting Porter's notes, there were no police records of Percy calling the police, but Porter confirms that Percy did call.

ST says that the police are aware of Percy's state of mind when he calls up with concerns about men in the bush which the police know are not cowboys dressed up in camouflage. This will affect the way the jury will look upon the evidence they already heard. We're at the end of the trial and the Crown is now going to call a person they should have called at the beginning. ST wants to know from the Crown what Porter is going to say. He only last week found the dispatch tickets that confirm that Percy called the police on the 18th and he has learned that the tape recordings of these calls were destroyed.

ST says that had these tapes not been destroyed, he could have obtained real evidence of what his client said to the police, as well as what the police told him. ST may want to have a voirdire to find out what Porter is going to say. He is not in a position right now to comment on whether Porter should be called or not. ST would also like to defer his cross-examination of the witnesses to come until he has spoken to Porter. J suggests that ST contact Porter by phone to hurry this process along.

LB - agrees that what Porter knows about the 18th regarding the state of mind of Percy and the camp may be relevant to some issues. He says that the Crown didn't originally think Porter's involvement was relevant, but over the course of testimony during the trial, this may not be the case. LB says that Porter's notes reveal that the police were deciding whether or not to confirm that it was the police sneaking around on the 18th and eventually, Porter called back to Percy in the afternoon.

LB says that with this information, the Crown decided to call Porter and he is surprised that some of the Defense wouldn't want him called.

ST - says that Porter's call to Percy later on the 18th led to a discussion among the police three days later about whether to deny or admit it was their ERT members in the bush. ST adds that a voirdire would be needed to determine what Percy told the police.

J asks who is coming tomorrow.

LB says that Agnes Snow is scheduled tomorrow.

  * Monday, December 9 - no court         * Day 90: Thursday, December 12
  * Tuesday, December 10 - no court       * Day 91: Friday, December 13
  * Day 89: Wednesday, December 11