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Richard Mantha, who has ties to Quebec, was denied bail final summer season and has been in custody since he was arrested in April 2023
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Printed Jan 14, 2024 • 4 minute learn
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A person accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting 5 ladies in Calgary has opted for a French-language trial, which is comparatively unusual within the Alberta Courtroom of Justice however legally required if requested.
Richard Robert Mantha, 59, faces quite a few fees that embody kidnapping, forcible confinement, sexual assault with a weapon, sexual assault inflicting bodily hurt and administering a noxious substance.
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Mantha, who has ties to Quebec, was denied bail final summer season and has been in custody since he was arrested in April 2023.
His French-language trial, set for 4 weeks, is to start Monday earlier than a decide in provincial courtroom, which was renamed the Alberta Courtroom of Justice final yr.
“I wouldn’t say they’re notably widespread,” Courtroom of Justice spokesman Olav Rokne mentioned in an interview. “We’ve got a couple of couple dozen requests for French trials annually.”
The best to a French trial is assured by Part 530 of the Prison Code, which gives for an accused individual to request a trial in one among Canada’s official languages.
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“Given the jeopardy anybody charged with a felony offence might face, it’s crucial that they perceive totally the costs they’re going through and the proof being known as to assist the costs,” mentioned Rokne.
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“They need to even be assured that every one the proof, together with any defence which may be superior by the accused individual, is totally understood by the presiding justice.
“We’ve got judges who’re totally bilingual who could be assigned to those issues. There are clerks who’re totally bilingual … and there would even be sheriffs who’re totally bilingual.”
Crown prosecutors and defence attorneys would even be fluent in French, he added.
Few French trials requested in Alberta amid hundreds annually
Statistics from the Alberta Courtroom of Justice from 2010 to 2022 present there have been as much as 25 French trials requested yearly, although fewer than that went forward. There have been 4 French trials held in 2022, 5 in 2021, 5 in 2020, 17 in 2019 and 10 in 2018 — amid hundreds of felony trials held in every of these years.
Justice Canada mentioned in a press release that neither it nor Statistics Canada accumulate information on the language of trials throughout the nation.
The federal division famous, nevertheless, that it and the Public Prosecution Service of Canada carried out a examine in 2017 taking a look at entry to justice in each official languages for felony jury trials, that are held in superior courts.
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The examine, printed in 2018, mentioned there was no famous enhance in demand for French-language or bilingual juries.
“In Yukon there has by no means been a request,” mentioned the report. “In Manitoba, there have been no requests within the final 20 years.”
Ontario couldn’t present numbers due to unreliable information in its case-tracking system. New Brunswick had steady demand since 2012.
“British Columbia famous a dramatic lower in French-language jury trials with just one reported French-language jury trial since 2012,” the report mentioned.
The report mentioned Quebec reported a slight enhance in English-language or bilingual jury trials.
It mentioned there have additionally been unsuccessful makes an attempt. Fees in a single case within the Northwest Territories had been stayed after a bilingual jury couldn’t be discovered, Newfoundland and Labrador noticed a case proceed by decide alone as a result of it couldn’t discover sufficient French-speaking jurors, and New Brunswick noticed a mistrial as a result of it couldn’t discover sufficient bilingual jurors.
Justice Canada mentioned federal courts and federal departments additionally present companies for alleged victims throughout trials.
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“Providers supplied by provincial courts or places of work should not topic to the federal Official Languages Act, however provincial language legal guidelines would apply,” mentioned the assertion.
Want for interpreters in Mantha trial
For Mantha’s trial in Calgary, an interpreter has been appointed to translate the testimony of any witnesses who solely speaks English into French.
It’s not but clear whether or not an interpreter would even be supplied for alleged victims or their households in the course of the courtroom proceedings, however the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service mentioned it’s conscious of a possible challenge.
“The necessity for interpreters has been flagged for the courts,” it mentioned in a press release. “The conduct of the trial is the courtroom’s duty together with addressing any language necessities.”
Rokne mentioned the Prison Code features a provision for translation to be supplied to the accused, to counsel and to witnesses, which might embody victims.
“Whereas giving testimony, a witness might be supplied with an interpreter if the trial is in French and they don’t communicate French,” he mentioned in an emailed assertion. “The Crown might make an utility to have an interpreter keep and proceed offering translation companies for that witness or the sufferer, however the Code doesn’t require that.”
The Calgary police’s Sufferer Help Help Staff is to supply assist to the ladies in the course of the trial, however a spokesperson mentioned that doesn’t sometimes embody translation companies.
Police have mentioned the ladies alleged they had been approached by a person, then drugged and brought to a different location, the place they had been bodily and sexually assaulted.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Jan. 14, 2024.
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